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by karina lynn lopez period 5

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·born march 1st 1914 and died april 16 1994 ·born in oklahoma city oklahoma ·he was a novelist literary critic scholar and writer ·best known for his novel invisible man ·he also wrote a collection of political social and critical essays and combined them all together and named them shadow and act ·named after ralph waldo emerson american essayist lecturer and poet

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~his father · his name was lewis alfred ellison ·small business owner and construction foreman ·died when ralph was three years old from stomach ulcers ·ralph ellison found out later on that his father hoped he would grow up to be a poet.

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~schooling ·in 1933 ellison entered the tuskegee institute on a scholarship to study music ·while he studied music during class he spent even more time in the library learning the history of modernist music ·after his third year ellison moved to new york city to study the visual arts he studied sculpture and photography.

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~writing style ·similar to that of mark twain s style of writing ·ellison likes the american language style ·by using the american language style he s able to show directness flexibility imagery to the negro presence.

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~in new york ·met richard wright who became a very good friend for many years ·wright encouraged ellison to become a fictional author and with that ellison wrote a short story named hymie s bull ·from 1937 to 1944 ellison had over twenty book reviews as well as short stories and articles published in magazines such as new challenge and new masses.

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~during world war ii ·joined the merchant marine ·in 1946 he married his second wife what happened to the first o.o fanny mcconnel ·fanny was a photographer to help bring in more money while ellison was writing more reviews ·during this time he was writing the invisible man and fanny helped edit the typescript as it progressed.

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~after world war ii ·in 1964 ellison published shadow and act a collection of essays and began to teach at rutgers university and yale university while continuing to work on his novel one that he never finished ·the following year a survey of 200 prominent literary figures was released that proclaimed invisible man the most important novel since world war ii ·in 1967 ellison experienced a major house fire at his home in plainfield massachusetts in which he claimed more than 300 pages of his second novel manuscript were lost the novel was over 2000 pages long

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~awards achieved ·writing essays about both the black experience and his love for jazz music ellison continued to receive major awards for his work 1 1952 ­ national book awards 2 1969 ­ presidential medal of freedom 3 became a permanent member of the faculty at new york university as the albert schweitzer professor of humanities serving from 1970 to 1980 4 was elected to the american academy of arts and letters and his hometown of oklahoma city honored him with the dedication of the ralph waldo ellison library 5 1984 he received the new york city college s langston hughes medal 6 1985 he was awarded the national medal of arts 7 1992 was awarded a special achievement award from the anisfield-wolf book awards.

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~final years ·ellison was an accomplished sculptor musician photographer and college professor ·he taught at bard college rutgers university the university of chicago and new york university ellison was also a charter member of the fellowship of southern writers ·ralph ellison died on april 16 1994 of pancreatic cancer and was buried at trinity church cemetery in the washington heights neighborhood of new york city ·his wife outlived him and died november 19 2005 ·after his death more of his scripts were found in his home and were published as essays or were left as is uncompleted and were published as just collectives of his work.

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~the end

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