Ralph Ellison

Ralph Waldo Ellison ( born March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City, † April 16, 1994 in New York City ) was an American author of African-American origin.

Ralph Ellison was the son of a construction worker in Oklahoma City / Oklahoma to the world. He came to New York to study music and sculpture. Appeared in 1952, the only novel he published during his lifetime, " The Invisible Man " ( translated into German by Georg Goyert ), 1965 elected the important work of U.S. literature of the previous decades.

Postum was another work of fiction, " Juneteenth ," published, which was already in his lifetime Ellison shortly before the publication of the manuscript, however, important parts were destroyed in a fire. The author tried in vain in the subsequent period to reconstruct the lost pages from memory.

Ellison himself was of the opinion that a novelist can only write a really great novel in life. Ellison's essays were published in 1964 in the book " Shadow and Act".