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

ELLISON, Ralph. Invisible Man. Franklin Center, Pennsylvania: The Franklin Library, 1980. Octavo, original full red leather, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards, raised bands, watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt. $950.

Deluxe signed limited edition of Ralph Ellison’s great American novel, signed by him on a preliminary leaf, illustrated by Wil Harmuth, in an ornate binding.

"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). This edition opens with a special message to subscribers, written by Ellison in 1979.

A near-fine copy. Very mild sunning to spine as often seen with this title; minor speckling to upper edge gilt.