SOURCE: "Visible Man," in The New Yorker, Vol. LXX, No. 14, March 14, 1994, pp. 34-8.

[In the essay below, written on the occasion of Ellison's eightieth birthday, Remnick provides an overview of Ellison's career, discussing the writer's unfinished second novel, his critical reputation, his contributions to American society, and the value of Invisible Man.]

In a modest apartment overlooking the Hudson, at the weld of northern Harlem and southern Washington Heights, Ralph Ellison confronts his "work in progress." He has been at this for nearly forty years, and rare is the day that he does not doubt his progress. He wakes early, goes out to buy a paper on Broadway, returns, and, when he has exhausted the possibilities of the Times and the Today show, when the coffee and the toast are gone, he flicks on the computer in his study and reads the passage he finished the day before...