Ralph Ellison

Ralph Waldo Ellison is a literary fiction author from Oklahoma City in the United States. The author was born in 1914 to construction foreman Alfred Ellison who died while he was just three. His mother was church stewardess Ida Milsap that brought him all the books he wanted to read from the many houses she was contracted to clean.

The best place to start is the Literary Conversations series, the earliest of Ralph Ellison's multi-book series: it opens with Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges (1969) and runs to 97 books across 1969–2023, ending with Conversations with Jimmy Carter (2023).

Ralph Ellison has 117 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1938 and 2023. 97 of them belong to 1 named series — the largest being the Literary Conversations series with 97 books — and 20 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Ralph Ellison's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Literary Conversations (1969–2023, 97 books).

This guide splits Ralph Ellison's 117 books into 1 named series and 20 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Literary Conversations (97 books, 1969–2023).