Invisible Man.

ELLISON, Ralph.

Item Number: 25014

New York: Random House, 1952.

First edition of the author’s landmark work. Octavo, original black and tan cloth. Inscribed by the author on the title page to Saul Bellow, “For Saul With Gratitude for our friendship, Ralph June 1959.” Saul Bellow in his review of Invisible Man found it “a book of the very first order, a superb book…it is tragi-comic, poetic, the tone of the very strongest sort of creative intelligence. Bellow and Ellison remained lifelong friends and both were winners of the National Book-Award. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with some light rubbing to the spine extremities. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An outstanding association copy.

Ralph Ellison’s first novel is "one of the most important works of the 20th century" (New York Times). It went on to win the National Book Award in 1953. It was named by Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century and to TIME Magazine's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005, calling it "the quintessential American picaresque of the 20th century." According to The New York Times, President Barack Obama modeled his memoir Dreams from My Father on Ellison's novel.