Talk:Ralph Ellison

Battle Royal?

This biography makes no mention of his short story (and first chapter of his book Invisible Man ) Also, when searching for Battle Royal, all that is found is the extremely popular movie. If someone would kindly amend this, I would be grateful.

Removed section

I removed the below-quoted section from the page because it was added by an IP at California Newsreel. I leave it to the regular contributors to this page to decide if the link should be included.

Video Biography

• Ralph Ellison: An American Journey distributed by California Newsreel

Ellison Race?

O.K. First off: please, do not call me a racist or anything like that, but I am reading Invisible Man and am kinda curious: Was Ralph Ellison a white guy or a black guy? I have nothing against either group, but a person's race does effect his viewpoint. Also, no biographies ever mention people's races (I think they are afraid of people calling them rascist) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Waladil (talk • contribs) 00:55, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

he was black. don't see how wondering what his race is would make you a racist. also, you should be able to find that info by searching his name on google. wikipedia isn't the only source for information.... Benastan (talk) 19:55, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

just google image it — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.64.34.205 (talk) 18:42, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Influences

While there is sufficient evidence of the influence of Emerson, Joyce, Wright, Armstrong, Faulkner and T.S. Eliot, I'm not sure how pertinent the influence of Whitman, Hemingway, Twain, James, etc.

Also, I'm not sure he had more than the one short story that became Invisible Man. Doesn't quite make sense to call him a short story writer. Benastan (talk) 20:01, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Actually, it does. He wrote a lot of short stories but only one novel. His second novel, Juneteenth, was culled from two thousand pages of manuscript by an editor after Ellison's death. 152.133.13.2 (talk) 16:44, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Kindation?

What on earth is a kindation? I could not find any other wikipedia article that uses this word, nor is it defined in wiktionary. "The narrator is "invisible" in a figurative sense, in that "people refuse to see" him, and also experiences a kindation."

Is this a typo, e.g. "... experiences a kind of elation." ?

EDIT: I looked up the history and found it used to read "... experiences a kind of dissociation." So I simply updated the article. Nwallins (talk) 22:27, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

Sexuality

Wasn't he gay? Can't see any mention of this on here. Maybe confusing him with someone else.--MacRùsgail (talk) 18:46, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

That would be James Baldwin. MackyBeth

Songwriter

While going through popular sheet music of the 1940s I've discovered a number of songs (none very famous) composed by "Ralph Ellison." At first I refused to believe it, but upon investigation, it appears that these songs are really written by Ellison (for example, the 1946 song "It Would Only Hurt Me If I Knew"). I'd like to insert a line or two about them, but want to just make sure that regular editors of this article are ok with it. - kosboot (talk) 13:00, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

This article does not really have regular editors, but it sounds like a great addition to the article. So go ahead! MackyBeth (talk) 13:38, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

I agree with {u|MackyBeth}, please add to the article. — Neonorange (talk) 13:55, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

What should the lede include?

The is currently a disagreement between Coltsfan and MackyBeth over mention, in the lede, of Ellison's posthumously published novel: "A posthumous novel, Juneteenth (sic), was published after being assembled from voluminous notes he left after his death." It's a novel, edited from forty years of writing, and one of only two by Ellison. Significant enough, in my opinion, to be part of the lede. — Neonorange (talk) 21:25, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

In that case please revert the edit, because I have already done so twice. For decades Ellison worked on this book, and had become too perfectionist to finish it. The published edited version is of such significance that I find it incomprehensible why someone would insist it be removed from the lead.MackyBeth (talk) 22:12, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

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Year of birth

There's a footnote "a" regarding Ellison's year of birth, but maybe it's not phrased conclusively enough ... because the year of birth keep getting changed back and forth. Is there agreement or consensus here which year should actually be given in the main body of text, outside the differentiations given in the footnote. And if so, how can it be made clear that the years shouldn't be changed? I read the footnote as saying that 1913 is the more likely year of birth, but I haven't viewed the referenced sources. ---Sluzzelin talk 21:22, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

Here is the Sampersad biography. On one of the first page 1913 as the correct year is discussed. The repeated changes made are probably because older publications and anthologies, obsolete on this point, are what most people are familiar with.MackyBeth (talk) 23:09, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

https://books.google.nl/books?id=28EKb8P3Tq8C&pg=PT314&lpg=PT314&dq=rampersad ellison&source=bl&ots=GfYaBFVZ0E&sig=ACfU3U0zNdS1WdPhrHxOd6iz2xqK-Fib1Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihy_yzw5DmAhXLblAKHQ3RCHoQ6AEwEHoECBUQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

I just revised footnote a because the mention of the 1920 US Census was not clear. The note said Ellison was 6 years old in 1920, but not that this information pertains to the month of January, which is necessary to understand that he would have turned 7 in March 1920.MackyBeth (talk) 23:15, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

'== When he published the invisible man book ==

Idk when 2400:1A00:B040:1DAC:6C51:4A5C:7DC9:DE23 (talk) 10:53, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

He published the book in 1952 - see article. Chewings72 (talk) 11:08, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

Ralph Ellison Photography

Recently (2022) a book of Ralph Ellison's photographs was published and I feel, after seeing it, that his work after World War II as a freelance photographer deserves more attention. The photographs, especially in the second half of the book, seem the work of a first tier photographic artist. I attended Columbia University in the same neighborhood from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s and Ellison's work catches the feeling and look of the everyday life of the Upper West side of New York and of Harlem at that time as I remember it, better than any other photographs of the area that I have ever seen.

Maybe some of the editors associated with the book could be induced to write a section on Ellison's photographic output for Wikipedia, and to allow inclusion of some of his images.

See:

Raz-Russo, Michal; Callahan, John F. et al.

″Ralph Ellison Photographer″

Steidl, The Gordon Parks Foundation, The Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust; Gottingen and New York City, 2022 FurnaldHall (talk) 03:49, 4 June 2023 (UTC)