Ralph Dumain is a librarian and independent researcher, living in Washington, DC. In 1991 he became librarian/archivist of the C.L.R. James Institute in New York, founded by Jim Murray (1949-2003) to document James's life and work. Murray's roots were in the political and cultural activism of the '60s and '70s, and the Institute continued in the same spirit, with the aim of making James's work available to all researchers and the wider public, remaining outside and independent of academia and other traditional institutional forms. This ideal is also reflected in Dumain's unusual website, The Autodidact Project, which publishes original bibliographies, research guides, and varied writings by Dumain himself, as well as a wide range of writings by others, famous, obscure, or forgotten, providing study material and perspectives that might not otherwise come to the attention of both formally and self-educated readers. Dumain began to teach himself Esperanto as a high school student; a year and a half later he translated Sándor Szathmári's novella "Vincenzo" into English. In 1987, Esperanto's centennial, Dumain co-founded the World Atheist Esperanto Organisation (Ateista Tutmonda Esperanto-Organizo; ATEO). Dumain has published in both Esperanto and English, has translated here and there, and has lectured and been interviewed both on C.L.R. James and the social history of Esperanto.

The Autodidact Project can be found at http://autodidactproject.org, with links to Dumain's blogs. Dumain's web site for the C.L.R. James Institute can be found at http://clrjamesinstitute.org. Dumain's podcasts can be found at http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/dumain/dumain.html. Dumain's selected bibliography and web guide to Szathmari is located at http://autodidactproject.org/bib/szathmari.html.