Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray [Paperback]

This is an excellent book. Fans of Ellison and Murray will appreciate the intimate look at the lives of these writers that can be gained from reading the letters published in this work. Moreover, the call and response nature of the letters beautifully mimic that which can be heard in some of the classic jazz and gospel songs of America. You'll have a hard time putting this one down...

I could not put this down. It is a funny, warm, and insightful jam session on the subjects of literature, jazz, and American culture. This is a must have for any student of those subjects. It's also gives fascinating background into the lives and intellectual development of these literary giants.

The above quote is from one of Ralph Ellison's letters to Albert Murray and it summarizes both of these two men's positions on both art, as well as their outlook on African-American advancement in this country. I found this book to be extremely inspring, partly because these two men are/were very brilliant, partly as black history, partly as literary criticism, and very much for the fact it changed my conception of these two men. While these two cats are seen in the public imagination as some sort of conservatives in American culture, their letters show them to be two men very involved in black vernacular expression and very understanding and apprecieative of regular, as Sly Stone said, "Everyday People", and also, as people who show great disdain for bourgeise pretensions.

One of the striking things for me about this book is the fact that both of these men are older than my father, who was born in the thirties. It totally explodes my misconceptions about black people before 1954 (Brown vs Board). While messrs. Murray and Ellison talk about many issues pertaining to blacks and that include prejudice, they are in no way limited by racism, and it only periphirally comes up during their letters. Their focus is on how black expression is deeply ingrained in the American sensibility. And this is prior to the advent of Elvis Presley and Rock & Roll (for the most part). Jazz and Blues of course are the primary conduits of this. But the two also discuss Willimam Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain in terms of how the motif of the black American influences their work. They're fans of great writers like Andre Malraux, Dostoyevsky, and James Joyce, and in their work they see parallels in their work to the black struggle and want to in their work describe the black experience with the same type of literary mastery.

Also very heartwarming is these two mens concern for each other and each others families. It's big fun to follow their adventures through Europe and the United States and the insights they get from them. Not to mention their love of cameras and photography.

What impressed me the most about this book though, besides the literary/cultural concerns which resound throughout all of these writers work, is the down home, city slicker, hipster black language and viewpoints of Albert Murray and Ralph Ellison. In their own way, they remind me of the "keep it real" hip hop generation and the "no sellout" soul/black power generation. In one example, Ellison tells Murray that Murray is the type of cat who would, "eat chitlins at the waldorf (astoria)", and that he'd do it not just to "slum" or "keep it real", but becuase he thought they were as good a food as any other. These two cats exemplify that old black, old American goal of not fogetting where you come from. As black intellectuals, they also have their times when they're very disdainful of black bourgeise institutions.

As an example in one instance of discussing response to Ellisons "Invisible Man", Murray refers to "...also saw Jet (magazine)'s expected stupidity. This reminds me of a line Chuck D said in Ice Cube's "Endangered Species", "When we die, then we'll make Jet." In several instances Murray and Ellison talk about things that prefigure the attitudes of hip hop. And I know this is ironic becuase Stanley Crouch, a disciple of these two men, is one of the most vocal black critics of hip hop in the world today. Examples of this are definetly these two men using the "b" word at certain points, Ellison actually takes being called a "hell of a n...." as a compliment, and Murray uses the "n-word"to denounce his former employees at Tuskeegee. Of course these men are not gratuitous with this type of language, but they take poetic liscence with them (as the greatest of tasteful M.C's like Chuck D, B.I.G, Tupac, Nas, Daddy Kane etc.) do. They totally explode the silliness of some of the cultural gatekeepers in the black community that these words should never be uttered. As artists they don't look at words morally, they use them were they fit. However they do use them with taste, and being middle aged men and educated men, they don't hafe to use them for every other word. But some of the language in this book is proof to me that the hip hop generation by no means came up with this lingo on their own, we got if from our pops, and uncles, and men in the community. However, we could also get a good lesson in taste, and how to take our "chitlins to the waldorf" from these two cats.

If you love black history, get this book. If you want to see the genesis of the modern African-American mentality and how it relates to the old, get this book. If you want fresh literary perspectives, get this book. If you want an example of black intellectuals who didn't forget where they came from, get this book. If you want inspiration for your own art, run and get this book, becuase in the words of Albert Murray:

"Maybe I really broke the bed down, and then maybe I ain't done nothing but hit it a lick and promise. Maybe I ain't no certified cocksman yet, but that g-ddamn chick is pregnant due: you examine her. Maybe i'tll be a nine-pounder and maybe we'll hafe to put it in an oxygen tank, and maybe it'll be a f*c***g miscarriage; you examine it....

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars