Ralph Ellison in Context

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is the second-most assigned American novel since 1945 and is one of the most enduring. It is studied by many thousands of high school and college students every year and has been since the 1950s. His landmark essays, with their blend of personal history and cultural theory, have been extraordinarily influential. Ralph Ellison in Context includes authoritative chapters summing up longstanding conversations, while offering groundbreaking essays on a variety of topics not yet covered in the copious critical and biographical literature. It provides fresh perspectives on some of the most important people and places in Ellison's life, and explores where his work and biography cross paths with some of the pressing topics of his time. It includes chapters on Ellison's literary influences and offers a definitive overview of his early writings. It also provides an overview of Ellison's reception and reputation from his death in 1994 through 2020.

Editor: Paul Devlin, United States Merchant Marine Academy, New York
Paul Devlin is Associate Professor of English at the United States Merchant Marine Academy and Book Review Editor of African American Review. With Henry Louis Gates, Jr., he is co-editor of the scholarly editions of Albert Murray's writings. He is also editor of Rifftide (2011) and Murray Talks Music (2016).

Contributors: Tracy Floreani, Caroline Gebhard, Matthew McKnight, Sara Rutkowski, Paul Devlin, Colleen Eils, Sara Marzioli, Andrew Davenport, Lena Hill, Jennifer L. Lieberman, Meina Yates-Richard, E. Al-Tariq Moore, Sterling Lecater Bland, Jr, Matthew Calihman, Kevin Moore, Steven Lewis, Kimberly Mack, Michael Germana, Michael Borshuk, Barbara Foley, Stephan Kuhl, Tessa Roynon, Bryan Crable, Scott Selisker, Granville Ganter, Jesse McCarthy, Marc C. Conner, Paul Devlin, Robert Butler, Kinohi Nishikawa, Benji de la Piedra, Matthew Lambert, Olga Panova, Timothy Parrish, J. D. Porter

Devlin, Paul, ed. Ralph Ellison in Context. Cambridge ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2021. https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/literature/american-literature/ralph-ellison-context?format=HB.