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Article: Ralph Ellison, 80, Author of Novel `Invisible Man'
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- April 17, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK One novel was all it took for Ralph Waldo Ellison to
become one with Twain, Melville, Hawthorne and Faulkner.
Mr. Ellison, 80, who died Saturday of pancreatic cancer in his
home in Harlem, published Invisible Man more than four decades ago.
The powerful, harrowing chronicle of a black boy's rite of
passage has frequently been labeled the closest thing to a great
American novel of the 20th century.
White writers as diverse as Saul Bellow and Stephen King have
paid homage to Invisible Man. Most African-American writers, even
those who have disagreed with Mr. Ellison on other matters, have been
inspired by the novel's bold display of literary pyrotechnics and
searing portrait of ...