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Ralph Ellison published his groundbreaking Invisible Man in 1952 but died before finishing his long-awaited second novel. Against all odds, CU鈥檚 Adam Bradley and a colleague pieced together Ellison鈥檚 manuscripts, publishing the opus in January.

Author Ralph Ellison closes one novel and foreshadows another with a puzzling question:

鈥淲ho knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?鈥� Concluding his harrowing tale of the life of a black man in 1930s America, the nameless protagonist of聽Invisible Man聽makes a bold query. How, after all, could a marginalized voice speak for a diverse and divided nation?

Fifty-eight years after the novel鈥檚 publication, Adam Bradley, an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado, is helping to reveal what else that potent voice 鈥� and its creator 鈥� would have said. In January, Bradley and co-editor John Callahan of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., released Ellison鈥檚 unfinished second novel,聽Three Days Before the Shooting聽. . . (Random House), after spending 15 years compiling scores of Ellison鈥檚 drafts.

Invisible Man聽(Vintage), published in 1952, catapulted Ellison to a life of great fame and expectation. In 1953 the novel won the National Book Award, beating Ernest Hemingway鈥檚聽The Old Man and the Sea聽(Scribner).

Immediately hailed as an important work and now revered as an American classic,聽Invisible Man聽raised hopes about what Ellison himself promised 鈥� a second novel. But while Hemingway, William Faulkner and James Baldwin produced steady streams of books, short stories and plays, Ellison鈥檚 creativity seemed to ebb. Some speculated that Ellison was paralyzed by self-imposed pressure to craft an epic work.

Years and then decades ticked by. In 1994 鈥� 42 years after his first novel appeared 鈥� Ellison told聽The New Yorker聽that he was working every day on his second novel and that 鈥渢here will be something very soon.鈥�

Two months later, pancreatic cancer claimed Ellison鈥檚 life and, with it, readers鈥� hope for the new novel.

Becoming a literary archaelogist

But Ellison鈥檚 friend Callahan, literary executor of the author鈥檚 estate, was determined to publish Ellison鈥檚 second novel, which was not, despite what Ellison had suggested, in near-final form.

As Bradley and Callahan note in the book鈥檚 introduction, Ellison left behind 鈥渁 series of related narrative fragments, several of which extend to over 300 manuscript pages in length, that appear to cohere without truly completing one another.鈥�

The work was voluminous: 27 boxes of archived material in the Library of Congress, thousands of manuscript pages and 469 computer files on 84 disks.

Bradley joined the effort at Lewis and Clark College in 1992 as a student of professor Callahan, who by 1994 needed help making sense of the sprawling work Ellison left behind. While Callahan would publish the 348-page聽Juneteenth聽(Random House) in 1999 based on one section of the manuscript, he noted in his afterword that the full book would follow. And that鈥檚 where Bradley would play a large role.

Born in Salt Lake City in 1974, Bradley was primed for this task by nature and nurture. When he was in first grade, Bradley鈥檚 teacher told his mother that the child couldn鈥檛 read and that he 鈥渏ust isn鈥檛 that bright.鈥� The boy鈥檚 mother, who viewed this as nonsense, took Bradley out of school. His grandmother home-schooled him for the next nine years. From her, he learned Shakespeare, Keats and Coleridge.

Bradley, it turned out, read rather well. And he had a special affinity with Ellison, whose father died when he was a child, whose first novel vivified America鈥檚 racial divide and whose unfinished second novel centered on a race-baiting senator of 鈥渋ndeterminate race.鈥�

Bradley鈥檚 own father did not raise him. His mother is white, and his father, now deceased, was black.

On several levels, Ellison spoke to Bradley. Ellison鈥檚 second novel dwells on paternity, race and the democratic promise of America. A senator is assassinated by a black man who, it turns out, is the senator鈥檚 son. The senator鈥檚 surrogate father, who is black, tries in vain to save the senator.

These themes struck chords with Bradley, who, as a student, became a literary archaeologist.

Callahan was so impressed that he asked Bradley to co-edit the second novel. Before Bradley could devote himself fully to the project, though, he established his academic credentials. He earned his Ph.D. in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University in 2003.

As Bradley notes, his concentrated work on聽Three Days Before the Shooting. . .聽began soon after the turn of the 21st century and continued until 鈥渏ust about now.鈥� There was much to sift and sort.

