Juneteenth (novel)
Encyclopedia
Juneteenth is the title of African American
writer Ralph Ellison
's second novel (ISBN 0-394-46457-5), published posthumously as a 368-page condensation of over 2000 pages written by him over a period of forty years. It was originally written without any real organization, and Ellison's longtime friend, biographer and critic John F. Callahan
put the novel together, editing it in the way he thought Ellison would want it to be written.
Ellison claimed to be devastated when much of the original manuscript of Juneteenth was destroyed by a fire in 1967. However, the loss of the crucial, irrecoverable sections of his manuscript appears to have been something Ellison concocted after the fact to justify his lack of progress. Arnold Rampersad
, in his 2007 biography of Ellison, points out that, following the fire, Ellison wrote to critic Nathan Scott of his relief that he still “fortunately had a full copy” of all his writing.
While there had been over 2,000 pages written by the time of his death, the novel was never finished by the author himself. A fuller version of the manuscript was published on February 2, 2010, as Three Days Before the Shooting
.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
writer Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...
's second novel (ISBN 0-394-46457-5), published posthumously as a 368-page condensation of over 2000 pages written by him over a period of forty years. It was originally written without any real organization, and Ellison's longtime friend, biographer and critic John F. Callahan
John F. Callahan
John F. Callahan is literary executor for Ralph Ellison, and was the editor for his posthumously-released novel Juneteenth. In addition to his work with Ellison, Callahan has written or edited numerous volumes related to African-American literature, with a particular emphasis on 20th century...
put the novel together, editing it in the way he thought Ellison would want it to be written.
Ellison claimed to be devastated when much of the original manuscript of Juneteenth was destroyed by a fire in 1967. However, the loss of the crucial, irrecoverable sections of his manuscript appears to have been something Ellison concocted after the fact to justify his lack of progress. Arnold Rampersad
Arnold Rampersad
Arnold Rampersad is a biographer and literary critic. The first volume of his Life Of Langston Hughes was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He was born in Trinidad and Tobago....
, in his 2007 biography of Ellison, points out that, following the fire, Ellison wrote to critic Nathan Scott of his relief that he still “fortunately had a full copy” of all his writing.
While there had been over 2,000 pages written by the time of his death, the novel was never finished by the author himself. A fuller version of the manuscript was published on February 2, 2010, as Three Days Before the Shooting
Three Days Before the Shooting
Three Days Before the Shooting... is the title of the edited manuscript of Ralph Ellison's never-finished second novel. It was co-edited by John F. Callahan, the executor of Ellison's literary estate, and Adam Bradley, a professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The book was...
.