Ralph Ellison's 1952 Book, "Invisible Man," Won Awards and is Still Discussed Today
Written by Richard Thorman
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VOICE ONE:
I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about writer Ralph Ellison and his famous novel “Invisible Man.” The book is about a nameless black man's search for his identity and place in society.
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VOICE ONE:
Ralph Ellison's novel, “Invisible Man”, was published in nineteen fifty-two. Ellison was at once called a major new writer. The book won the National Book Award, a high and rare honor for a first novel.
Ralph Ellison
Since then millions of copies have been printed. The book is still used in many universities and other schools. One professor said that he has used the book in his teaching for twenty-five years. He said that each time he returns to “Invisible Man” he finds new ideas in it. Ellison writes in the beginning of his book:
READER:
"I am an invisible man … I am a man of substance, flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me…When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination – indeed, everything and anything except me.”
VOICE TWO:
From the start, “Invisible Man” was a book that changed the way white Americans thought about black Americans. It also changed the way black Americans thought about themselves. And it caused major disputes among both black and white critics.
Black critics said the book was too difficult to read. One black critic said that the black man needed “Invisible Man” like he needed a knife in his back. Another black writer dismissed Ellison because Ellison demanded that writing skills must be learned before political ideas can be expressed.
Some white critics refused to accept a black writer who did not write from direct anger at whites. They seemed to want him not to write from his mind, but from the color of his skin. Yet the book continues to live long after most people have forgotten the disputes.
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VOICE ONE:
Ralph Ellison was born in nineteen fourteen, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His father died when Ralph was three. His mother supported herself and her son by cleaning other people's houses.
She also supported her son's interest in music and writing. She would take home old music recordings and magazines from the houses where she worked. Ralph liked jazz, and played trumpet in his high school band. He dreamed of writing serious music.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen thirty-three, Ralph entered a black university, Tuskegee Institute, in the state of Alabama. He wanted to study music. He moved to New York City in nineteen thirty-six. He still planned to study music and art. However, that same year he ran out of money and could no longer attend school.
The nineteen thirties in America were difficult economic times. There were not many jobs to be found, and even fewer for black men. Ellison worked at many things. He shined people's shoes. He played trumpet in a jazz band. He worked for the Young Men's Christian Association. He worked in factories. He worked for a brief time taking pictures. Lack of money was an important reason for Ralph Ellison becoming a writer. He said:
READER:
"I have always read a lot, and I began to realize I had a certain talent for it. It was not easy to be the kind of musician I wanted to be: I did not have enough money to go to Juilliard [school of music]. So I stuck with what I had.”
VOICE ONE:
In New York City, Ellison joined the Federal Writers Project. This was a program created during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency to keep writers employed at writing.
He met two important black writers, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. Wright soon would publish “Native Son,” the book that made him famous.
Later, during World War Two, Ellison served as a cook in the United States Merchant Marine. Merchant marine ships carried war supplies to American and allied soldiers. For Ellison, the war was a time of learning and trying to write.
He read books by the American writers T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner. And he read books by foreign writers like the Irish writer James Joyce.
VOICE TWO:
Ralph Ellison's stories were first published during World War Two. When the war was over, he visited a friend in the state of Vermont. Ellison said:
READER:
"One day I wrote, 'I am an invisible man.' I did not know what those words represented at the start, and I had no thought about what gave me the idea."
The book that started with those words took almost seven years to write.
