Ralph Ellison

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Donna Ellis
with the assistance of Patricia Craig, Julie Hunsaker, Sherralyn McCoy, John Monagle, Angela Moore, and Andrew Passett

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1997

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, 2002

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov.loc.mss/eadmss.ms002008

Latest revision: 2007 November

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Restrictions:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Ralph Ellison (1914-1994), author and educator, were acquired by the Library of Congress from his widow, Fanny McConnell Ellison, through a gift, purchase, and deposit, 1995-1997.

A description of the Ralph Ellison Papers appears in Library of Congress Acquisitions: Manuscript Division, 1994-1995, pp. 56-60.

Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Audio and video recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Ralph Ellison Papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Ralph Ellison in these papers and in other collections in the custody of the Library of Congress is controlled by the estate of Fanny McConnell Ellison.

Restrictions apply governing the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division for information concerning these restrictions.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Ralph Ellison Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Ralph Ellison span the years 1890-1996 with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1933-1990. The collection documenting Ellison's career as author and educator includes nine series: Family Papers; General Correspondence; Organizations File; Writings File; Speeches, Lectures, and Interviews; Reference File; Miscellany; Closed; and Oversize.

The Family Papers contain personal material pertaining to Ellison, his wife, Fanny McConnell Ellison, and their parents, siblings, former spouses, and other relatives. A substantial file relating to Ellison's employment includes material from his many teaching appointments. Of particular interest are the notes and reports he compiled for the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Fanny Ellison's employment papers document her work for the American Medical Center for Burma through the Harold L. Oram agency and her contribution as one of the founders of the Negro People's Theatre in Chicago. Also noteworthy are her drawings pertaining to the history of costume executed as a WPA project for the Chicago Board of Education. Household papers contain material on the Ellisons' property in New York, Key West, Florida, and Plainfield, Massachusetts. The latter includes insurance records of the fire which destroyed the first drafts of Ellison's unpublished Hickman novel. Other material in the family papers consists of biographical information, financial, legal, and medical records, school and military records, newspaper and magazine articles about Ellison, travel documents, notes, and printed matter.

The General Correspondence series contains Ralph and Fanny Ellison's incoming and outgoing letters to friends and business associates. Correspondents include institutions and businesses as well as individuals. Chief among them are Saul Bellow, John Cheever, John Ciardi, Kenneth B. Clark, William Dawson, Paul Engle, Langston Hughes, Stanley Edgar Hyman, Shirley Jackson, Albert Murray, Robert Penn Warren, and Richard Wright. Several of Ellison's letters to friends and acquaintances such as Harry Brooks, Harold Calicutt, and Henry B. O. Davis contain reminiscences of his childhood, college years, and early adulthood.

The Organizations File concerns a wide range of cultural, educational, and charitable institutions in which Ellison participated as an officer, advisor, or trustee. For example, he served on the governing boards of Bennington College, the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Museum of the City of New York, the New School for Social Research, and Wake Forest University. Material in the file consists primarily of correspondence and reports.

The Writings File contains drafts, notes, and production material for Ellison's literary works. The material in an essays and essay collections file, arranged alphabetically by title, appeared as journal articles or chapters published in compilations by others. Material pertaining to Ellison's own collections, Shadow and Act and Going to the Territory, is also included in this section. Many of his essays were reworked and republished several times. Ellison also wrote poetry, reviews of books, films, and recordings, short stories, and forewords, introductions, and endorsements for literary works of others. There is evidence that Ellison wrote book reviews in the 1940s under the pseudonym David Wilson. An incomplete draft of his memoirs also contains notes and outlines. Dates in parentheses in the container list refer to the publication date; other dates refer to the creation and span of the material in the folder.

Material relating to Ellison's novels makes up the bulk of the Writings File. In order to show Ellison's approach to writing, his system of filing drafts alphabetically by title of episode rather than final story sequence has been maintained. Quotation marks are used to indicate episode titles devised by Ellison. A section relating to Invisible Man includes production material, publicity items, reviews, opera and film proposals, correspondence with publishers regarding various editions, foreign rights and translations, and the comments and criticism of others. A miscellany section in the Writings File contains bibliographies and literary criticisms of Ellison's works, plot ideas, notes, royalty statements, and information regarding copyrights, permissions, and reprints.

The Speeches, Lectures, and Interviews series demonstrates Ellison's popularity as a speaker at special events, club meetings, and university seminars. His customary subjects were literary, but also included music and art. During his fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, Ellison lectured at several European seminars. Ellison also held numerous teaching positions ranging from one semester as a visiting professor to appointments lasting for several years. Courses included the contemporary American novel and Russian literature. He was frequently interviewed for radio programs, magazines, and newspapers. Among his interviewers were Michael S. Harper, Irving Howe, and Robert Penn Warren. The three sections of this series, containing texts, correspondence, notes, and printed matter, are arranged chronologically.

The Reference File includes newspaper and magazine articles and other printed matter on subjects ranging from music, art, and literature to sports, politics, and civil rights. A large biographical section includes material on individuals whom Ellison either knew or considered interesting.

The Miscellany series contains address books, appointment calendars, invitations, programs, and ephemera. Also included are papers relating to the awards, citations, and honorary degrees awarded to Ellison. The Closed series consists primarily of correspondence, writings, and drawings which are too fragile for handling. Photocopies of each item have been placed where the original would have appeared in the collection. Material too large for the document boxes has been moved to the Oversize series.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in nine series:

• Family Papers, 1890-1996, n.d.
• General Correspondence, 1930-1996, n.d.
• Organizations File, 1939-1994, n.d.
• Writings File, 1935-1995, n.d.
• Speeches, Lectures, and Interviews, 1945-1993, n.d.
• Reference File, 1901-1995, n.d.
• Miscellany, 1904-1994, n.d.
• Closed, 1932-1994, n.d.
• Oversize, 1923-1993, n.d.

Description of Series

Container List