World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Toni Morrison

トニ・モリソン

Toni Morrison

Aliases: Chloe Ardelia Wofford / Chloe Anthony Wofford
Pen Names: Toni Morrison（Common pen name / professional name used publicly）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1931-02-18 （Lorain, Ohio, U.S.）
Died
2019-08-05 （The Bronx, New York City, U.S. (Montefiore Medical Center)） age 88
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Catholic Baptized in 1943 （Baptismal Name: Anthony）
Residence History
Lorain, Ohio (birthplace and childhood) → Washington, D.C. (attended Howard University) → Ithaca, New York (attended Cornell University) → New York City (editor and writer) → Nyack, New York (residence while writing) → Princeton, New Jersey (professorship)

Career

Occupations
novelist, essayist, children's writer, editor, professor
Active Years
1953-2019
Affiliations
Random House (senior editor, fiction), Princeton University (Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities), Multiple honorary positions at academic institutions
Influenced By
Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner
Influenced
Zadie Smith, Colson Whitehead, Generation of contemporary Black writers (collective), Toni Cade Bambara (mentored/promoted)

Education

Howard University
English (minor: Classics) / English
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1949–1953
Year of Graduation: 1953
Country: United States
Originally enrolled in drama; participated in the Howard Players
Cornell University
Master's program in American Literature / English
Degree: M.A.
Period: 1953–1955
Year of Graduation: 1955
Country: United States
Master's thesis on Virginia Woolf's and William Faulkner's treatment of the alienated

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature
1993
Organization: The Nobel Committee
Result: winner
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1988
Work: Beloved
Category: Fiction
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: winner
National Book Critics Circle Award
1977
Work: Song of Solomon
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: winner
Presidential Medal of Freedom
2012
Organization: The White House
Result: recipient
National Humanities Medal
2000
Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities
Result: recipient
PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction
2016
Organization: PEN America
Result: winner
National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
1996
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: recipient
Coretta Scott King Award
2005
Work: Remember: The Journey to School Integration
Organization: American Library Association
Result: winner
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (Race Relations)
1988
Work: Beloved
Category: Race Relations
Organization: Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Bluest Eye

1970 Literary fiction 224 pages

A novel about a young Black girl's longing for blue eyes and the destructive effects of racism and internalized beauty standards.

race and beauty standardsidentityfamily and trauma

Sula

1973 Literary fiction 192 pages

A story of friendship and conflict between two Black women that examines community, morality, and femininity.

friendshipcommunitywomanhood

Song of Solomon

1977 Literary fiction 352 pages

Follows the life of Milkman Dead III as he discovers his family history and identity.

heritage and rootsself-discoveryfamily narrative

Tar Baby

1981 Literary fiction 216 pages

A contemporary novel exploring love, cultural conflict, and questions of appearance and identity.

love and desirecultural identity

Beloved

1987 Historical fiction / Literary fiction 324 pages

A masterpiece that mixes ghostly elements with the traumatic legacy of slavery, inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner.

memory of slaverymotherhood and sacrificetrauma and healing
Adaptations
  • [Film] Beloved / Jonathan Demme (1998)

Bibliography

  • The Bluest Eye (1970)
  • Sula (1973)
  • Song of Solomon (1977)
  • Tar Baby (1981)
  • Beloved (1987)
  • Jazz (1992)
  • Paradise (1997)
  • Love (2003)
  • A Mercy (2008)
  • Home (2012)
  • God Help the Child (2015)

Adaptations

  • Beloved (1998 film)
  • Margaret Garner (2005 opera)
  • Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019 documentary)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
poetic and symbolic proseoral-rhythm influenced languagenon-linear, polyphonic narration
Recurring Motifs
memory and ghostsmotherhood and familial debtsrace and identity

Health

  • Pneumonia
    2019
    Contributed to complications leading to death

Legacy

Toni Morrison articulated the Black American experience and firmly placed the perspective of Black women into the American literary canon; she was also influential as an editor who promoted a generation of Black writers.

Museums

  • Toni Morrison: Sites of Memory (exhibition at Princeton University) Princeton University, New Jersey, U.S. Opened in 2023

Academic Societies

  • Toni Morrison Society

Archives

  • Princeton University Library Special Collections (Toni Morrison Papers)

In Popular Culture

  • USPS Forever stamp (2023)
  • Featured in public murals (e.g., Cleveland) and memorials

Quotes

  • "We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."
    Source: Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1993) (1993)

Trivia

  • Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford.
  • Converted to Catholicism at age 12 and took the baptismal name Anthony, which led to the nickname 'Toni'.
  • Worked as a fiction editor at Random House and helped bring Black writers to wider attention.