INVISIBLE MAN

New York: Random House, 1952. 439 pages. Second printing of the first edition of this high point of American literature. An association copy, signed by Ellison and inscribed by him to Frederick Douglass Patterson (and his wife), who had been president of Tuskegee Institute when Ellison was a student there. The notable inscription reads, "For Dr. and Mrs. F.D. Patterson/With admiration and hope that the fiction herein in no way flaws their memories of the good things we shared, nor the good things they wished for me, when I was a student at Tuskegee/Sincerely/Ralph Ellison/April 1952." In his 1964 book Shadow and Act, notes that when he wrote Invisible Man he was especially concerned about poor leadership in the Black community, in which leaders "acknowledged no final responsibility to the Negro community for their acts, and implicit in their roles were constant acts of betrayal. This made for a sad, chronic division between their values and the values of those they were supposed to represent." Dr. Bledsoe, the college president who expelled the narrator in Invisible Man, exemplified the negative qualities of Black leadership. The inscription in this book makes it clear that Ellison did not want Dr. Patterson to believe that he was the template for the Bledsoe character. The book is in good condition: tightly bound and square; internally clean and bright pages; covers soiled and rubbed; a hint of fraying at spine extremities; spine lettering rubbed. The book is housed in an about very good dust jacket that is clean and bright, with closed edge tears and some chipping at corners and spine extremities.. SIGNED. 2nd Printing. Hardcover. Good+/About Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book.