Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''

The Bluest Eye ''The Bluest Eye,'' published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison. The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio (Morrison's hometown), and tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great De ...

'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' Song of Solomon'' (1977) brought her national attention and won the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Pulitzer Prize for '' Beloved'' (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

in 1953 with a B.A. in English. She earned a master's degree in American Literature from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor in fiction at

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her work ''Beloved'' was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of

racism in the United States Racism in the United States comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are related to each other, are held by various people and groups in the United States, and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and ...

and the Black American experience. The

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

selected Morrison for the

Jefferson Lecture The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities is an honorary lecture series established in 1972 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). According to the NEH, the Lecture is "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished ...

, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996. She was honored with the

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters the same year. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

presented her with the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

on May 29, 2012. She received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. Morrison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.

Early years

Toni Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, the second of four children from a working-class, Black family, in Lorain, Ohio, to Ramah (née Willis) and George Wofford.Alt URL
/ref> Her mother was born in Greenville, Alabama, and moved north with her family as a child. She was a homemaker and a devout member of the

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...

. George Wofford grew up in

Cartersville, Georgia Cartersville is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, United States; it is located within the northwest edge of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 23,187. Cartersville is the county seat of Bartow Coun ...

. When Wofford was about 15, a group of white people

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

two African-American businessmen who lived on his street. Morrison later said: "He never told us that he'd seen bodies. But he had seen them. And that was too traumatic, I think, for him." Soon after the lynching, George Wofford moved to the racially integrated town of Lorain, Ohio, in the hope of escaping racism and securing gainful employment in Ohio's burgeoning industrial economy. He worked odd jobs and as a welder for U.S. Steel. Traumatized by his experiences of racism, in a 2015 interview Morrison said her father hated whites so much he would not let them in the house. When Morrison was about two years old, her family's landlord set fire to the house in which they lived, while they were home, because her parents could not afford to pay rent. Her family responded to what she called this "bizarre form of evil" by laughing at the landlord rather than falling into despair. Morrison later said her family's response demonstrated how to keep your integrity and claim your own life in the face of acts of such "monumental crudeness." Morrison's parents instilled in her a sense of heritage and language through telling traditional African-American folktales, ghost stories, and singing songs. Morrison also read frequently as a child; among her favorite authors were Jane Austen and

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

. She became a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

at the age of 12 and took the

baptismal name A Christian name, sometimes referred to as a baptismal name, is a religious personal name given on the occasion of a Christian baptism, though now most often assigned by parents at birth. In English-speaking cultures, a person's Christian name ...

Anthony (after Anthony of Padua), which led to her nickname, Toni. Attending Lorain High School, she was on the debate team, the yearbook staff, and in the drama club.

Career

Adulthood, Cornell years, and editing career: 1949–1975

In 1949, she enrolled at

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, seeking the company of fellow black intellectuals. It was while at Howard that she encountered racially segregated restaurants and buses for the first time. She graduated in 1953 with a B.A. in English and went on to earn a Master of Arts from

in 1955. Her master's thesis was titled "

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

's and

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

's treatment of the alienated." She taught English, first at Texas Southern University in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

from 1955 to 1957, and then at Howard University for the next seven years. While teaching at Howard, she met Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect, whom she married in 1958. Their first son was born in 1961 and she was pregnant with their second son when she and Harold divorced in 1964. After her divorce and the birth of her son Slade in 1965, Morrison began working as an editor for L. W. Singer, a textbook division of publisher

, in Syracuse, New York. Two years later, she transferred to Random House in New York City, where she became their first black woman senior editor in the fiction department."Toni Morrison Biography"
Bio.com, April 2, 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2015. In that capacity, Morrison played a vital role in bringing Black literature into the mainstream. One of the first books she worked on was the groundbreaking ''Contemporary African Literature'' (1972), a collection that included work by Nigerian writers

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...

Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and '' magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...

, and South African playwright Athol Fugard. She fostered a new generation of Afro-American writers, including poet and novelist Toni Cade Bambara, radical activist

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...

, Black Panther

Huey Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadership ...

and novelist

Gayl Jones Gayl Jones (born November 23, 1949) is an American writer from Lexington, Kentucky. She is recognized as a key figure in 20th-century African-American literature. Imani Perry posits Jones as "one of the most versatile and transformative writer ...

, whose writing Morrison discovered. She also brought to publication the 1975 autobiography of the outspoken boxing champion Muhammad Ali, '' The Greatest: My Own Story''. In addition, she published and promoted the work of

Henry Dumas Henry Dumas (July 20, 1934 – May 23, 1968) was an American writer and poet. He has been called "an absolute genius" by Toni Morrison, who as a commissioning editor at Random House published posthumous collections both of his poetry, ''Play Ebo ...

, a little-known novelist and poet who in 1968 had been shot to death by a transit officer in the New York City Subway. Among other books that Morrison developed and edited is '' The Black Book'' (1974), an anthology of photographs, illustrations, essays, and documents of Black life in the United States from the time of slavery to the 1920s. Random House had been uncertain about the project but its publication met with a good reception. Alvin Beam reviewed the anthology for the

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of M ...

