Praise for "Ralph Ellison
""Illuminating and richly reported . . ."
-"The New York Times Book Review
""Absorbing . . . stunning."
-"South Florida Sun-Sentinel
""Riveting . . . exhaustive . . . an intensely researched,
elegantly written book"
-"Los Angeles Times Book Review
""In this tremendous biography, Rampersad brings Ellison back down
to human scale, relating the writer's remarkable, deeply sad life
with reportorial flare and unflinching honesty . . . Rampersad's is
a deeply sympathetic biography, but by no means excessively
forgiving. Here is Ellison full of rage and talent, vain and
ambitious, but fired by a deep moral clarity."
-"Sunday Star Ledger
""With the publication of Arnold Rampersad's "Ralph Ellison," we
have the first comprehensive treatment . . . elegant and lively
prose . . . we now have a 'mighty' biography of this quintessential
American life."
-"Charlotte Observor
""Immensely engaging . . . in Rampersad's hands, Ellison's life
emerges as one of the essential literary lives of the 20th century
. . . Rampersad's exemplary biography, written with a blend of deep
sympathy and cool detachment, splendidly achieves the one true task
of literary biography: it illuminates the life so that we may
better understand what it produced."
-"Houston Chronicle
""Thorough and insightful."
-"American Heritage
""Marvelous . . . In style and structure, "Ralph Ellison: A
Biography "is, like its subject, unfailingly elegant."
-"The Tennessean
""Compelling and insightful."
-"The Washington Times
""A jewel-like level of social detail . . . illuminate[s] not just
the development of the author's vision, but the complex
contextsthat shape literary creation."
-"Austin American Statesman
""A dependable reference, a compelling story, a cautionary tale . .
. Rampersad has triumphed."
-"The Plain Dealer
""Important . . . the definitive life . . . skillfully written,
deeply researched"
-"The New York Sun
""Rampersad addresses the nature of Ellison's psyche and makes
reasonable connections between Ellison's personal experiences and
his writing, and he avoids psychoanalystic overdetermination and
cheap mirror work between lived events and the written word. Along
similar lines, he deftly deals with the salacious material that a
weaker hand would overplay"
-"Harper's
""Compassionate yet devastating . . . subtle insight, painstaking
scholarship and elegant presentation"
-"The Nation
""Absorbing . . . fascinating."
-"Black Florida Life and Style
""An invaluable contribution . . . Arnold Rampersad's biography of
Ellison is a reserved, dignified, thoroughly researched and
well-paced study of the life of one of America's greatest authors.
Unlike many literary biographers, who perform hackneyed
psychoanalysis or amateur literary criticism on their subjects'
lives and works, Rampersad sticks to the events of Ellison's life,
rendering them with a refreshing objectivity seldom found in our
sensationalist times."
-"San Francisco Chronicle
""Sumptuously researched . . . his subtlety shines."
-"The Star Tribune "(St. Paul)
"What a wonderful biography this is, filled with intelligence and
understanding of its subject and all the varied milieus in which he
lived his long and wonderful life . . . Mr. Rampersad writes so
beautifully, so evocatively, that every page of "RalphEllison "is a
pleasure to read . . . it is hard to imagine anyone more attuned to
him, more insightful, more truly sympathetic than Mr. Rampersad,
who has written the definitive biography of this great
American."
-"Washington Times
"
""Ralph Ellison" is a classic work of erudition, grace, and
elegance. Rampersad offers us an Ellison whose gifts and warts
orbit the same universe of creative genius. Like Ellison's work,
Rampersad's text wrestles eloquently with difficult truths about
race, politics, and American life."
-Michael Eric Dyson
"Arnold Rampersad's stunningly revealing biography has, at long
last, unveiled-in magisterial prose-the very complex and vulnerable
man behind Ralph Ellison's own masks and myths. One of the nation's
most brilliant writers emerges as all the more fascinating
precisely because he was so very human. Painstakingly researched
and compellingly written, "Ralph Ellison "is a masterwork of the
genre of literary biography."
--Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
"Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" is probably the Great American
Novel. Arnold Rampersad's long-awaited and beautifully spun "Ralph
Ellison" is a great American biography."
--David Levering Lewis, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for
Biography
"Ralph Ellison's place in American literature demands a biography
that is as eloquent, thorough and wise as its subject. This is it.
The book represents a flawless match of biographer and subject--in
Arnold Rampersad's hands we fathom both the burden and measure of
Ellison's brilliance."
- Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
"Arnold Rampersad's biography of Ralph Ellison is the fullest and
most authoritative study ofEllison's life and work to date. A
celebration and defense of a triumphant and heroic life, it is
bluntly unhagiographic and painstakingly attentive to Ellison's
foibles. "Ralph Ellison "is at once an astute portrait of a
complicated man and a social and literary history of his times-a
major book on a major American writer."
-Daniel Aaron, author, "Writers on the Left"
""Ralph Ellison: A Biography "portrays with unusual insight one of
the most elusive figures in the history of American literature.
Whether treating Ellison's controversial aloofness from civil
rights militancy, his passionate lifelong effort to understand
America, or the long gestation and writing of "Invisible Man,"
every page of Rampersad's richly detailed portrait dramatizes one
of Ellison's favorite words: complexity."
-Kenneth Silverman, author, "Edgar A. Poe," and winner of the
Pulitzer Prize
"Like Richard Ellmann on James Joyce, Arnold Rampersad on Ralph
Ellison is in a class of its own. His masterful and magisterial
book is the most powerful and profound treatment of Ellison's
undeniable artistic genius, deep personal flaws, and controversial
political evolution. And he reveals an Ellison unbeknownst to all
of us. From now on, all serious scholarship on Ellison must begin
with Rampersad's instant and inimitable classic in literary
biography."
-- Cornel West
Praise for "Ralph Ellison
"" Illuminating and richly reported . . ."
-"The New York Times Book Review
"" Absorbing . . . stunning."
-"South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"" Riveting . . . exhaustive . . . an intensely researched,
elegantly written book"
-"Los Angeles Times Book Review
"" In this tremendous biography, Rampersad brings Ellison back down
to human scale, relating the writer' s remarkable, deeply sad life
with reportorial flare and unflinching honesty . . . Rampersad' s
is a deeply sympathetic biography, but by no means excessively
forgiving. Here is Ellison full of rage and talent, vain and
ambitious, but fired by a deep moral clarity."
-"Sunday Star Ledger
"" With the publication of Arnold Rampersad' s "Ralph Ellison," we
have the first comprehensive treatment . . . elegant and lively
prose . . . we now have a ' mighty' biography of this
quintessential American life."
-"Charlotte Observor
"" Immensely engaging . . . in Rampersad' s hands, Ellison' s life
emerges as one of the essential literary lives of the 20th century
. . . Rampersad' s exemplary biography, written with a blend of
deep sympathy and cool detachment, splendidly achieves the one true
task of literary biography: it illuminates the life so that we may
better understand what it produced."
-"Houston Chronicle
"" Thorough and insightful."
-"American Heritage
"" Marvelous . . . In style and structure, "Ralph Ellison: A
Biography "is, like its subject, unfailingly elegant."
-"The Tennessean
"" Compelling andinsightful."
-"The Washington Times
"" A jewel-like level of social detail . . . illuminate[s] not just
the development of the author' s vision, but the complex contexts
that shape literary creation."
-"Austin American Statesman
"" A dependable reference, a compelling story, a cautionary tale .
. . Rampersad has triumphed."
-"The Plain Dealer
"" Important . . . the definitive life . . . skillfully written,
deeply researched"
-"The New York Sun
"" Rampersad addresses the nature of Ellison' s psyche and makes
reasonable connections between Ellison' s personal experiences and
his writing, and he avoids psychoanalystic overdetermination and
cheap mirror work between lived events and the written word. Along
similar lines, he deftly deals with the salacious material that a
weaker hand would overplay"
-"Harper' s
"" Compassionate yet devastating . . . subtle insight, painstaking
scholarship and elegant presentation"
-"The Nation
"" Absorbing . . . fascinating."
-"Black Florida Life and Style
"" An invaluable contribution . . . Arnold Rampersad' s biography
of Ellison is a reserved, dignified, thoroughly researched and
well-paced study of the life of one of America' s greatest authors.
Unlike many literary biographers, who perform hackneyed
psychoanalysis or amateur literary criticism on their subjects'
lives and works, Rampersad sticks to the events of Ellison' s life,
rendering them with a refreshing objectivity seldom found in our
sensationalist times."
-"San Francisco Chronicle
"" Sumptuously researched . . . his subtlety shines."
-"The Star Tribune "(St. Paul)
" What a wonderful biography this is, filled with intelligence and
understanding of its subject and all the varied milieus in which he
lived his long and wonderful life . . . Mr. Rampersad writes so
beautifully, so evocatively, that every page of "Ralph Ellison "is
a pleasure to read . . . it is hard to imagine anyone more attuned
to him, more insightful, more truly sympathetic than Mr. Rampersad,
who has written the definitive biography of this great
American."
-"Washington Times
"
" "Ralph Ellison" is a classic work of erudition, grace, and
elegance. Rampersad offers us an Ellison whose gifts and warts
orbit the same universe of creative genius. Like Ellison's work,
Rampersad's text wrestles eloquently with difficult truths about
race, politics, and American life."
-Michael Eric Dyson
" Arnold Rampersad' s stunningly revealing biography has, at long
last, unveiled- in magisterial prose- the very complex and
vulnerable man behind Ralph Ellison' s own masks and myths. One of
the nation' s most brilliant writers emerges as all the more
fascinating precisely because he was so very human. Painstakingly
researched and compellingly written, "Ralph Ellison "is a
masterwork of the genre of literary biography."
-- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
" Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" is probably the Great American
Novel. Arnold Rampersad's long-awaited and beautifully spun "Ralph
Ellison" is a great American biography."
-- David Levering Lewis, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for
Biography
" Ralph Ellison's place in American literature demands a biography
that is as eloquent, thorough and wise as its subject. This is it.
The book represents a flawless match of biographer and subject--in
Arnold Rampersad's hands we fathom both the burden and measure of
Ellison's brilliance."
- Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
" Arnold Rampersad' s biography of Ralph Ellison is the fullest and
most authoritative study of Ellison' s life and work to date. A
celebration and defense of a triumphant and heroic life, it is
bluntly unhagiographic and painstakingly attentive to Ellison' s
foibles. "Ralph Ellison "is at once an astute portrait of a
complicated man and a social and literary history of his times- a
major book on a major American writer."
-Daniel Aaron, author, "Writers on the Left"
" "Ralph Ellison: A Biography "portrays with unusual insight one of
the most elusive figures in the history of American literature.
Whether treating Ellison' s controversial aloofness from civil
rights militancy, his passionate lifelong effort to understand
America, or the long gestation and writing of "Invisible Man,"
every page of Rampersad' s richly detailed portrait dramatizes one
of Ellison' s favorite words: complexity."
-Kenneth Silverman, author, "Edgar A. Poe," and winner of the
Pulitzer Prize
" Like Richard Ellmann on James Joyce, Arnold Rampersad on Ralph
Ellison is in a class of its own. His masterful and magisterial
book is the most powerful and profound treatment of Ellison's
undeniable artistic genius, deep personal flaws, and controversial
political evolution. And he reveals an Ellison unbeknownst to all
of us. From now on, all serious scholarship on Ellison must begin
with Rampersad's instant and inimitable classic in literary
biography."
-- Cornel West
"Arnold Rampersad's biography of Ralph Ellison is the fullest and
most authoritative study of Ellison's life and work to date. A
celebration and defense of a triumphant and heroic life, it is
bluntly unhagiographic and painstakingly attentive to Ellison's
foibles. "Ralph Ellison "is at once an astute portrait of a
complicated man and a social and literary history of his times-a
major book on a major American writer."
-Daniel Aaron, author, "Writers on the Left"
""Ralph Ellison: A Biography "portrays with unusual insight one of
the most elusive figures in the history of American literature.
Whether treating Ellison's controversial aloofness from civil
rights militancy, his passionate lifelong effort to understand
America, or the long gestation and writing of "Invisible Man,"
every page of Rampersad's richly detailed portrait dramatizes one
of Ellison's favorite words: complexity."
-Kenneth Silverman, author, "Edgar A. Poe," and winner of the
Pulitzer Prize
"Like Richard Ellmann on James Joyce, Arnold Rampersad on Ralph
Ellison is in a class of its own. His masterful and magisterial
book is the most powerful and profound treatment of Ellison's
undeniable artistic genius, deep personal flaws, and controversial
political evolution. And he reveals an Ellison unbeknownst to all
of us. From now on, all serious scholarship on Ellison must begin
with Rampersad's instant and inimitable classic in literary
biography."
-- Cornel West
"Like Richard Ellmann on James Joyce, Arnold Rampersad on Ralph
Ellison is in a class of its own. His masterful and magisterial
book is the most powerful and profound treatment of Ellison's
undeniable artistic genius, deep personal flaws, and controversial
political evolution. And he reveals an Ellison unbeknownst to all
of us. From now on, all serious scholarship on Ellison must begin
with Rampersad's instant and inimitable classic in literary
biography."
-- Cornel West
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