Trained as a Jazz Musician at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama at the height of the Jim Crow Era in the South, Ellison's musical aspirations soon transformed into a sensibility more literary in nature when he became exposed to T.S. Eliot's renowned poem "The Wasteland". Publishing his first novel in 1952 titled "Invisible Man" which won The National Book Awards and placed 19th on the Modern Library out of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, much like his poetic inspiration, Ellison has become a figure of timeless renown in his own right. Along with Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin, he was one of few writers to emerge in his timeframe who explored the perseverance of racism in America, and how it, to this day, hinders African-Americans from achieving a veritable sense of identity in the United States.