A biography of the creation of THE INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison.

Acknowledgments ix
Note on the Text xi
Introduction: Reading Forward to Invisible Man 1
Part I.
1. Forming a Politics 27
2. Developing an Aesthetic 69
3. Writing from the Left 109
Part II.
4. Living Jim Crow 153
5. Becoming Proletarian 187
6. Finding Brotherhood 237
7. Recognizing Necessity 281
8. Beginning and Ending 325
Notes 351
Selected Bibliography 429
Index 433