She was not a well known public figure, but she was half of one of 20th-century New York’s literary power couples. She was dear friend to many acclaimed writers, artists, and critics. She was the woman behind Invisible Man.

Fanny McConnell Ellison is best known to fans of Ralph Ellison as his devoted (sometimes protective) wife. Famous husband aside, she had a very interesting life in her own right. Spanning most of the 20th century, Fanny’s life intersected with major milestones in politics, race relations, theater, and literature. From a childhood of poverty in one of the few African American families in the Pueblo, Colorado, steelworks community, to a life filled with dinner parties and literary conversations in New York and its environs, Fanny lived out the hopes of her generation. In this book, intended for general audiences, her life is explored in psychological and emotional detail, against a backdrop of major figures and cultural phenomena, such as the Chicago Black Renaissance, the national Works Progress Administration, the career of NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, the groundbreaking work of the 1952 novel Invisible Man, the Margaret Sanger clinic, The “Burma Surgeon,” and the history of post-WWII Harlem. Fans of Ralph Ellison will gain new perspective on his life and work, and all will hear in this book the strong, quiet voice at the center of a home focused on a life of writing.

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