Shadowing Ralph Ellison by John S. Wright A critical study of the writings and thought of the American literary genius and his blues and jazz-derived "vernacular" aesthetic. In 1952, Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) published his novel Invisible Man, which transformed the dynamics of American literature. The novel won the National Book Award, extended the themes of his early short stories, and dramatized in fictional form the cultural theories expressed in his essay collections Shadow and Act and Going to the Territory. In Shadowing Ralph Ellison, John Wright traces Ellison's intellectual and aesthetic development and the evolution of his cultural philosophy throughout his long career. The book explores Ellison's published fiction, his criticism and correspondence, and his passionate exchanges with-and impact on-other literary intellectuals during the Cold War 1950s and during the culture wars of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. John S. Wright is associate professor of African American and African studies and of English at the University of Minnesota.