History as a backdrop

In 1982, Ellison said the goal of his second novel was to achieve 鈥渢he aura of summing up,鈥� of rendering the full complexity of the American experience on the page.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lofty aim,鈥� Bradley observes. 鈥淓ssentially he鈥檚 talking about writing the great American novel.鈥�

Like the novel itself, America changed greatly during the second book鈥檚 gestation. Ellison began writing his new work before 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court found segregated public schools unconstitutional.

In 1967 a fire destroyed Ellison鈥檚 home and perhaps 300 pages of his manuscript. Ellison said the loss was significant. But he kept writing.

In 1982 鈥� one year before President Reagan signed a bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day 鈥� Ellison bought the first of three personal computers he would acquire by 1988.

A 2007聽Washington Post聽story notes Callahan was mystified by the fact that Ellison had written scenes to 鈥渘ear perfection鈥� in the 鈥�50s and 鈥�60s but revised them extensively a quarter-
century later on the computer.

Bradley, who grew up in the digital age, thinks Ellison became transfixed by the computer鈥檚 power to move paragraphs, insert words and delete whole sections. Ellison was a technophile, and 鈥渢he shifting and shaping of his second novel became a new kind of mania,鈥� the聽Post听谤别辫辞谤迟别诲.

There may have been a method in the maddening array of rewritten episodes, fragments and character and plot outlines made by hand, on typewriter and finally on computer. But the author鈥檚 ultimate aim was elusive. And Ellison left no instructions on what should be done with his work.

This was a literary jigsaw puzzle in legions of bits and bytes.

鈥淭he first thing we did was to understand the totality of things . . . what we had and what we didn鈥檛 have,鈥� Bradley says. Step two was organizational, trying to give shape to the material.

Unsettled ending

Based on their best assessment of Ellison鈥檚 intent, Callahan and Bradley assembled the novel, which is unfinished and unresolved. A reader should expect to assume unusual responsibilities, Bradley says. 鈥淥ne of them, I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 too much to say, is to act as co-creator of the fiction.鈥�

Ellison composed episodically 鈥� crafting scenes one after another and often rewriting entire episodes, sometimes with different endings or from different perspectives. The novel includes episodes not yet fused that approach a conclusion not yet settled.

One value of this book is that readers can see how a literary masterpiece takes shape, Bradley adds.

鈥淵ou can only learn so much about the craft of fiction by studying classic novels alone,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n fact, you often learn more by reading imperfect fiction because the seams show.鈥�

Bradley and Callahan edited the material for a general audience, not simply for scholars.

鈥淲e decided we wanted to keep with the democratic spirit of Ellison鈥檚 writing. . . so that everyday people could pick it up and enjoy it as fiction,鈥� Bradley says.

They did not pepper Ellison鈥檚 text with footnotes but isolated their commentary to introductory notes. 鈥淚f someone wants to read only Ellison, they can do that,鈥� Bradley says. Every word of fiction in the book is Ellison鈥檚, the editors emphasize.

T.S. Eliot, one of Ellison鈥檚 favorite poets, once wrote, 鈥淚n my end is my beginning.鈥� It is no accident, Bradley suggests, that the second novel addresses the question posed at the end of聽Invisible Man: 鈥淲ho knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?鈥�

But unlike聽Invisible Man,聽which has one narrator,Three Days Before the Shooting . . .聽reflects several perspectives.

鈥淵ou get all of these voices, and it seems as if Ellison wanted to populate his novel with as much of America as he could,鈥� Bradley says.

鈥淓llison was writing a novel concerning betrayal and redemption, black and white, fathers and sons,鈥� the editors write. 鈥淚t is a novel that takes as its theme the very nature of America鈥檚 democratic promise to make the nation鈥檚 practice live up to its principles . . . regardless of race, place or circumstance.鈥�

Bradley, who joined CU last year, is the author of聽Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop聽(Basic Civitas Books) and is co-editor of the forthcoming聽Yale Anthology of Rap. Later this year Yale University Press will publish his second book related to Ellison,聽Ralph Ellison in Progress,聽which is a critical exploration of the craft of Ellison鈥檚 fiction.

Bradley says being able to publish Ellison鈥檚 second novel while at CU is particularly meaningful, 鈥渂ecause the relative racial homogeneity of our community makes it possible to sidestep some of the challenging issues Ellison鈥檚 novel brings up. Reading the book denies us that evasion.鈥�

And who knows? On the lower frequencies, Ellison might speak for us.