Ralph Ellison

An item at American Writers Museum

Named for philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Ellison was perhaps destined to delve deeply into the human condition. While his namesake was white, Ellison was African-American, and therefore grappled with what W. E. B. Du Bois termed "double consciousness": the psychological challenge of looking at oneself through the perspective of white culture.

Ellison's Invisible Man (1952) features a nameless protagonist, an educated African-American man who realizes that his black skin renders him "invisible" in white society. Part epic, part myth, and written in a free-flowing style reminiscent of jazz, Invisible Man became the first work by an African-American author to win the National Book Award.

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum