Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man Now Available as a Free Download at Audible
October 27 2016 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
In Celebration of Ellison’s Impact on the
Creation of Audible.com and His Understanding of the Singular Oral
Tradition That Has Defined Audible from Its Founding, Audible Makes
the Esteemed Novelist’s Seminal National Book Award-Winning Novel
Free to Listeners for the Rest of 2016
“Jazz in the Key of Ellison,” Presented by
Audible, to Take Place November 1 at the New Jersey Performing Arts
Center
Audible Inc., the world’s largest seller and producer of
downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment, today
announced that in honor of Ralph Ellison’s influence on its
formation, Invisible Man, Ellison’s masterpiece about an
African-American man’s struggle to succeed in a segregated society,
will be available free on Audible for the remainder of the year.
The audiobook, which is performed by Emmy Award-winning actor Joe
Morton in a rendition lauded by Audible customers in over 1,000
reviews on Audible’s website, can now be downloaded free at
audible.com/ellison.
The offering coincides with a forthcoming words-and-music
tribute to the great American novelist, literary critic and scholar
and his remarkable jazz collection that will take place in NJPAC’s
Prudential Hall in Newark on November 1st. The evening features
live music by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, singers Catherine Russell,
Angelique Kidjo and Patti Austin and music director Andy Farber, as
well as special guest readers including Scandal actor and audiobook
narrator Morton, hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, Audible founder and
CEO Don Katz, and noted Ellison scholar Robert O’Meally.
The event will be introduced by Katz, who was taught by Ellison
while an undergraduate at NYU and was supported by Ellison through
his first career as a writer.
“Many people are unaware that Audible was founded by one
professional writer but inspired at root by one of the most
important novelists of the 20th century. From its earliest days,
Audible’s vision and mission have been inspired by Ralph Ellison’s
understanding of the power of oral tradition and his ability to
hear the music in well-wrought arrangements of spoken words,” said
Katz. “My own fascination with the sound of well-composed words and
the music embedded in language goes way back to my good luck of
having Ralph as my teacher and mentor. In many ways, Audible exists
today to honor his legacy.”
“It is also fitting that we will celebrate Ralph’s deep love of
jazz—and the jazz in his brilliant prose—in Audible’s adopted
hometown. Newark, New Jersey’s, deep and formative connection to
the African-American experience and to the American art form that
is jazz is one of the many reasons Audible is headquartered here
and why we believe in Newark’s bright future.”
“We’re delighted to have this opportunity to encourage our
growing population of listeners, including students of all ages, to
rediscover Ellison or to marvel at his prose for the first time,”
added Katz.
For more information about “Jazz in the Key of Ellison,” visit
http://www.njpac.org/events/detail/jazz-in-the-key-of-ellison.
Audible invented and commercialized the first digital audio
player in 1997, and has since been at the forefront of the
explosively growing audiobook download segment. Audible members
downloaded an average of more than 17 books over the course of the
year. More than half of new Audible members are first-time
audiobook buyers.
ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary
(NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken
audio information and entertainment, offering customers a new way
to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to
unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and
utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than
300,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers,
broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and
business information providers. Audible is also the preeminent
provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes
Store.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161027005441/en/
Audible.comEsther Bochner, 973-820-0781bochnere@audible.com
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