Jazz Country: Ralph Ellison in America

Chronology

Chronology March 1, 1914 Ellison is born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 1917 Ellison’s father, Lewis Alfred Ellison, dies. 1922 Ellison studies the trumpet. 1933 Enrolls in Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama; plans to major in music. 1936 Takes up the study of sculpture in New York City. 1937 Ellison’s mother, Ida Milsap, dies; he is introduced to Richard Wright by Langston Hughes; first review published in New Challenge. 1938 Becomes a writer with the Federal Writers’ Project. 1939–1941 Publishes several short stories. 1942 Becomes editor of Negro Quarterly. 1943–1945 Serves in the Merchant Marines. 1945 Recipient of grant from the Rosenwald Foundation; starts work on draft of Invisible Man. 1946 Marries Fanny McConnell. 1952 Invisible Man published by Random House. 1953 Ellison receives National Book Award and National Newspaper Publishers’ Russwurm Award for Invisible Man. 1954 Rockefeller Foundation Award. 1955 Ellison receives Prix de Rome Fellowship, moves to Rome and begins work on second novel. 1962–1964 Visiting professor at Rutgers University. 1964 Shadow and Act published by Random House. 1965 Book Week poll selects Invisible Man as the most distinguished post–World War II American novel; “Juneteenth” (from second novel) published; Ellison becomes a charter member of the National Council of the Arts. 1966–1967 Serves on the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television. 1967 Pages of second novel destroyed in fire. 1969 President Johnson confers the Medal of Freedom. 1970 Appointed Albert Schweitzer Professor in Humanities at New York University; receives the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres from France. 1973 “Cadillac Flambé,” from his second novel, is published. 1986 Going to the Territory published by Random House. 1994 Ellison dies in Manhattan on April 16. 1995 The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison, edited by John Callahan, Ellison’s literary executor, is published by Random House (Modern Library). 1996 Flying Home and Other Stories, edited by John Callahan, is published by Random House. 1999 Juneteenth (second novel), edited by John Callahan, is published by Random House. 2000 Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray, edited by Albert Murray and John Callahan, published by Modern Library. ...