Toni Morrison

Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (1931-2019)

Greatness often takes time. Toni Morrison, born in Ohio in 1931, was one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century, but she didn’t publish her first novel until the age of 39. She was hardly languishing before then, however. After earning an English degree from Howard University and...

Greatness often takes time. Toni Morrison, born in Ohio in 1931, was one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century, but she didn’t publish her first novel until the age of 39. She was hardly languishing before then, however. After earning an English degree from Howard University and a Master of Arts from Cornell University, Morrison spent many years as a professor. She then made a career move into editing textbooks before moving into editing fiction. 
Her debut book, The Bluest Eye, was released in 1970, and Morrison went on to write landmark works such as Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. Her bestselling works were lauded for their lyrical prose and unflinching representations of African American lives. In 1988, Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and in 1993, Morrison made history as the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Morrison continued writing and received many more accolades in her life — including being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2012 — before her death at the age of 88 in 2019.