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Louis Armstrong

This well-known jazz and blues musician has a strong self-deprecating, almost clown-like performance style.

Bird

This is the nickname for the jazz performer Charlie Parker.

Charlie Christian

This person is the Oklahoma City musician Ellison calls the greatest of jazz guitarists.

Samuel Clemens

This author writes under the pen name of Mark Twain.

Stephen Crane

This son of a Methodist minister wrote "The Red Badge of Courage."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the author Ellison was named after.

William Faulkner

This American author wrote "Intruder in the Dust."

Ernest Hemingway

This author wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" and was a writer Ellison claimed as a literary ancestor.

Irving Howe

This Jewish-American author wrote an essay entitled "Black Boys and Native Sons" for the magazine New Leader.

Stanley Edgar Hyman

This professor was a friend of Ellison and an "old intellectual sparring partner."

Mahalia Jackson

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