'', writing: "Editors, like novelists, have brain childrenbooks they think up and bring to life without putting their own names on the title page. Mrs. Morrison has one of these in the stores now, and magazines and newsletters in the publishing trade are ecstatic, saying it will go like hotcakes."

First writings and teaching, 1970–1986

Morrison had begun writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard University who met to discuss their work. She attended one meeting with a short story about a Black girl who longed to have

blue eyes Eye color is a polygenic phenotypic character determined by two distinct factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris and the frequency-dependence of the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris. In humans, the p ...

. Morrison later developed the story as her first novel, ''

'', getting up every morning at 4 am to write, while raising two children on her own. Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye author portrait)

''The Bluest Eye'' was published by

Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Holt McDougal is an American publishing company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that specializes in textbooks for use in high schools. The Holt name is derived from that of U.S. publisher Henry Holt (1840–1926), co-founder of the e ...

in 1970, when Morrison was aged 39. It was favorably reviewed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' by John Leonard, who praised Morrison's writing style as being "a prose so precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry ... But ''The Bluest Eye'' is also history, sociology, folklore, nightmare and music." The novel did not sell well at first, but the City University of New York put ''The Bluest Eye'' on its reading list for its new Black studies department, as did other colleges, which boosted sales. The book also brought Morrison to the attention of the acclaimed editor

Robert Gottlieb Robert Adams Gottlieb (born April 29, 1931) is an American writer and editor. He has been editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and ''The New Yorker''. Early life and education Robert Gottlieb was born to a Jewish family in New Y ...

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

, an imprint of the publisher Random House. Gottlieb later edited most of Morrison's novels. In 1975, Morrison's second novel '' Sula'' (1973), about a friendship between two Black women, was nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

. Her third novel, '' Song of Solomon'' (1977), follows the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead III, from birth to adulthood, as he discovers his heritage. This novel brought her national acclaim, being a main selection of the

Book of the Month Club Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members ...

, the first novel by a Black writer to be so chosen since Richard Wright's '' Native Son'' in 1940. ''Song of Solomon'' also won the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Barnard College awarded Morrison its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. Morrison gave her next novel, ''

Tar Baby The Tar-Baby is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881; it is about a doll made of tar and turpentine used by the villainous Br'er Fox to entrap Br'er Rabbit. The more that Br'er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled ...

'' (1981), a contemporary setting. In it, a looks-obsessed fashion model, Jadine, falls in love with Son, a penniless drifter who feels at ease with being Black. In 1983, Morrison left publishing to devote more time to writing, while living in a converted boathouse on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

in Nyack, New York. She taught English at two branches of the State University of New York (SUNY) and at Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In 1984, she was appointed to an

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schweit ...

chair at the

University at Albany, SUNY The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

. Morrison's first play, '' Dreaming Emmett'', is about the 1955 murder by white men of Black teenager Emmett Till. The play was performed in 1986 at the State University of New York at Albany, where she was teaching at the time. Morrison was also a visiting professor at

Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 1860, ...

from 1986 to 1988.

The ''Beloved'' Trilogy and the Nobel Prize: 1987–1998

In 1987, Morrison published her most celebrated novel, '' Beloved''. It was inspired by the true story of an enslaved African-American woman, Margaret Garner, whose story Morrison had discovered when compiling ''The Black Book''. Garner had escaped slavery but was pursued by slave hunters. Facing a return to slavery, Garner killed her two-year-old daughter but was captured before she could kill herself. Morrison's novel imagines the dead baby returning as a ghost, Beloved, to haunt her mother and family. ''Beloved'' was a critical success and a bestseller for 25 weeks. ''

'' book reviewer

Michiko Kakutani Michiko Kakutani (born January 9, 1955) is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. Early life ...

wrote that the scene of the mother killing her baby is "so brutal and disturbing that it appears to warp time before and after into a single unwavering line of fate." Canadian writer Margaret Atwood wrote in a review for ''The New York Times'', "Ms. Morrison's versatility and technical and emotional range appear to know no bounds. If there were any doubts about her stature as a pre-eminent American novelist, of her own or any other generation, ''Beloved'' will put them to rest." Not all critics praised ''Beloved'', however. African-American conservative social critic

Stanley Crouch Stanley Lawrence Crouch (December 14, 1945 – September 16, 2020) was an American poet, music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, novelist, and biographer. He was known for his jazz criticism and his 2000 novel ''Don't the Moon Look ...

