African-American writer Ralph Ellison was a powerful literary voice who helped Americans understand how race and social class shaped their identities in modern society. Narrators Dominic Hoffman and Arthur Morey work together to give texture to this collection of Ellison’s essays. Delivering the preface, Morey brings an academic formality that helps set the tone for the dense prose and searing questions that follow. Hoffman picks up the pace in the soul-searching essays themselves. His rich baritone highlights the historical details behind each essay. He provides the context that makes each entry relevant to the collection and also to listeners, in particular those who may be listening to Ellison's work for the first time. Hoffman's style is easy on the ears, which gives a neutral backdrop to a sensitive subject. M.R. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison
Narrated by Dominic Hoffman, Arthur Morey
Ralph EllisonUnabridged — 33 hours, 52 minutes
The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison
Narrated by Dominic Hoffman, Arthur Morey
Ralph EllisonUnabridged — 33 hours, 52 minutes
Overview
Compiled, edited, and newly revised by Ralph Ellison's literary executor, John F. Callahan, this Modern Library Paperback Classic includes posthumously discovered reviews, criticism, and interviews, as well as the essay collections Shadow and Act (1964), hailed by Robert Penn Warren as "a body of cogent and subtle commentary on the questions that focus on race," and Going to the Territory (1986), an exploration of literature and folklore, jazz and culture, and the nature and quality of lives that black Americans lead. "Ralph Ellison," wrote Stanley Crouch, "reached across race, religion, class and sex to make us all Americans."
Editorial Reviews
Compiled and edited by Ellison's literary executor, John F. Callahan, this collection includes previously uncollected and newly discovered reviews, criticism, and interviews in addition to the essay collections Shadow and Act and Going to the Territory. The preface is written by Saul Bellow. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
★ 12/18/2023
In this potent compendium, Callahan (In the African-American Grain), Ralph Ellison’s literary executor, updates his 1995 collection of Ellison’s short nonfiction. The entries consider a wide array of topics, including Ellison’s time studying music at Tuskegee University in the 1930s, white appropriation of Black culture, and depictions of Black characters in the fiction of Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, and William Faulkner, the latter of whom, Ellison writes, “has been more willing perhaps than any other artist to start with the stereotype... and then seek out the human truth which it hides.” Notes Ellison wrote while working on Invisible Man shed light on the novel’s central metaphor: “Whites tend to regard Negroes in the spirit of the old song ‘All Coons Look Alike to Me,’ seldom looking past the abstraction ‘Negro’ to the specific ‘man.’ ” New to this edition are a 1962 talk criticizing the pressure put on writers from marginalized backgrounds to depict characters from their community in a positive light, 1966 congressional testimony about the challenges faced by Black people in Harlem, and a 1970 lecture on American humor. The pieces offer crucial insight into Ellison’s philosophy and fiction, and the social analysis proves he still has much to offer contemporary discussions of literature, history, and race. The result is an intellectual feast. Agent: Kristi Murray, Wylie Agency. (Feb.)
[Ellison’s] essays never fail to be elegantly written, beautifully composed, and intelletually sophisticated.”—Los Angeles Times
African-American writer Ralph Ellison was a powerful literary voice who helped Americans understand how race and social class shaped their identities in modern society. Narrators Dominic Hoffman and Arthur Morey work together to give texture to this collection of Ellison’s essays. Delivering the preface, Morey brings an academic formality that helps set the tone for the dense prose and searing questions that follow. Hoffman picks up the pace in the soul-searching essays themselves. His rich baritone highlights the historical details behind each essay. He provides the context that makes each entry relevant to the collection and also to listeners, in particular those who may be listening to Ellison's work for the first time. Hoffman's style is easy on the ears, which gives a neutral backdrop to a sensitive subject. M.R. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169210958 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 01/30/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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A CONGRESS JIM CROW DIDN’T ATTEND
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