Toni Morrison Biography and latest books by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison was born as Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931. She is an author, editor and a professor. She’s known for her grand style of narration, bright dialogues and the mystic elements in her books. Winner of Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize, she’s also known for her detailed realistic depiction of gender, race and class conflicts.

Toni Morrison was born to George and Ramah Wofford in Lorain, Ohio. She was the second child of the four Wofford children. Reading was one of her favorite thing to do as a child. She loved to read the works of Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy.

She joined Howard University in the year 1949 to pursue her B.A and later graduated from Howard in the year 1954. She went on to get her Masters Degree in English from Cornell University in the year 1955. After earning her Masters Degree in English she worked as an English instructor at Texas Southern University in Houston Texas from the year 1955 to 1957. She later returned to Howard University to teach English.


Toni got married to Harold Morrison In the year 1958. They were blessed with two children, Harold and Slade. The couple however got divorced in 1964. Following the divorce, she took her two children with her to Syracuse, New York where she worked as an editor in New York City headquarters of the Random House. During her time as an editor, she edited books for authors like Angela Davis, Toni Cade Bambara and Gayl Jones.

In the year 1970, her first novel, The Bluest Eyes, was published. The story revolved around a black girl who always wanted to have blue eyes. Following The Bluest Eye, her second novel was published in 1973 and was later nominated for National Book Award in 1975. But Toni Morrison tasted real success when her third novel, Song of Solomon was published in 1977. This book won her the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Her next novel which was out in 1987 called Beloved became a huge success and won her critical success. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award for her novel Beloved. The novel was further made into a movie in 1998 starring Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey. The novel was also named the Best American Novel in the last twenty five years by The New York Times Book Review, in the year 2006.

Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature in the year 1993. She was also honored with the National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in the year 1996. At present she is a member of the editorial board for the magazine - The Nation.

Submitted by: Precious Pheirim

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