, for instance, complained in his review in ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'' that the novel "reads largely like a melodrama lashed to the structural conceits of the miniseries," and that Morrison "perpetually interrupts her narrative with maudlin ideological commercials." Despite overall high acclaim, ''Beloved'' failed to win the prestigious

or the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Maya Angelou, protested the omission in a statement that ''

'' published on January 24, 1988. "Despite the international stature of Toni Morrison, she has yet to receive the national recognition that her five major works of fiction entirely deserve," they wrote. Two months later, ''Beloved'' won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It also won an

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

. ''Beloved'' is the first of three novels about love and African-American history, sometimes called the ''Beloved'' Trilogy. Morrison said that they are intended to be read together, explaining, "The conceptual connection is the search for the beloved – the part of the self that is you, and loves you, and is always there for you." The second novel in the trilogy, ''

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

'', came out in 1992. Told in language that imitates the rhythms of jazz music, the novel is about a love triangle during the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. That year she also published her first book of literary criticism, '' Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination'' (1992), an examination of the African-American presence in white American literature. (In 2016, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine noted that ''Playing in the Dark'' was among Morrison's most-assigned texts on U.S. college campuses, together with several of her novels and her 1993

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

lecture.) Before the third novel of the ''Beloved'' Trilogy was published, Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. The citation praised her as an author "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." She was the first Black woman of any nationality to win the prize. In her acceptance speech, Morrison said: "We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." In her Nobel lecture, Morrison talked about the power of storytelling. To make her point, she told a story. She spoke about a blind, old, Black woman who is approached by a group of young people. They demand of her, "Is there no context for our lives? No song, no literature, no poem full of vitamins, no history connected to experience that you can pass along to help us start strong? ... Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story." In 1996, the

selected Morrison for the

, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for "distinguished intellectual achievement in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

."Jefferson Lecturers
at NEH Website. Retrieved January 22, 2009. Morrison's lecture, entitled "The Future of Time: Literature and Diminished Expectations," began with the aphorism: "Time, it seems, has no future." She cautioned against the misuse of history to diminish expectations of the future. Morrison was also honored with the 1996 National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, which is awarded to a writer "who has enriched our literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work." The third novel of her ''Beloved'' Trilogy, ''

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...

'', about citizens of an all-Black town, came out in 1997. The following year, Morrison was on the cover of ''

'' magazine, making her only the second female writer of fiction and second Black writer of fiction to appear on what was perhaps the most significant U.S. magazine cover of the era.

''Beloved'' onscreen and "the Oprah effect"

Also in 1998, the movie adaptation of '' Beloved'' was released, directed by Jonathan Demme and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey, who had spent ten years bringing it to the screen. Winfrey also stars as the main character, Sethe, alongside Danny Glover as Sethe's lover, Paul D, and

Thandiwe Newton Melanie Thandiwe Newton ( ; born 6 November 1972), formerly credited as Thandie Newton, is a British actress. Newton has received various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for ...

as Beloved. The movie flopped at the box office. A review in ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' suggested that "most audiences are not eager to endure nearly three hours of a cerebral film with an original storyline featuring supernatural themes, murder, rape, and slavery." Film critic Janet Maslin, however, in her ''New York Times'' review "No Peace from a Brutal Legacy" called it a "transfixing, deeply felt adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel. ... Its linchpin is of course Oprah Winfrey, who had the clout and foresight to bring 'Beloved' to the screen and has the dramatic presence to hold it together."Another review suggested that Beloved was not a genre ghost story but the supernatural was used to explore deeper issues and the non linear structure of Morrison's story had a purpose. In 1996, television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey selected ''Song of Solomon'' for her newly launched Book Club, which became a popular feature on her '' Oprah Winfrey Show''. An average of 13 million viewers watched the show's book club segments. As a result, when Winfrey selected Morrison's earliest novel ''The Bluest Eye'' in 2000, it sold another 800,000 paperback copies. John Young wrote in the ''

African American Review ''African American Review'' (''AAR'') is a scholarly aggregation of essays on African-American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews. The journal has featured writers and cultural c ...

'' in 2001 that Morrison's career experienced the boost of " The Oprah Effect, ... enabling Morrison to reach a broad, popular audience." Winfrey selected a total of four of Morrison's novels over six years, giving Morrison's novels a bigger sales boost than they got from her Nobel Prize win in 1993. The novelist also appeared three times on Winfrey's show. Winfrey said, "For all those who asked the question 'Toni Morrison again?'... I say with certainty there would have been no Oprah's Book Club if this woman had not chosen to share her love of words with the world." Morrison called the book club a "reading revolution."

The early 21st century

Morrison continued to explore different art forms, such as providing texts for original scores of classical music. She collaborated with André Previn on the song cycle ''Honey and Rue'', which premiered with

Kathleen Battle Kathleen Deanna Battle (born August 13, 1948) is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performance ...

in January 1992, and on ''Four Songs'', premiered at Carnegie Hall with Sylvia McNair in November 1994. Both ''Sweet Talk: Four Songs on Text'' and ''Spirits In the Well'' (1997) were written for

Jessye Norman Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert ...

with music by

Richard Danielpour Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer. Early life Danielpour was born in New York City of Persian Jewish descent and grew up in New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. He studied at Oberlin College and the New E ...

, and, alongside Maya Angelou and Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Morrison provided the text for composer

Judith Weir Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954) is a British composer serving as Master of the King's Music. Appointed in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir is the first woman to hold this office. Biography Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish paren ...

's ''woman.life.song'' commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Jessye Norman, which premiered in April 2000. Morrison returned to Margaret Garner's life story, the basis of her novel ''Beloved'', to write the libretto for a new opera, '' Margaret Garner''. Completed in 2002, with music by Richard Danielpour, the opera was premièred on May 7, 2005, at the

Detroit Opera House The Detroit Opera House is an ornate opera house located at 1526 Broadway Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Grand Circus Park Historic District. The 2,700-seat venue is the home of productions of the Detroit Opera and a variety of ...

with

Denyce Graves Denyce Graves (born March 7, 1964) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. Early life Graves was born on March 7, 1964, in Washington, D.C., to Charles Graves and Dorothy (Middleton) Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and ...

in the title role."Rising Opera Star Angela M. Brown to replace Jessye Norman in World Premiere Production of Margaret Garner"
Michigan Opera Theater, April 1, 2005. . ''

Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

'', Morrison's first novel since ''Paradise'', came out in 2003. In 2004, she put together a children's book called ''Remember'' to mark the 50th anniversary of the ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

'' Supreme Court decision in 1954 that declared racially segregated public schools to be unconstitutional. From 1997 to 2003, Morrison was an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at

. In June 2005, the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

awarded Morrison an honorary

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...

degree. In the spring 2006, ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'' named ''Beloved'' the best work of American fiction published in the previous 25 years, as chosen by a selection of prominent writers, literary critics, and editors. In his essay about the choice, "In Search of the Best," critic A. O. Scott said: "Any other outcome would have been startling since Morrison's novel has inserted itself into the American canon more completely than any of its potential rivals. With remarkable speed, 'Beloved' has, less than 20 years after its publication, become a staple of the college literary curriculum, which is to say a classic. This triumph is commensurate with its ambition since it was Morrison's intention in writing it precisely to expand the range of classic American literature, to enter, as a living Black woman, the company of dead white males like Faulkner, Melville, Hawthorne and

Twain Twain may refer to: People * Mark Twain, pen name of American writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910) * Norman Twain (1930–2016), American film producer * Shania Twain (born 1965), Canadian singer-songwriter Places * Twain, California, a ...

." In November 2006, Morrison visited the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

museum in Paris as the second in its "Grand Invité" program to guest-curate a month-long series of events across the arts on the theme of "The Foreigner's Home", about which ''The New York Times'' said: "In tapping her own African-American culture, Ms. Morrison is eager to credit 'foreigners' with enriching the countries where they settle." Morrison's novel '' A Mercy'', released in 2008, is set in the Virginia colonies of 1682.

Diane Johnson Diane Johnson (born Diane Lain, April 28, 1934), is an American novelist and essayist whose satirical novels often feature American heroines living abroad in contemporary France. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her novel ''Persian ...

, in her review in '' Vanity Fair'', called ''A Mercy'' "a poetic, visionary, mesmerizing tale that captures, in the cradle of our present problems and strains, the natal curse put on us back then by the Indian tribes, Africans, Dutch, Portuguese, and English competing to get their footing in the New World against a hostile landscape and the essentially tragic nature of human experience."

Princeton years

From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Morrison held the Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. She said she did not think much of modern fiction writers who reference their own lives instead of inventing new material, and she used to tell her creative writing students, "I don't want to hear about your little life, OK?" Similarly, she chose not to write about her own life in a memoir or autobiography. Though based in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton, Morrison did not regularly offer writing workshops to students after the late 1990s, a fact that earned her some criticism. Rather, she conceived and developed the Princeton Atelier, a program that brings together students with writers and performing artists. Together the students and the artists produce works of art that are presented to the public after a semester of collaboration. Toni Morrison 2008-2

Inspired by her curatorship at the Louvre Museum, Morrison returned to Princeton in the fall 2008 to lead a small seminar, also entitled "The Foreigner's Home". On November 17, 2017, Princeton University dedicated Morrison Hall (a building previously called West College) in her honor.

Final years: 2010–2019

In May 2010, Morrison appeared at PEN World Voices for a conversation with

Marlene van Niekerk Marlene van Niekerk (born 10 November 1954) is a South African poet, writer, and academic. She is best known for her novels, the satirical tragicomedy ''Triomf'' (1994) and the Herzog-winning ''Agaat'' (2004), which explore themes including the ...

and Kwame Anthony Appiah about South African literature and specifically van Niekerk's 2004 novel ''Agaat''. Morrison wrote books for children with her younger son, Slade Morrison, who was a painter and a musician. Slade died of pancreatic cancer on December 22, 2010, aged 45, when Morrison's novel '' Home'' (2012) was half-completed. In May 2011, Morrison received an Honorary

degree from

Rutgers University–New Brunswick Rutgers University–New Brunswick is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, New Jersey's public research university. It is located in New Brunswick and Piscataway. It is the oldest campus of the university, the others bein ...

. During the commencement ceremony, she delivered a speech on the "pursuit of life, liberty, meaningfulness, integrity, and truth." ToniMorrison WestPointLecture 2013

In 2011, Morrison worked with opera director

Peter Sellars Peter Sellars (born September 27, 1957) is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays. Sellars is professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where ...

and

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

an singer-songwriter

Rokia Traoré Rokia Traoré (born 24. January 1974) is a Malian-born singer, songwriter and guitarist. She made six albums between 1998 and 2016. ''Bowmboï'' (2003) won the Critics Award category at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2004 and ''Tcham ...

on ''

Desdemona Desdemona () is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian ...

'', taking a fresh look at

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's tragedy '' Othello''. The trio focused on the relationship between Othello's wife

and her African nursemaid, Barbary, who is only briefly referenced in Shakespeare. The play, a mix of words, music and song, premiered in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 2011. Morrison had stopped working on her latest novel when her son died in 2010, later explaining, "I stopped writing until I began to think, He would be really put out if he thought that he had caused me to stop. 'Please, Mom, I'm dead, could you keep going ...? She completed '' Home'' and dedicated it to her son Slade. Published in 2012, it is the story of a

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

veteran in the segregated United States of the 1950s who tries to save his sister from brutal medical experiments at the hands of a white doctor. In August 2012, Oberlin College became the home base of the Toni Morrison Society, an international literary society founded in 1993, dedicated to scholarly research of Morrison's work. Morrison's eleventh novel, '' God Help the Child'', was published in 2015. It follows Bride, an executive in the fashion and beauty industry whose mother tormented her as a child for being dark-skinned, a trauma that has continued to dog Bride. Morrison was a member of the editorial advisory board of ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'', a magazine started in 1865 by Northern abolitionists.

Personal life

While teaching at Howard University from 1957 to 1964, she met Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect, whom she married in 1958. She took his last name and became known as Toni Morrison. Their first son, Harold Ford, was born in 1961 (who is married to the economist Cecilia Rouse). She was pregnant when she and Harold divorced in 1964. Her second son, Slade Kevin, was born in 1965. Morrison began working as an editor for L.W. Singer Company, a textbook division of Random House in Syracuse, New York. She moved with her sons as her career took her to different positions in different places. Her son Slade Morrison died of pancreatic cancer on December 22, 2010, when Morrison was halfway through writing her novel '' Home.'' She stopped work on the novel for a year or two before completing it; that novel was published in 2012.

Death and memorial

Morrison died at Montefiore Medical Center in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York City, on August 5, 2019, from complications of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

. She was 88 years old. A memorial tribute was held for Morrison on November 21, 2019, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in New York City. At this gathering she was eulogized by, among others, Oprah Winfrey,

Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...

David Remnick David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer and editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book '' Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'', and is also the author of ''Resurrection'' and ''King of th ...

, Fran Lebowitz,

Ta-Nehisi Coates Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates ( ; born September 30, 1975) is an American author and journalist. He gained a wide readership during his time as national correspondent at ''The Atlantic'', where he wrote about cultural, social, and political issues, parti ...

, and Edwidge Danticat. The jazz saxophonist David Murray performed a musical tribute.

Politics, literary reception, and legacy

Politics

Morrison was not afraid to comment on American politics and race relations. In writing about the 1998

impeachment of Bill Clinton Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, was impeached by the United States House of Representatives of the 105th United States Congress on December 19, 1998, for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The House adopted two articles ...

, she claimed that since

Whitewater Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

was being mistreated in the same way Black people often are: The phrase "our first Black president" was adopted as a positive by Bill Clinton supporters. When the

Congressional Black Caucus The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is a caucus made up of most African-American members of the United States Congress. Representative Karen Bass from California chaired the caucus from 2019 to 2021; she was succeeded by Representative Joyce B ...

honored the former president at its dinner in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 2001, for instance, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), the chair, told the audience that Clinton "took so many initiatives he made us think for a while we had elected the first black president." In the context of the 2008 Democratic Primary campaign, Morrison stated to ''

'' magazine: "People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race." In the Democratic primary contest for the 2008 presidential race, Morrison endorsed Senator

over Senator

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

, though expressing admiration and respect for the latter. When he won, Morrison said she felt like an American for the first time. She said, "I felt very powerfully patriotic when I went to the inauguration of Barack Obama. I felt like a kid." In April 2015, speaking of the deaths of Michael Brown,

Eric Garner On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the incide ...

and

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

– three unarmed Black men killed by white police officers – Morrison said: "People keep saying, 'We need to have a conversation about race.' This is the conversation. I want to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back. And I want to see a white man convicted for raping a Black woman. Then when you ask me, 'Is it over?', I will say yes." After the 2016 election of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

as President of the United States, Morrison wrote an essay, "Mourning for Whiteness," published in the November 21, 2016 issue of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. In it she argues that white Americans are so afraid of losing privileges afforded them by their race that white voters elected Trump, whom she described as being "endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan", in order to keep the idea of

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

alive.

Relationship to feminism

Although her novels typically concentrate on black women, Morrison did not identify her works as feminist. When asked in a 1998 interview, "Why distance oneself from feminism?" she replied: "In order to be as free as I possibly can, in my own imagination, I can't take positions that are closed. Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book – leaving the endings open for reinterpretation, revisitation, a little ambiguity." She went on to state that she thought it "off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things." In 2012, she responded to a question about the difference between black and white feminists in the 1970s. "

Womanists Womanism is a social theory based on the history and everyday experiences of Black women. It seeks, according to womanist scholar Layli Maparyan (Phillips), to "restore the balance between people and the environment/nature and reconcil human ...

is what black feminists used to call themselves," she explained. "They were not the same thing. And also the relationship with men. Historically, black women have always sheltered their men because they were out there, and they were the ones that were most likely to be killed." W. S. Kottiswari writes in ''Postmodern Feminist Writers'' (2008) that Morrison exemplifies characteristics of "

postmodern feminism Postmodern feminism is a mix of post-structuralism, postmodernism, and French feminism. The goal of postmodern feminism is to destabilize the patriarchal norms entrenched in society that have led to gender inequality. Postmodern feminists see ...

" by "altering Euro-American dichotomies by rewriting a history written by mainstream historians" and by her usage of shifting narration in ''Beloved'' and ''Paradise''. Kottiswari states: "Instead of western logocentric abstractions, Morrison prefers the powerful vivid language of women of color ... She is essentially postmodern since her approach to myth and folklore is re-visionist."

National Memorial for Peace and Justice

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, includes writing by Morrison. Visitors can see her quote after they have walked through the section commemorating individual victims of lynching.

Papers

The Toni Morrison Papers are part of the permanent library collections of Princeton University, where they are held in the Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.{{cite web, url=https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S41/34/81I56/index.xml?section=topstories, title=Toni Morrison papers to reside at Princeton, date=October 17, 2014, publisher=Princeton University Office of Communication Morrison's decision to offer her papers to Princeton instead of to her alma mater Howard University was criticized by some within the

historically black colleges and universities Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...

community.

Toni Morrison Day

In 2019, a resolution was passed in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio, to designate February 18, her birthday, as "Toni Morrison Day." Additional legislation was introduced to also proclaim that date as "Toni Morrison Day" throughout the

State of Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. The legislation, HB 325, was passed by the

Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in Ch ...

on December 2, 2020 and signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine on December 21, 2020.

Documentary films

Morrison was interviewed by Margaret Busby in a 1988 documentary film by Sindamani Bridglal, entitled ''Identifiable Qualities'', shown on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

. Morrison was the subject of a film titled ''Imagine – Toni Morrison Remembers'', directed by Jill Nicholls and shown on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

television on July 15, 2015, in which Morrison talked to

Alan Yentob Alan Yentob (born 11 March 1947) is a BBC presenter and retired British television executive. He stepped down as Creative Director in December 2015, and was chairman of the board of trustees of the charity Kids Company from 2003 until its colla ...

about her life and work. In 2016, Oberlin College received a grant to complete a documentary film begun in 2014, ''The Foreigner's Home'', about Morrison's intellectual and artistic vision, explored in the context of the 2006 exhibition she guest-curated at the Louvre. The film's executive producer was Jonathan Demme. It was directed by Oberlin College Cinema Studies faculty Geoff Pingree and Rian Brown, and incorporates footage shot by Morrison's first-born son Harold Ford Morrison, who also consulted on the film. In 2019, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' documentary '' Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am'' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. People featured in the film include Morrison,

, Oprah Winfrey,

Sonia Sanchez Sonia Sanchez (born Wilsonia Benita Driver; September 9, 1934) is an American poet, writer, and professor. She was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement and has written over a dozen books of poetry, as well as short stories, critical essays ...

, and

Walter Mosley Walter Ellis Mosley (born January 12, 1952) is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private inv ...

, among others.

Awards and nominations

Awards

* 1977:

American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headq ...

Award * 1982: Ohio Women's Hall of Fame inductee * 1988: Robert F. Kennedy Book Award * 1988: Helmerich Award * 1988: American Book Award for '' Beloved'' * 1988:

in Race Relations for ''Beloved'' * 1988: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for ''Beloved'' * 1988: Frederic G. Melcher Book Award for ''Beloved''{{Efn, A remark in her acceptance speech that "there is no suitable memorial or plaque or wreath or wall or park or skyscraper lobby" honoring the memory of the human beings forced into slavery and brought to the United States; "There's no small bench by the road," led the Toni Morrison Society to begin installing benches at significant sites in the history of slavery in America; the first "bench by the road" was dedicated July 26, 2008, on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, the point of entry for about 40 percent of the enslaved Africans brought to Colonial America. * 1988: Honorary Doctor of Laws at

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

* 1989: Honorary Doctor of Letters at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

* 1993: Nobel Prize in Literature * 1993: Commander of the Arts and Letters, Paris * 1994: Condorcet Medal, Paris * 1994: Rhegium Julii Prize for Literature * 1996:

* 1996: National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters *1997: Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Gustavus Adolphus College. * 2000:

National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the human ...

* 2002: 100 Greatest African Americans, list by Molefi Kete Asante * 2005: Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...

* 2005: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

* 2008: New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee * 2009: Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement * 2010: Officier de la

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

* 2010: Institute for Arts and Humanities Medal for Distinguished Contributions to the Arts and Humanities from the Pennsylvania State University * 2011:

Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction (formerly the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction and Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for the Writing of Fiction) is an annual book award presented by the Librarian ...

* 2011: Honorary Doctor of Letters at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

Graduation Commencement * 2011: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...

* 2012:

* 2013: The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal awarded by

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

* 2013: Honorary Doctorate of Literature awarded by

* 2013: PEN Oakland – Josephine Miles Literary Award for '' Home'' * 2013: Writer in Residence at the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

* 2014:

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award The Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, established in 1981, is an annual literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle in honor of its first president, Ivan Sandrof. The award "is given to a person or institution who has, over ...

given by the

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...

{{cite web, url=http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/national-book-critics-circle-announces-its-finalists-for-publishing-year-20, title=National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists for Publishing Year 2014, date=January 19, 2015, publisher=

, access-date=January 29, 2015 * 2016: PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction * 2016: The Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry (The Norton Lectures), Harvard University * 2016: The Edward MacDowell Medal, awarded by the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowel ...

*2018: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by The American Philosophical Society *2020: National Women's Hall of Fame inductee *2020: Designation of "Toni Morrison Day" in Ohio, to be celebrated annually on her birthday, February 18 *2021: Featured on "Cleveland is the Reason" mural in downtown Cleveland (with other notable Cleveland area figures) *2023: Featured on a USPS Forever stamp, designed by art director Ethel Kessler with photography by Deborah Feingold

Nominations

* Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children (2008) – ''Who's Got Game? The Ant or the Grasshopper? The Lion or the Mouse? Poppy or the Snake?''

Bibliography

Novels

* {{Cite book, title=The Bluest Eye, date=1970, isbn=0-452-28706-5, title-link=The Bluest Eye, last1=Morrison, first1=Toni * {{Cite book, title=Sula, date=1973, isbn=1-4000-3343-8, title-link=Sula (novel), last1=Morrison, first1=Toni * {{Cite book, title=Song of Solomon, date=1977, isbn=1-4000-3342-X, title-link=Song of Solomon (novel), last1=Morrison, first1=Toni * {{Cite book, title=Tar Baby, date=1981, isbn=1-4000-3344-6, title-link=Tar Baby (novel), last1=Morrison, first1=Toni * {{Cite book, title=Beloved, date=1987, isbn=1-4000-3341-1, title-link=Beloved (novel), last1=Morrison, first1=Toni * {{Cite book , title= Jazz , date= 1992 , isbn= 1-4000-7621-8, title-link= Jazz (novel), last1=Morrison, first1= Toni * {{Cite book , title= Paradise , date= 1997 , isbn= 0-679-43374-0, title-link= Paradise (Morrison novel) , last1= Morrison, first1= Toni * {{Cite book , title= Love , date= 2003 , isbn= 0-375-40944-0, title-link= Love (Morrison novel) , last1= Morrison, first1= Toni * {{Cite book , title= A Mercy , date= 2008 , isbn= 978-0-307-26423-7, title-link= A Mercy , last1= Morrison, first1= Toni * {{Cite book , title=Home , date=2012 , isbn=978-0-307-59416-7 , title-link=Home (Morrison novel) , last1=Morrison , first1=Toni * {{Cite book , title=God Help the Child , date=2015 , isbn=978-0-307-59417-4 , title-link=God Help the Child , last1=Morrison , first1=Toni

Children's books (with Slade Morrison)

* ''The Big Box'' (1999). {{ISBN, 978-0-7868-2364-2. * ''The Book of Mean People'' (2002). {{ISBN, 978-0-7868-0540-2. * ''Remember: The Journey to School Integration'' (2004). {{ISBN, 978-0-618-39740-2. * ''Who's Got Game? The Ant or the Grasshopper?, The Lion or the Mouse?, Poppy or the Snake?'' (2007). {{ISBN, 978-0-7432-8391-5. * ''Peeny Butter Fudge'' (2009). {{ISBN, 978-1-4424-5900-7. * ''Little Cloud and Lady Wind'' (2010). {{ISBN, 1-4169-8523-9. * ''Please, Louise'' (2014). {{ISBN, 978-1-4169-8338-5.

Short fiction

* " Recitatif" (1983) A hardback book version, with an introduction by Zadie Smith, was published in February 2022 (US: Knopf; UK: Chatto & Windus). * {{cite magazine , date=February 9, 2015 , title=Sweetness , magazine=The New Yorker , volume=90 , issue=47 , pages=58–61 , url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/sweetness-2 , access-date=September 17, 2019

Plays

* ''N'Orleans: The Storyville Musical (''aka ''New Orleans)'' (performed 1982) with Donald McKayle * '' Dreaming Emmett'' (performed 1986) * ''Desdemona'' (first performed May 15, 2011, in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

)

Poetry

* ''Five Poems'' (2002, limited edition book with illustrations by

Kara Walker Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best ...

