Though he was the author of two highly regarded collections of essays, Ralph Ellison's fame rests on his prize-winning novel Invisible Man. For years, he labored on another novel, but he died in 1994 with it still unpublished. Here, Ellison's literary executor, John F. Callahan, collects 13 stories, many of which are published for the first time. The stories give us an intriguing look at Ralph Ellison's development as a writer (some early ones, for example, clearly show the influence of Hemingway), and his early attempts to articulate his concerns about the nature of blackness and the American identity.