Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born February 18, 1931-August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American writer. The Bluest Eye was Toni Morrison’s first novel published in 1970. Her acclaimed Song of Songs (1977) received national attention and won the National Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison was awarded the Mistress Pulitzer Prize (1987).
Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated with her Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in 1953. She earned a master’s degree in American literature. In 1957 she returned to Howard University and in 1964 she married two children before she divorced. Morrison became the first black female fiction editor at Random House in New York in the 1960s. She achieved her reputation as a writer in the 1970s and 1980s. Her work “The Beloved” was filmed in 1998. Morrison’s work is praised for dealing with the severe consequences of racism in the United States and the experience of black Americans. National Endowment for the Humanities chose Morrison for Jefferson Lecture in the United States. She never talked about the reason for their divorce, but she hinted that in the past her ex-husband wanted a more obedient wife.
History Of Toni Morrison
As the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Morrison’s work inspired a generation of writers to follow in her footsteps. Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931. Her Morrison’s birth name was Chloe Anthony Wofford, the second of four children. Morrison’s childhood had a great influence on her writing. Many are set up in both southern and northern and Midwestern states, such as Ohio, and follow a multi-directional escape route for working-class black families to escape state-approved racist violence. increase. Historically a black Howard University in 1953. After earning a master’s degree from Cornell University in 1955, Morrison taught at Texas Southern University and then returned to Howard to teach English. During this time, she met her husband Harold Morrison, who divorced in 1964. Morrison began her formal career in her literary world as an editor of Random House. She was initially in the textbook department and only two years later became the first black female editor-in-chief in the fiction department. As an editor, Morrison’s influence should not be underestimated. In addition to works by Tony Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and Muhammad Ali, she worked on the 1972 anthology of contemporary African literature, lesser-known as Gail Jones and Henry Doumas During these years, Morrison was heavily influenced by her peers: the circle of artists, thinkers, and activists who traveled around and around the Black Arts Movement.
Her protagonists include Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Jayne Cortez, and Maya Angelou. James Baldwin is an early generation, but one of Morrison’s many influences. But, apart from intellectuals, perhaps the most influential factor in Morrison’s work was the black folklore and oral traditions inherited by her through her family and other elders in the community. Even when Morrison broke new ground as her editor, she heroically ignited her literary path. She wrote her famous first book, The Bluest Eye (1970), in the morning from 4 am to the beginning of the day at Random House. She also raised two sons as she was a single mother. Set in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio, she wants a blue-eyed black girl, Pecola Breed lab, who lived her life in the 1940s, overcame everyday violence, and sought everyday beauty. It’s a story. In this first novel, I feel the influence of William Faulkner, who wrote his master’s thesis by Morrison. Her next novel, Surah (1973), was nominated for the National Book Award. And her third novel, Song of Solomon (1977), won the National Critics Circle Award.
Why Is She Important Today?
Her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1969), deals with the social life of African-American women, with a particular focus on the trauma of slavery during and after the 19th century. Her novel “Beloved” (1987) is considered by many to be her best work and is based on the true story of the Black Book. She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction after more than 40 leading American writers and scholars signed a letter highlighting her outstanding nature.
Morrison also produced some vibrant picture books with her son Slade Morrison. With a diverse cast of characters and a fearless attitude towards morality, these books challenge and inspire readers. For example, in Penny Butter Fudge (2009), a group of children has a home adventure while Nana is taking care of her all day long. Or explore the fascinating story of Big Box (1998), where Patty, Mickey, and Liza Sue need to live in a large cardboard box, but find their way to blend in with the world around them.
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Why Was She Important 10 Years Ago?
Morrison’s parents instilled a sense of heritage and language through folk tales, ghost stories, and songs traditionally associated with African-American heritage. As a result, she developed her love of literature and read books frequently as a child. She had many favorite writers, including Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy. Morrison began her writing career as an undergraduate student attending a Howard University workshop. As she grew up, Morrison says her family was “supernaturally savvy” and she frequently used visions and signs to predict the future.
Morrison’s parents made storytelling an important part of their home and were equally absorbed in storytelling between children and adults. From her childhood, she felt her writing was influenced by her past storytelling. At the age of 12, Morrison became Catholic and she named her baptismal name Anthony after Antonio of Padua. A few years later, when Morrison was a student at Howard University, people had a hard time pronouncing her name, Chloe. Since then, she has used her nickname Toni to avoid further confusion with her pronunciation. Morrison married Harold Morrison, an architect he met while studying at Howard University.
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Toni Morrison’s Best Quotes
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison
“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”
― Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved
“You think because he doesn’t love you that you are worthless. You think that because he doesn’t want you anymore that he is right — that his judgment and opinion of you are correct. If he throws you out, then you are garbage. You think he belongs to you because you want to belong to him. Don’t. It’s a bad word, ‘belong.’ Especially when you put it with somebody you love. Love shouldn’t be like that. Did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can’t even see the mountain of the clouds. But you know what? You go up top and what do you see? His head. The clouds never cover the head. His head pokes through because the clouds let him; they don’t wrap him up. They let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him. You can’t own a human being. You can’t lose what you don’t own. Suppose you did own him. Could you love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? Do you want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don’t, do you? And neither does he. You’re turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can’t value you more than you value yourself.”
― Toni Morrison
“Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved
“Make up a story… For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and the light. Don’t tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear’s caul.”
― Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993
“She is a friend of my mind. She gathers me, man. The pieces I am, she gathers them and gives them back to me in all the right order.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved
“Anger … it’s a paralyzing emotion … you can’t get anything done. People sort of think it’s an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don’t think it’s any of that — it’s helpless … its absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers … and anger doesn’t provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever.”
[Interview with CBS radio host Don Swaim, September 15, 1987.]”
― Toni Morrison
“I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.”
― Toni Morrison
“And I am all the things I have ever loved: scuppernong wine, cool baptisms in silent water, dream books, and number playing.”
― Toni Morrison
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