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ful people whose inner faultsand dissatisfaction leave them vulnerable.These titles includeAppointment in Samarra (1934),Ten North Frederick (1955), andFrom the Terrace (1959).James Baldwin (1924-1987)James Baldwin and Ralph Ellisonmirror the African-American experienceof the 1950s. Their characterssuffer from a lack of identity,rather than from over-ambition.Baldwin, the oldest of nine childrenborn to a Harlem, New York,family, was the foster son of a minister.As a youth, Baldwin occasionallypreached in the church. Thisexperience helped shape the compelling,oral quality of his prose,most clearly seen in his excellentessays such as “Letter From aRegion of My Mind,” from the collectionThe Fire Next Time (1963).In this work, he argued movingly foran end to separation between theraces.Baldwin’s first novel, theautobiographical Go Tell Iton the Mountain (1953), isprobably his best known. It is thestory of a 14-year-old boy who seeksself-knowledge and religious faithas he wrestles with issues ofChristian conversion in a storefrontchurch. Other important Baldwinworks include Another Country(1962) and Nobody Knows MyName (1961), a collection of passionatepersonal essays aboutracism, the role of the artist, andliterature.JAMES BALDWINPhoto © Nancy Crampton102Ralph Ellison (1914-1994)Ralph Ellison was a Midwesterner,born in Oklahoma, who studied atTuskegee Institute in the southernUnited States. He had one of thestrangest careers in American letters— consisting of one highlyacclaimed book and little more.The novel is Invisible Man(1952), the story of a black manwho lives a subterranean existencein a cellar brightly illuminated byelectricity stolen from a utility company.The book recounts hisgrotesque, disenchanting experiences.When he wins a scholarshipto an all-black college, he is humiliatedby whites; when he gets to thecollege, he witnesses the school’spresident spurning black Americanconcerns. Life is corrupt outsidecollege, too. For example, evenreligion is no consolation: Apreacher turns out to be a criminal.The novel indicts society for failingto provide its citizens — black andwhite — with viable ideals andinstitutions for realizing them. Itembodies a powerful racial themebecause the “invisible man” isinvisible not in himself but becauseothers, blinded by prejudice, cannotsee him for who he is.Juneteenth (1999), Ellison’ssprawling, unfinished novel, editedposthumously, reveals his continuingconcern with race and identity.Flannery O’Connor(1925-1964)Flannery O’Connor, a native ofGeorgia, lived a life cut short bylupus, a blood disease. Still, she