The Reading Room

Invisible Man, a Reading Room essay

On Invisible Man

Michael Fowler

I am an invisible man, Ralph Ellison's narrator announces at the start of his great 1952 novel, and then explains the strange kind of invisibility he means: not a physical...

On Invisible Man

Michael Fowler

I am an invisible man, Ralph Ellison's narrator announces at the start of his great 1952 novel, and then explains the strange kind of invisibility he means: not a physical...

The Fire Next Time, a Reading Room essay

On The Fire Next Time

Michael Fowler

James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, published in 1963 at the height of the civil-rights struggle, is one of the most searing and beautiful pieces of American prose ever written...

On The Fire Next Time

Michael Fowler

James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, published in 1963 at the height of the civil-rights struggle, is one of the most searing and beautiful pieces of American prose ever written...

Selected Poems, a Reading Room essay

On Selected Poems

Michael Fowler

Langston Hughes wrote the poetry of ordinary Black American life, and in doing so he claimed for it a place in the nation's literature and a voice in its democratic...

On Selected Poems

Michael Fowler

Langston Hughes wrote the poetry of ordinary Black American life, and in doing so he claimed for it a place in the nation's literature and a voice in its democratic...

The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?, a Reading Room essay

On The Constitution of the United States: Is It...

Michael Fowler

The Hundred closes where it began, with the founding documents, but seen now through the eyes of a man who had been enslaved under them and who refused to let...

On The Constitution of the United States: Is It...

Michael Fowler

The Hundred closes where it began, with the founding documents, but seen now through the eyes of a man who had been enslaved under them and who refused to let...