)

Libretto

* '' Margaret Garner'' (first performed May 2005)

Non-fiction

*''Foreword, The Black Photographers Annual Volume 1'', edited by Joe Crawford (1973), {{OCLC, 1783715 *''Foreword and Preface,'' ''The Black Book'' edited by Harris, Levitt, Furman and Smith.

(1974), {{ISBN, 978-1-4000-6848-7 *Foreword, Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality. Pantheon Books (1992), {{ISBN, 978-0-679-74145-9 *Co-editor, ''Birth of a Nation'hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O.J. Simpson Case'' (1997), {{ISBN, 978-0-307-48226-6 * ''Remember: The Journey to School Integration'' (2004), {{ISBN, 978-0-618-39740-2 *'' Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination'' (2007), {{ISBN, 978-0-307-38863-6{{Cite book , last=Morrison , first=Toni , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2dVas48cQNgC , title=Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination , date=2007 , publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group , isbn=978-0-307-38863-6 * ''What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction'', edited by Carolyn C. Denard (2008), {{ISBN, 978-1-60473-017-3 * Editor (2009), '' Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word'', {{ISBN, 978-0-06-187881-7 * ''The Origin of Others'' – The

Charles Eliot Norton Lectures The Charles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetry at Harvard University was established in 1925 as an annual lectureship in "poetry in the broadest sense" and named for the university's former professor of fine arts. Distinguished creative figure ...

, Harvard University Press (2017), {{ISBN, 978-0-674-97645-0 *''Goodness and the Literary Imagination: Harvard Divinity School's 95th Ingersoll Lecture: With Essays on Morrison's Moral and Religious Vision''. Edited by Davíd Carrasco, Stephanie Paulsell, and Mara Willard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press (2019) *''The Source of Self-Regard: Essays, Speeches, Meditations''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (2019), {{ISBN, 978-0-525-52103-7. UK edition published as ''Mouth Full of Blood: Essays, Speeches, Meditations'', London: Chatto & Windus (2019), {{ISBN, 978-1-78474-285-0

Articles

* "Introduction." Mark Twain, ''

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United S ...

''. 885''The Oxford Mark Twain'', edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. xxxii–xli.

Notes

{{Notelist

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

{{Library resources box, by=yes, viaf=109406177 *{{Wikiquote-inline *{{Commons category-inline
"Toni Morrison: Beloved"
From the ''Bookworm'' archives, August 15, 2019.
Bookworm
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140607063918/http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw, date=June 7, 2014 Interviews (Audio) with

Michael Silverblatt Michael Silverblatt (born August 6, 1952) is a literary critic and American broadcaster who hosted '' Bookworm'', a nationally syndicated radio program focusing on books and literature, from 1989 to 2022. ''Bookworm'' is broadcast by Los Angeles ...

* {{Cite journal, url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1888/the-art-of-fiction-no-134-toni-morrison, title=Toni Morrison, The Art of Fiction No. 134, first1=Elissa, last1=Schappell, first2=Claudia, last2=Brodsky Lacour, date=Fall 1993, journal=

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phil ...

, volume=Fall 1993, issue=128 * {{IMDb name * {{C-SPAN * {{Charlie Rose guest, 1194 * {{Nobelprize
Toni Morrison at Random House Australia
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726080411/http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Authors/Default.aspx?Page=Author&ID=Morrison,%20Toni, date=July 26, 2008 * {{Guardian topic * {{New York Times topic, new_id=person/toni-morrison
Toni Morrison's oral history video excerpts
at The National Visionary Leadership Project

a
Princeton University Library Special Collections

Toni Morrison "Reading the Writing: A Conversation with Toni Morrison"
(Cornell University video, March 7, 2013)
Toni Morrison Society
based at Oberlin College * {{WorldCat id, lccn-n80-131379 * {{OL author, id=OL31120A {{Navboxes, list1= {{Toni Morrison {{Nobel Prize in Literature {{1993 Nobel Prize winners {{Ohio Women's Hall of Fame {{PulitzerPrize Fiction {{American Book Awards {{National Women's Hall of Fame {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Toni 1931 births 2019 deaths 20th-century African-American women 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century essayists 21st-century African-American women 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers African-American academics African-American Catholics African-American children's writers African-American educators African-American feminists African-American novelists African-American women musicians African-American women writers American academic administrators American Book Award winners American book editors American children's writers American feminist writers American Nobel laureates American opera librettists American women academics American women children's writers American women essayists American women novelists Bard College faculty Catholics from Ohio Catholics from Texas Converts to Roman Catholicism from Protestantism Cornell University alumni Deaths from pneumonia in New York City Howard University alumni Magic realism writers Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Members of the American Philosophical Society National Humanities Medal recipients Nobel laureates in Literature Novelists from New Jersey Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Ohio PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award winners People from Lorain, Ohio Postmodern feminists Postmodern writers Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Princeton University faculty Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners The New Yorker people University at Albany, SUNY faculty Women Nobel laureates Women opera librettists Writers from Houston Writers from New York City Writers from Ohio Writers from Syracuse, New York