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Introduction

Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published during his lifetime. It won him the National Book Award in 1953. The novel addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity.

Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.^[1]