Appearing just twelve years before he would receive a National Book Award for his tour de force, The Invisible Man, celebrated wordsmith Ralph Ellison (1914 – 1994) wrote this review of “Negro fiction” for a short-lived but informed arts magazine in which he rolled out some deep thoughts regarding Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, Zora Neil Hurston and assorted other ink-slingers of African descent:
“It is no accident that the two most advanced Negro writers, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, have been men who have enjoyed freedom of association with advanced white writers; nor is it accidental that they have had the greatest effect upon Negro life.”
Click here to read a 1929 book review by Langston Hughs.
CLICK HERE to read about African-Americans during the Great Depression.
KEY WORDS: 1940s African-American Authors,Ralph Ellison on Zora Neil Hurston 1941,Ralph Ellison on Arna Bontemps 1941,Ralph Ellison on Langston Hughes 1941,Ralph Ellison on Richard Wright 1941,Ralph Ellison on William Attaway 1941,Ralph Ellison on E Walters Turpin 1941,Ralph Ellison on African American novelists 1941,Ralph Ellison on New Negro Writers 1941,Ralph Ellison on New Negroe Writers 1941,Ralph Ellison on Harlem writers 1941,Ralph Ellison on 1940s African-American authors 1941,Ralph Ellison on African-American writers of the 30s,book review by Ralph Ellison 1941