Callahan brings Ellison's posthumous novel to life

Newsweek calls it "a bona fide literary event." Publisher's Weekly calls it "a visionary tour de force, a lyrical, necessary contribution to America's perennial racial dialogue, and a novel powerfully reinforcing Ralph Ellison's place in literary history."

The New York Times, Time, Forbes, The New Republic, National Public Radio, CBS, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Oregonian, The Seattle Times and book critics throughout the nation are all writing about Juneteenth, a novel authored by Ralph Ellison and edited posthumously by John Callahan, Morgan S. Odell Professor of Humanities at Lewis & Clark College and literary executor of Ellison's estate.

Ellison published his first novel, Invisible Man, in 1952. Winner of the American Book Award, the novel is regarded as one of the most significant American novels of the century. Ellison spent the rest of his career working on his second novel, but he died in 1994 before completing it.

Describing Juneteenth (Random House, 1999) as "a job for a literary detective," The Washington Post writes, "Somebody had to trail Ellison's imagination through the mountains of papers he left behind. Callahan made his way through 2,000 pages of scenes and chapters that Ellison painstakingly wrote and rewrote over 40 years."

"Now, thanks to the astute and dedicated editing of John Callahan, we have a book that can fairly be called Ralph Ellison's second masterpiece," writes The Oregonian.

"Juneteenth is, quite simply, a great American novel, a fable of memory and forgetting that, with all its quirks, re-imagines the role of race in the nation's life."

"A majestic narrative concept," comments author Toni Morrison.

The book is on the best-seller list in Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta. It climbed to the 17th spot on the New York Times Best Seller List and is a Book of the Month Club selection.

During opening convocation, Callahan described "the pleasure and the pain" of editing Juneteenth. See pages 6 and 7 for excerpts of the speech Callahan gave to entering students and their families.

Callahan also edited Ralph Ellison's Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison and Flying Home and Other Stories.

Originally published fall 1999.

Read excerpts of Callahan's speech at Opening Convocation, August 25, 1999

Read excerpts of Juneteenth, read by Callahan at the convocation.