And more than 40 years later, Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow declared, “This book holds its own among the best novels of the century.” On the best-seller list for 16 weeks, in 1953 the novel won the National Book Award. However, not until after the war did he begin writing what was to become “Invisible Man.”įrom the time Invisible Man first appeared in 1952, it was a popular and critical success. Merchant Marine as a cook, saw action in the North Atlantic and began to think of writing a major novel.

With the outbreak of World War II, Ellison joined the U.S. He also began writing essays and short stories for the “New Masses,” “The Negro Quarterly,” “The New Republic,” “Saturday Review” and other publications. But the Great Depression prevented him from earning the needed funds.Įventually he got a job doing research and writing for the New York Federal Writers Program, an offshoot of the Works Progress Administration. When they first became acquainted, Ellison had every intention of returning to Tuskegee. While in New York, Ellison met the writer Richard Wright.

It was a fateful decision: He never returned to his studies at Tuskegee and never became a professional musician. In the summer of 1936, Ellison went to New York City to earn expenses for his senior year at Tuskegee. Although drawn to jazz and jazz musicians, Ellison studied classical music and the symphonic form because he was looking forward to a career as a composer and performer of classical music. By 19, he had enrolled at Tuskegee Institute as a music major, playing the trumpet. He played his first instrument - a cornet - at age 8. His mother supported her young family by working as a nursemaid, a janitor and a domestic.įrom an early age Ellison loved music and expected to be a musician and a composer. Born in 1914 in Oklahoma City, the grandson of slaves, Ralph Waldo Ellison and his younger brother were raised by their mother, whose husband died when Ralph was 3 years old.

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