Thursday, February 25, 2010

A Ruined Masterpiece?

Ralph Ellison's Three Days Before the Shooting... was released earlier this year by Random House. This book is an extended version of Juneteenth which was published posthumously in 1999. According to the February 2010 Ebony article entitled, "Visible Again," written by Monique Fields, literary executors John Callahan and Adam Bradley assembled the book together by piecing together "handwritten notes, typewritten pages, and computer files." It took Callahan and Bradley roughly 14 years to arrange the novel. Having said all of that, I wonder if it's ethical to "try" to figure out what an author intended for his manuscript. Truthfully, I think Ellison would be disappointed that his work that was not completed became published. It took Ellison roughly 7 years to complete Invisible Man; he was a very meticulous writer who wanted to fine-tuned every sentence. But in defense of Callahan and Bradley, Ellison's widow, Fanny, asked them to assemble the manuscript into an actual book. What do you think about this situation?

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