“A MAGNIFICENT CLASSIC”: INVISIBLE MAN, INSCRIBED BY RALPH ELLISON

ELLISON, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, (1952). Octavo, original black and tan cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $13,500.

First edition of Ralph Ellison’s great American novel, boldly inscribed by him, “Best wishes from Ralph Ellison,” in scarce original dust jacket.

"It is a resolutely honest, tormented, profoundly American book" (Wright Morris, New York Times, 1952). Winner of the 1952 National Book Award, Ellison's matchless first novel is "one of the most important works of the 20th century" (New York Times). This is a work in which Ellison's "visionary genius achieved a perfection" (Harold Bloom, Genius)—and the only novel published in his lifetime—Invisible Man is a "magnificent classic… [which] soon became a vital and permanent contribution to American literature" (Blockson 86). With "First Printing" on copyright page.

Book with interior fine, faint trace of rubbing to front board. Light edge-wear to exceptionally lovely dust jacket. A near-fine copy, very scarce inscribed.