Webliography is a word which cannot be found in a standard Webster's or Oxford dictionary.  It is a word which has little significance outside of the hardly noticed corner of the World Wide Web occupied and used principally by scholars and aficionados of literature.  The definition of webliography which I am speaking of loosely fluctuates somewhere between a bibliography of primary sources written by a particular author and a multimedia site of tribute to that author.  In its broader and more well known definition, webliography denotes an enumerative list of hypertext links surrounding a common subject or theme.  Literary webliographies aspire to do more in that they collocate a good number of the online resources pertaining to a particular author as well as provide an enumerative list of all the author's published works in both digital and print format.  Alan Liu's monumental work, The Voice of the Shuttle, provides humanities scholars with one the most extensive check-lists of webliographies mounted on the Web thus far.

     The absence of a webliography for one of the twentieth century's most respected novelists from not only Liu's web site but also the entire Web is the impetus behind my decision to assemble a webliography for Ralph Ellison.  Although my original intent was to provide a one-stop digital resource for literary scholars conducting advanced research on Ralph Ellison, the magnitude of secondary sources available relating to both his life and writings has caused me to defer, at least for the time being, the inclusion of critical and biographical sources in the preliminary version of this webliography.  This first version of the Ralph Ellison Webliography   should prove useful to those unfamiliar with Ralph Ellison as well as those seeking rudimentary background information for one of America's most important cultural voices.

   The arrangement of the Ralph Ellison Webliography   is similar to a typical bibliography, but because of its digital nature, it allows for quick and easy updating, quick retrieval of bibliographic data, and ease of flipping between its various components.  Because all listings describe primary sources, I have decided to omit Ralph Ellison's name in the listings to avoid superfluity.  In the rare cases where he has co-authored a work, or where another person is instrumental to a work's creation, I have also included their names.  Entries are arranged alphabetically within the following categories: books and monographs, short stories, literary criticism, essays, art reviews, interviews, and lectures.  In addition, there is an introductory portrait of Ralph Ellison and his work, an informative chronology with important dates and events in his life, a sort of photo collage with different portraits of Ellison through the years, and a listing of useful resources on the WWW pertaining to this author.  In the few cases where his works are available online, links have been made directly from the bibliographic entries to the digital texts.

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