Toni Morrison was born and raised in Lorain Ohio. She went on to seven moving novels, about growing up and living black in America. Her themes, however, are universal -- ones to which all Americas can relate. Many of her books are set in Ohio.
Ms. Morrison has received the Pulitzer Prize as well as the Nobel Prize for literature. She currently a professor at Princeton University as well as founder and sponsor of the Princeton Atelier students arts workshop.
Ms. Morrison has received the Pulitzer Prize as well as the Nobel Prize for literature. She currently a professor at Princeton University as well as founder and sponsor of the Princeton Atelier students arts workshop.
A Mercy (2009)
(courtesy of Knopf Publishing)
Ms. Morrison's first novel in five years will be released in late 2009. This book returns to the subject of slavery that she has explored in previous works. According to the publisher, Knopf, "A Mercy" is "a powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece by the Nobel Prize–winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier. "A Mercy" reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
Love (2003)
Love, Toni Morrison's latest book, is the story of a hotel owner, now dead, and the power he still holds -- both good and bad -- on the people whose lives he touched. It is told in a split narrative, similar to The Bluest Eye.
Paradise (1998)
Paradise is set in Ruby, Oklahoma -- a small, all-black farming community in the 1940s. At first, the reader is let to believe that life is good in Ruby, but gradually he learns of the anger, cruelty, and divisions that lie just below the town's placid surface.
Jazz (1992)
This is a lively novel, set in 1920s Harlem. It tells of life during the urban and cultural renaissance there and the people who lived the "Jazz Age."
Beloved (1987)
Recently made into a movie by Oprah Winfrey, Belovedis loosely based on a true story about an 18th century slave woman who kills her own child rather than have her grow up to a life of slavery. It's a powerful book, told largely through "personal narratives." Ms. Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this novel.
Song of Solomon (1977)
This is the novel that brought Toni Morrison to national attention. It is the saga of one black family's struggles throughout many generations. Song of Solomon won the National Book Critic's Circle Award.
Sula (1973)
Sula, also set in Ohio, follows the intertwined lives of two black women --close friends -- from young adulthood until their death. This novel was nominated for the National Book Award.
The Bluest Eye (1970)
This is (arguably) Toni Morrison's best novel, written while she was raising two children and teaching full-time at Howard University. It is set in Lorain Ohio in the 1950s. It's the tale of a young, black girl who wants more than anything to have (blue) eyes like Shirley Temple. She thinks this one thing will solve all of her family's problems, which -- of course -- it doesn't. A great first novel.
