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Conversations with Ralph Ellison
Interviews with the author of Invisible Man and many other works
430 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1995
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January 19, 2023
Ralph Ellison was one of the most intellectually engaging writers of his or any other time, and together with the massive volume of his collected essays that belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in 20th century American cultural and social affairs/history, this collection of interviews with and articles about him is the best evidence of that fact that one can hope to read. The assembled interviews and profiles span from the beginning of his literary career to just before his death and cover his thoughts on most of the major issues concerning the aforementioned milieus during that span. His thoughts on the vitality of the Blues and its ripeness for use as a framework for literary fiction are particularly interesting (and have been touched on in his essays, as well as the essays of his dear friend Albert Murray, and letters between the two writers, collected in the terrific volume Trading Twelves), and of course there is a certain, somewhat more grim fascination in watching as the years pass without Ellison's having released a follow-up to his staggeringly brilliant Invisible Man.
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