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3 / From Acceptance to Rejection: Invisible Man P.P.S. I’ve always tried to turn your insights back to the necessities of fiction. —ralph ellison to kenneth burke, 7 november 1982 When Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man was published in April 1952, he and Kenneth Burke had been friends for nearly ten years—a span of time that had provided Burke a unique window into the painstaking creation of the novel. Burke had first learned of its existence from Ellison’s letter of 23 November 1945, the letter that had deepened their dialogue on race and identity. Through correspondence and conversation spanning the next seven years, as the two continued their exchanges on matters of race, they also discussed Ellison’s novel. In 1951, Ellison even read aloud the “Battle Royal” section to a gathering at Burke’s home. As Michael Burke later recalled: He sat on the piano bench with the microphone for the recorder balanced in front of him on a tall kitchen stool. I sat on the floor and knew I had to be quiet. He read of a time in his youth when he boxed for the amusement of a jeering white audience. After the boxing the black youngsters, still in their trunks and sweaty from the fight, were led to an electrified carpet where they had to scramble for coins. Ralph described the convulsing bodies and the circle of reveling spectators, and I concentrated on the rag rug in front of the piano bench imagining a rich, red, ornamental Persian Carpet, with an electrical cord winding from the rug to the outlet on the wall by the bookshelf. I don’t remember the Ellisons visiting often, or much of what went on, but I still have a clear picture of the boxers on our carpet.1 80 / ralph ellison and kenneth burke This vivid description nicely captures the personal dimension of their professional relationship, the intimate connections between Ellison’s project and his friendship with Burke. Immediately following its appearance in bookstores, Ellison’s novel was hailed for its singular artistic achievement;2 yet, the book’s appearance held a personal significance for both Burke and Ellison, and represented a different kind of achievement. Recall that Ellison’s 1945 letter had prefaced its counter-statement with extended reflections upon Ellison ’s indebtedness to Burke. Despite confessing his inability to repay Burke with more than “little things I write from time to time,” Ellison added that he had might have hit upon something more substantial: “I am writing a novel now and perhaps if it is worthwhile it will be my most effective means of saying thanks. Anything else seems to me inadequate and unimaginative.”3 Since Ellison’s narrator had “spoken” his first words a mere three months before this letter—and since his arrival had prompted Ellison to abandon all other projects—it is clear that the book mentioned was Invisible Man.4 As early as 1945, then, Burke knew something that is now widely acknowledged by Ellison scholars—that Burke’s work had played a vital role in the novel’s composition. However , Burke also knew something rarely mentioned in the literature on Invisible Man. According to Ellison’s own testimony, his celebrated novel not only drew upon Burke’s terminology, but was dedicated to him by its author—as a means of repaying his intellectual debt to Burke. It is not surprising, then, that a 1985 collection celebrating Ellison included a chapter from Burke, “Ralph Ellison’s Trueblooded Bildungsroman .” Since Burke was rather reticent about his friendship with Ellison, this piece is quite notable—indeed, it contains Burke’s sole published acknowledgment of their relationship. Burke’s essay offers a description of the “friendly nonracial ‘we’” that joined him to Ellison, as well as his admission of some “unconscious Nortonism” that Ellison helped him expunge. This is not the only distinctive feature of Burke’s chapter; it appears to be a personal letter from Burke to Ellison, opening with “Dear Ralph,” and closing, “Best luck, to you and Fanny both, K. B.”5 The editor ’s prefatory note reinforces this interpretation: “This essay began as a short letter from Mr. Burke to Mr. Ellison and has been expanded for the present volume.”6 Largely on the basis of this evidence, most scholars, even those focusing attention upon the Burke-Ellison relationship, have taken this essay at face value; they have interpreted it as a personal message from Burke to Ellison, later...

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