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Title details for The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison by Ralph Ellison - Available

The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison

by Ralph Ellison
John F. Callahan
Audiobook
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A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A radiant collection of letters from the renowned author of Invisible Man that traces the life and mind of a giant of American literature, with insights into the riddle of identity, the writer’s craft, and the story of a changing nation over six decades
These extensive and revealing letters span the life of Ralph Ellison and provide a remarkable window into the great writer’s life and work, his friendships, rivalries, anxieties, and all the questions about identity, art, and the American soul that bedeviled and inspired him until his death. They include early notes to his mother, written as an impoverished college student; lively exchanges with the most distinguished American writers and thinkers of his time, from Romare Bearden to Saul Bellow; and letters to friends and family from his hometown of Oklahoma City, whose influence would always be paramount.
These letters are beautifully rendered first-person accounts of Ellison’s life and work and his observations of a changing world, showing his metamorphosis from a wide-eyed student into a towering public intellectual who confronted and articulated America’s complexities.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 17, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780525587736
      • File size: 1413640 KB
      • Duration: 49:05:04

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Dominic Hoffman gives these revealing missives an outstanding narration. Whether the author is expansive, petulant, pedestrian, or eloquent, Hoffman's narration captures the language, cadence, and spirit of one of the twentieth century's most important writers and African-American public figures. The letters provide a window onto his thinking on race; his reaction to his 1953 National Book Award; and his friendships with Saul Bellow, Richard Wright, James Allen McPherson, and others. A prolific essayist, reviewer, critic, and opinion writer, Ellison received numerous honorary doctorates and spent two years at the American Academy in Rome but maddeningly left his second novel unfinished. The listener is treated to six decades of his preoccupations and thoughts. John Callahan reads introductions to each of the decades' letters and the chronology. One quibble: The informative chronology should be at the beginning, not the end. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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