Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, developed from a short story that formed the novel's initial "Battle Royale" chapter. It was Ellison's only novel to be published during his lifetime, and it won him the National Book Award in 1953. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing the post-civil-war American Black identity, including the relationship between this identity and Marxism, black nationalism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington.