Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize in Literature (Wikipedia.jpg)
Toni Morrison
First African American Woman to receive the
Nobel Prize for Literature
In her acceptance speech at the Nobel banquet, Toni Morrison said, “We die. That may be the meaning of life, but we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” That is how important she considered writing.
She was the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, but she won a host of other awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved, which was made into a movie in 1998.
While a student at Howard University, Morrison participated in the theater group and traveled to the Deep South where she witnessed racism, which wasn’t part of her growing-up years. She also joined a group of writers. At one meeting she read a short story about a Black girl who wanted blue eyes. She later expanded the story to become The Bluest Eye, her first published novel. In her writings, she concentrated on revealing the Black experience and racism. She sought the company of Black intellectuals and became the first African American woman editor of fiction at Random House in New York. In this capacity, she brought Black literature to the mainstream.
She taught English at two branches of the State University of New York and at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She served as the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Chair in Humanities in Albany, New York for five years.
A FASCINATING FACT: When she was 12, Morrison joined the Catholic church and took the name Anthony in honor of St. Anthony of Padua, thus her name Toni. Other family members were Catholic, and she was drawn to that religion.
Bio
- Born – February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio; birth name: Chloe Ardelia Wofford; 2nd of four children
- Parents – Father, George Wofford; mother, Ramah Willis Wofford
- 1949 – Graduated from Lorain High School
- 1953 – Bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in the classics, Howard University, Washington, D.C.
- 1955 – Master’s degree in American literature from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
- 1995 – Honorary Doctor of Letters degree, Howard University
Career
- 1955-57 – Taught English and humanities at Texas Southern University, Houston
- 1958-64 – Taught English at Howard University
- 1970 – The Bluest Eye, her first published novel
- 1973 – Sula, her second published novel; nominated for the National Book Award
- 1977 – Song of Solomon, won the National Book Critics Circle Award
- 1987 – Beloved, her most celebrated novel
- 1988 – Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved
- 1989 – Princeton University Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities
- 1993 – Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
- 1996 – Oprah Winfrey chose Song of Solomon as her first Book Club choice
- 2012 – President Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
- 2016 – PEN/Saul Bellow Award for achievement in American fiction
- 2020 – National Women’s Hall of Fame
Personal
- 1958 – Married Harold Morrison, an architect from Jamaica
- 1961 – Son Harold Ford born; an architect
- 1965 – Son Slade Kevin born; artist and musician; died in 2010
- 1964 – Divorced; she was pregnant with Slade when she divorced Harold
Morrison died August 5, 2019 in the Bronx, New York at the age of 88
Further information
www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3534.Toni_Morrison
https://aas.princeton.edu/people/toni-morrison
Toni Morrison Was Baptized a Catholic and Was Moved by the ‘Beauty’ of Pope Francis – RELEVANT
My ebooks available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com:
Honoring 23 Black Women, Recognizing 23 Notable Mothers, Saluting 23 Faithful Suffragists
