Morrison, Toni (1931-2019), an African American novelist, won the 1993 Nobel Prize in literature. The Nobel Committee cited Morrison for novels that give “life to an essential aspect of American reality.”
Morrison won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her fifth novel, Beloved (1987). The novel tells the story of a former slave haunted by memories of her life in bondage and the baby she killed to save the child from slavery. Beloved demonstrates Morrison’s lyrical style, vivid characterizations, and ability to persuade readers to accept the unusual as real.
Morrison’s novels are united by a focus on the powerful influence of history and community on African Americans’ lives. Her first two novels, The Bluest Eye (1970) and Sula (1973), explore the lives of black women and girls. Song of Solomon (1977) traces a young man’s quest for selfhood, which he eventually gains by reclaiming his family history. In Tar Baby (1981), a black couple fail to sustain their relationship because of class differences. In Jazz (1992), Morrison wove the rhythms and language of jazz into a story about a disastrous love triangle. Paradise (1998) and Love (2003) explore the power struggles and conflicting personalities that cause painful and at times violent divisions in communities. A Mercy (2008) is set in colonial New York and Maryland during the early years of the slave trade in the 1680’s and 1690’s. In Home (2012), Morrison described a bitter veteran of the Korean War (1950-1953) who returns to his hometown in Georgia with his seriously ill sister. God Help the Child (2015) explores the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult.
Morrison’s other writings include essays about race, history, politics, literature, and gender issues in the United States. Many of them were collected in The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations (2019). She also wrote children’s books. Her only short story is Recitatif (1983; published as a book in 2022). The story is a thought experiment about encounters between two friends, one Black and one white, but the reader is not told which is which.
Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford on Feb. 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio. She married Harold Morrison in 1958. The couple divorced in 1964. In 2012, Morrison was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor awarded by the president of the United States. Morrison died on Aug. 5, 2019.
