Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. The author of many best selling books received her B.A. at Howard University and her M.A. at Cornell University.

Morrison’s best known works include The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Paradise, and Beloved. Though Toni Morrison claims that her novels do not favor a matriarch or feminism, there is a strong theme toward women uniting against society, as seen in Paradise, when she tells the story of women who gather in a former convent that fosters their growth in an oppressive society. Morrison’s childhood in a working class family is reflected in her novels, which often explore richly black characters, in less–than-ideal situations, who are guided by spirituality.

In 1993, Toni Morrison created the Toni Morrison Society, one of the fifty societies included in the American Literature Association. Toni Morrison’s greatest achievement occurred in 1993 when she won the Nobel Prize for Literature; she was the first black woman in history to receive this award.

Politically, her support of “the first black president” can be seen when she writes of the President Clinton being abandoned in light of his impeachment. (Her full article regarding the controversy can be read here.

Overall, Toni Morrison epitomizes a strong, black, female writer and her beautifully written novels expose a world, defined and divided by race, gender, and class, previously unrenowned to readers.

-Post by Allison Thornton, Tulane University Student