Ralph Ellison was born in Oklahoma in 1914. He is the author of the novelInvisible Man(1952), as well as numerous essays and short stories. He died in New York City in 1994. Random House publishedJuneteenth, the book-length excerpt from his unfinished second novel, posthumously in 1999. Albert Murray was born in Alabama in 1916. A cultural critic, biographer, essayist, and novelist, he has taught at several colleges, including Colgate and Barnard, and his works includeThe Omni-Americans,South to a Very Old Place,Train Whistle Guitar,The Blue Devils of Nada, andThe Seven League Boots. Murray lives in New York City. John F. Callahan is Morgan S. Odell… Professor of Humanities at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He is the editor ofJuneteenthand the Modern Library edition ofThe Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison. Callahan is the literary executor of Ralph Ellison's estate. From the Hardcover edition.