Toni Morrison

African American novelist, essayist, and academic (1931-2019) · United States · Writers · Died at 88

Toni Morrison is read about 2,588 times a day, in 112 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.

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She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, the first Black woman to do so, for novels that traced the interior lives carved and scarred by American racism - work that made the unspoken consequences of the country's oldest violence impossible to ignore.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Fiction Poetry United States Americas 20th Century

A life in dates

2019Died5 August 20192014Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement AwardAward2013PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary AwardAward2011Library of Congress Prize for American FictionAward2009Norman Mailer PrizeAward2007Doctor Honoris Causa from the Paris-Sorbonne UniversityAward2004NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, FictionAward2000National Humanities MedalAward1996Jefferson LectureAward1993Honorary Doctorate from the University of Paris-VIIAward1992“In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.”In their words29 January 1992The Guardian (29 January 1992)Read the whole statement

1989“Beginning Beloved with numerals rather than spelled out numbers, it was my intention to give the house an identity separate from the street or even the city...”In their words"Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature" in Michigan Quarterly Review 28, no. 1 (Winter 1989)Read the whole statement

Robert F. Goheen Professor in the HumanitiesOffice1988Anisfield-Wolf Book AwardsAwardPulitzer Prize for FictionAward1982Ohio Women's Hall of FameAward1981“Was there anything so loathsome as a wilfully innocent man? Hardly. An innocent man is a sin before God. Inhuman and therefore untrustworthy.”In their wordsTar Baby (1981)Read the whole statement

“Writing to me is an advanced and slow form of reading. If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”In their wordsSeptember 1981Morrison said this in her talk at the annual meeting of the Ohio Arts Council in Cincinnati in September 1981. Variants, unsourced:Read the whole statement

1979“Women's rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about "us"; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.”In their wordsMay 1979Commencement address at Barnard College (May 1979) as quoted in Ms. magazine (September 1979)Read the whole statement

1978Honorary Degree from Spelman CollegeAward1977Janet Heidinger Kafka PrizeAward1969“Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty.”In their wordsThe Bluest Eye (1969) First linesRead the whole statement

1931Born18 February 1931

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Toni Morrison

Autografo di Toni Morrison (Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne di Bologna, cropped)

Beloved (1987 1st ed dust jacket cover)

Broadway director Harold Prince receives the Golden Plate award from Nobel laureate Toni Morrison at the American Academy of Achievement’s 46th annual International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 23, 2007

BurnThisBook

Capa livro O olho mais azul de Toni Morrison

Estelle Minor with Toni Morrison

Feb18 pending Woman of the Day

In their own words 10

Toni Morrison

10 statements, newest first

In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.
Jan 29, 1992, The Guardian (29 January 1992), Own words
Beginning Beloved with numerals rather than spelled out numbers, it was my intention to give the house an identity separate from the street or even the city...
1989, "Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature" in Michigan Quarterly Review 28, no. 1 (Winter 1989), Own words
All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
1989, As quoted in Grace Notes (1989) by Rita Dove, Own words

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Awards

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award2014

The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal2013

PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award2013

Presidential Medal of Freedom2012

Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction2011

Carl Sandburg Literary Award2010

Norman Mailer Prize2009

New Jersey Hall of Fame2008

Doctor Honoris Causa from the Paris-Sorbonne University2007

Coretta Scott King Award2005

NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction2004

Honorary Doctorate from ENS2003

National Humanities Medal2000

Jefferson Lecture1996

Nobel Prize in Literature1993

Honorary Doctorate from the University of Paris-VII1993

Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service1989

American Book Awards1988

Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards1988

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction1988

Helmerich Award1988

Ohio Women's Hall of Fame1982

Langston Hughes Medal1981

Honorary Degree from Spelman College1978

Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize1977

National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction1977

Knight of the Legion of Honour

Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres

Library of Congress Living Legend

Honorary doctor of the University of Oxford

Honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva

Audie Award for Narration by the Author or Authors

In their orbit

Spouse: Harold Morrison

About this person

Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, in 1931, she studied English at Howard and earned a master's in American Literature from Cornell in 1955. After returning to Howard, marrying, having two children, and divorcing in 1964, she moved to New York and became the first Black female fiction editor at Random House in the late 1960s. Her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, appeared in 1970. Song of Solomon brought national attention in 1977 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Beloved, published in 1987, earned the Pulitzer Prize the following year and was adapted into film a decade later. The Jefferson Lecture, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame followed before her death in August 2019.

Country

United States

In common with Toni

Oprah WinfreyAlso in Beloved (1998)

Jason RobardsAlso in Beloved (1998)

Wes BentleyAlso in Beloved (1998)

Thandiwe NewtonAlso in Beloved (1998)

William FaulknerBoth received Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Orhan PamukBoth received Norman Mailer Prize

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