Toni Morrison: A Life and Legacy

A pillar in the worlds of literature and activism, Toni Morrison was undoubtedly one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Her unique style and way of expressing her life and experiences, as well as those of other black women, are unforgettable. With lyrical prose that is nonlinear and tackles issues such as rape, sexual harassment, segregation, and slavery, Ms. Morrison is notable for her writings on Black American experiences and stories. The first African American woman to win the Nobel prize in literature and a Pulitzer Prize winner, Toni Morrison leaves behind a legacy that will remain forever.

Photo by Deborah Feingold/Corbis via Getty Images.

Ms. Morrison was born on February 18, 1931, in Lorraine, Ohio. Her given name was Chloe Anthony Wofford, and she had three siblings. As a child, she was surrounded by storytelling and folk tales, which formed her passion for storytelling. However, Ms. Morrison faced hardships at a young age. At the age of two, her home was set on fire by the landlord due to her family's inability to pay the rent. At the age of 12, she converted to Catholicism and took the name Anthony, from Saint Anthony of Padua, going by Toni throughout her life. 

Ms. Morrison attended the HBCU Howard University, where she joined an acting troupe. The segregation she experienced while on tour influenced her future works and their subject matter. After graduating from Howard with a bachelor's degree in English, she went to Cornell to receive her masters, which was awarded in 1955. Ms. Morrison said that “[I] didn’t discover why I wrote really until later […] I came at it as not a writer, but a reader […] I was eager to read about a story where racism really hurts and can destroy you”, when talking about her first novel, The Bluest Eye. From 1957 to 1964, she was a teacher at Texas Southern University, then returned to Howard University to be a professor. It was there that she aided future activists such as Stokely Carmichael and encountered Harold Morrison, whom she would go on to marry. The two had two children and divorced after six years.

In 1965, Toni Morrison became a textbook editor for Random House in Syracuse, New York. The Bluest Eye was published when Ms. Morrison was 39 years old, and her second novel, Sula, emerged three years later. Throughout her life, Ms. Morrison published eleven novels. 

Known as one of her finest works, Beloved was based on the story of Margaret Garner, a slave woman who killed her children to protect them from enslavement: “The book was the best seller for 25 weeks and won countless awards, including the Pulitzer for fiction.” Her writing contradicted stereotypes of Black people at the time, and blends reality and fantasy and heartbreakingly earnest fashion. Toni Morrison also wrote the libretto for Margaret Garner, an opera by Richard Daniel, and was a faculty member at Princeton starting in 1989.

In addition to a plethora of novels, Ms. Morrison published nonfiction, collections and children’s books, as well as speeches and essays. She truly was a prolific author. Toni Morrison died on August 5, 2019, at the age of 88. She will be forever missed and was a unique voice and presence in the world. She advocated for civil rights, equality, and carved out a unique style for herself in the world of literature and segregation, influencing civil rights activists, authors, and generations to come. 

Works Cited: 

“Toni Morrison”, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Toni-Morrison

“Toni Morrison, Towering Novelist of the Black Experience, Dies at 88”, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/books/toni-morrison-dead.html#

“Toni Morrison”, National Women’s History Museum, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/toni-morrison