Ralph Ellison

Juneteenth: Book, Ralph Ellison, Summary, Facts, History, Quotes, Story (1999)

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Juneteenth is Ralph Ellison's second novel, published posthumously in 1999 as a 368-page condensation of over 2000 pages written by him over a period of forty years. It was originally written without any real organization, and Ellison's longtime friend, biographer and critic John F. Callahan put the novel together, editing it in the way he thought Ellison would want it to be written. Ellison claimed to be devastated when much of the original manuscript of Juneteenth was destroyed by a fire in 1967. However, the loss of the crucial, irrecoverable sections of his manuscript appears to have been something Ellison concocted after the fact to justify his lack of progress. Arnold Rampersad, in his 2007 biography of Ellison, points out that, following the fire, Ellison wrote to critic Nathan Scott of his relief that he still "fortunately had a full copy" of all his writing. While there had been over 2,000 pages written by the time of his death, the novel was never finished by the author himself. A fuller version of the manuscript was published on February 2, 2010, as Three Days Before the Shooting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth_(novel) He met several artists who would influence his later life, including the artist Romare Bearden and the author Richard Wright (with whom he would have a long and complicated relationship). After Ellison wrote a book review for Wright, Wright encouraged him to write fiction as a career. His first published story was "Hymie's Bull", inspired by Ellison's 1933 hoboing on a train with his uncle to get to Tuskegee. From 1937 to 1944, Ellison had over 20 book reviews, as well as short stories and articles, published in magazines such as New Challenge and The New Masses. Wright was then openly associated with the Communist Party, and Ellison was publishing and editing for communist publications, although his "affiliation was quieter," according to historian Carol Polsgrove in Divided Minds.[25] Both Wright and Ellison lost their faith in the Communist Party during World War II, when they felt the party had betrayed African Americans and replaced Marxist class politics with social reformism. In a letter to Wright, dated August 18, 1945, Ellison poured out his anger with party leaders: "If they want to play ball with the bourgeoisie they needn't think they can get away with it. ... Maybe we can't smash the atom, but we can, with a few well chosen, well written words, smash all that crummy filth to hell." In the wake of this disillusion, Ellison began writing Invisible Man, a novel that was, in part, his response to the party's betrayal.[26] In 1938 Ellison met Rosa Araminta Poindexter, a woman two years his senior.[27] They were married in late 1938. Rose was a stage actress, and continued her career after their marriage. In biographer Rampersad assessment of Ellison's taste in women, he was searching for one "physically attractive and smart who would love, honor, and obey him--but not challenge his intellect".[28] At first they lived at 312 West 122nd Street, Rose's apartment, but moved to 453 West 140th Street after her income shrank.[29] In 1941 he briefly had an affair with the seven year older white writer Sanora Babb, which he confessed to his wife afterward, and in 1943 the marriage was over. In 1946, Ralph married Fanny McConnell Ellison, who remained his wife until his death in April 16, 1994.[30] At the start of World War II, Ellison was classed 1A by the local Selective Service System,[5] and thus eligible for the draft. However, he was not drafted. Toward the end of the war, he enlisted in the Merchant Marine service.[31][32] In 1946, he married his second wife, Fanny McConnell.[33] She worked as a photographer to help sustain Ellison.[citation needed] From 1947 to 1951, he earned some money writing book reviews but spent most of his time working on Invisible Man. Fanny also helped type Ellison's longhand text and assisted him in editing the typescript as it progressed.[citation needed] Published in 1952, Invisible Man explores the theme of man's search for his identity and place in society, as seen from the perspective of the first-person narrator, an unnamed African American man in the New York City of the 1930s. In contrast to his contemporaries such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin, Ellison created characters that are dispassionate, educated, articulate, and self-aware. Through the protagonist, Ellison explores the contrasts between the Northern and Southern varieties of racism and their alienating effect. The narrator is "invisible" in a figurative sense, in that "people refuse to see" him, and also experiences a kind of dissociation. The novel, with its treatment of taboo issues such as incest and the controversial subject of communism, won the 1953 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Ellison