Toni Morrison (real name: Chloe Anthony
Wofford) was born in Lorain, Ohio and raised in a working-class family. Folktales,
storytelling and songs of the black community were part and parcel of
Morrison’s childhood. Her early fascination with literature and history was
becoming stronger and stronger.
She attended Howard University in Washington (B.A.
in English, 1953) and Cornell University (M.A. in English, 1955 – her thesis
was dedicated to the theme of suicide in the works of William Faulkner and
Virginia Woolf). After graduation, she taught English firstly at Texas Southern
University in Houston (1955-57) and, then, returned to Howard University in
1957. In 1965, Morrison became a textbook editor in Syracuse, New York and two
years later – a senior editor at Random House in New York City. She began
writing fiction in the early 1960s; unexpectedly, her short story about a black
girl yearning for blue eyes gave rise to her first novel – The Bluest Eye (1970). Among her other works are:- Sula (1973)
- Song of Solomon (1977) – the National Book Critics Circle
Award
- Tar Baby (1981)
- Beloved (1987) – the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, American Book Award
- Jazz (1992)
- Paradise (1997)
- Love (2003)
- A Mercy (2008)
- Home (2012)
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| Graffiti of Toni Morrison in Vitoria, Spain. |
Her
novels and numerous essays are deeply
permeated by the image of Black American community, the portrait of women, the
theme of memory, (cultural) identity, excessive love as well as the heritage of
slavery. What is more, Morrison wrote books for children together with her son
– Slade Morrison:
- The Big Box (1999)
- The Book of Mean People (2002)
- Penny Butter Fudge (2009)
Toni Morrison, the first Black woman to receive
the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993), is probably the most known and acclaimed
contemporary African American writer.
by Marta MakoĊ
Selected sources:
