Editing Ralph Ellison (section)

==Awards and recognition==
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?77175-1/writing-ralph-ellison Panel discussion on the writings of Ralph Ellison, December 5, 1996], [[C-SPAN]]}}
''Invisible Man'' won the 1953 US [[National Book Award for Fiction]].<ref name=nba1953>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1953 "National Book Awards – 1953"]. [[National Book Foundation]].  (With acceptance speech by Ellison, essay by [[Neil Baldwin (writer)|Neil Baldwin]] from the 50-year publications, and essays by [[Charles Johnson (writer)|Charles Johnson]] and four others from the Awards' 60-year anniversary blog. Retrieved March 31, 2012)</ref>

The award was his ticket into the American literary establishment. He eventually was admitted to the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]], received two President's Medals (from [[Lyndon Johnson]] and [[Ronald Reagan]]) and a State Medal from France. He was the first African-American admitted to the [[Century Association]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nysun.com/arts/visible-ellison/52686/|title=The Visible Ellison – The New York Sun|website=nysun.com|access-date=August 3, 2017}}</ref> and was awarded an honorary Doctorate from [[Harvard University]]. Disillusioned by his experience with the Communist Party, he used his new fame to speak out for literature as a moral instrument.<ref name= DivMinds />{{rp|70–72}} In 1955 he traveled to Europe, visiting and lecturing, settling for a time in Rome, where he wrote an essay that appeared in a 1957 [[Bantam Books|Bantam]] anthology called ''A New Southern Harvest''. [[Robert Penn Warren]] was in Rome during the same period, and the two writers became close friends.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ealy|first=Steven D.|title='A Friendship That Has Meant So Much': Robert Penn Warren and Ralph W. Ellison|journal=[[The South Carolina Review]] |volume= 38| issue= 2| date=Spring 2006|pages=162–172|url=http://www.clemson.edu/cedp/press/scr/articles/scr_38-2_warren_essay_ealy.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.clemson.edu/cedp/press/scr/articles/scr_38-2_warren_essay_ealy.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live| publisher= Clemson University}}</ref> Later, Warren would interview Ellison about his thoughts on race, history, and the [[Civil Rights Movement]] for his book ''[[Who Speaks for the Negro?]]''<ref>{{cite web|website=Robert Penn Warren's Who Speaks for the Negro? Archive|publisher= Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, [[Vanderbilt University]] |title=Ralph Ellison |url= http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/interview/ralph-ellison|access-date=January 21, 2015}}</ref> In 1958, Ellison returned to the United States to take a position teaching American and Russian literature at [[Bard College]] and to begin a second novel, ''[[Juneteenth (novel)|Juneteenth]]''. During the 1950s, he corresponded with his lifelong friend, the writer [[Albert Murray (writer)|Albert Murray]]. In their letters they commented on the development of their careers, the [[Civil Rights Movement]], and other common interests including jazz. Much of this material was published in the collection ''Trading Twelves'' (2000).

Writing essays about both the black experience and his love for [[jazz]] music, Ellison continued to receive major awards for his work. In 1969, he received the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]]; the following year, he was made a Chevalier of the [[Ordre des Arts et des Lettres]] by France and became a permanent member of the faculty at [[New York University]] as the [[Albert Schweitzer]] Professor of Humanities, serving from 1970 to 1980.

In 1975, Ellison was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]], and his hometown of Oklahoma City honored him with the dedication of the Ralph Waldo Ellison Library. Continuing to teach, Ellison published mostly essays, and in 1984, he received the [[New York City College]]'s [[Langston Hughes Medal]]. In 1985, he was awarded the [[National Medal of Arts]].<ref name=NMArts>{{cite web| url= https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals/ralph-waldo-ellison |title= National Medal of Arts: Ralph (Waldo) Ellison| website= arts.gov| publisher= [[National Endowment for the Arts]] | access-date= April 4, 2017}}</ref><ref name= "Named Winners">{{cite news| url= https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/18/arts/12-are-named-winners-of-new-u-s-arts-medal.html |title= 12 Are Named Winners of New U. S. Arts Medal| first= Irvin| last= Molotsky |work= The New York Times| date= April 18, 1985| place= Washington DC| access-date= April 4, 2017}}</ref> In 1986, his ''Going to the Territory'' was published; this is a collection of seventeen essays that included insight into southern novelist [[William Faulkner]] and Ellison's friend Richard Wright, as well as the music of [[Duke Ellington]] and the contributions of African Americans to America's national identity.<ref>{{cite news| url= https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/20/specials/ellison-territory.html| work= The New York Times| title= What Is Afro, What Is American (Book Review of ''Going to the Territory'')| first= John Edgar | last= Wideman| date= August 3, 1986 | access-date= April 4, 2017 }}</ref>

[[File:Ralph Ellison Monument 2013.jpg|thumb|Ralph Ellison monument in front of 730 [[Riverside Drive (Manhattan)|Riverside Drive]], New York City. The birthyear is the incorrect year Ellison would usually offer]]
In 1992, Ellison was awarded a special achievement award from the [[Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards]]; his artistic achievements included work as a sculptor, musician, photographer, and college professor as well as his writing output. He taught at Bard College, Rutgers University, the [[University of Chicago]], and New York University. Ellison was also a charter member of the [[Fellowship of Southern Writers]].