RALPH ELLISON NOW

The African-American novelist Ralph Ellison, author of the landmark 1952 novel Invisible Man, may have passed away in 1994 but his literary legacy lives on. From his guiding concept of invisibility to his meditations on American culture and politics, Ellison’s ideas are as relevant now as they have ever been. The Lab is actively engaged in helping to cultivate Ellison’s legacy for the 21st century through several means: (1) Designing innovative high school learning modules for Invisible Man, as well as for Ellison’s posthumously-published short story collection, Flying Home, (2) Ensuring that cutting-edge scholarship and archival research can inform the teaching and close reading of Ellison’s work, and (3) collaborating with Random House, Ellison’s longtime publisher, in the production of an enhanced e-book of Invisible Man.