Editing Toni Morrison (section)

==Career==
=== Adulthood, Howard and Cornell years, and editing career: 1949–1975 ===
In 1949, she enrolled at [[Howard University]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], seeking the company of fellow Black intellectuals.<ref name=":9">{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/i-didnt-want-to-come-back-toni-morrison-on-life-death-and-desdemona-20150803-giqaxu.html|title='I didn't want to come back': Toni Morrison on life, death and Desdemona|last=Cummings|first=Pip|date=August 7, 2015|newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|access-date=May 3, 2017}}</ref> She was the first person in her family to attend college, meaning that she was a [[First-generation college students in the United States|first-generation college student]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Toni Morrison: Toni Morrison: Biographical Note |url=https://scalar.lehigh.edu/toni-morrison/toni-morrison-biographical-note |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=Toni Morrison: A Teaching and Learning Resource Collection |language=en}}</ref> Initially a student in the drama program at Howard, she studied theatre with celebrated drama teachers [[Anne Cooke Reid]] and [[Owen Dodson]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Toni Morrison: Memory and Meaning|editor=Adrienne Lanier Seward, Justine Tally|publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]]|isbn=9781626742048|first=Dana A. |last=Williams|chapter=To Make A Humanist Black: Toni Wofford's Howard Years|date=August 12, 2014 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7v4aBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT43}}</ref> It was while at Howard that she encountered [[Racial segregation in the United States|racially segregated]] restaurants and buses for the first time.<ref name=Ghansah /> She graduated in 1953 with a B.A. in English and a minor in Classics, and was able to work with key members of the Harlem Renaissance era such as [[Alain LeRoy Locke|Alain Locke]] and [[Sterling Allen Brown|Sterling Brown]]. Additionally, she participated in the university's theater group, known as the Howard Players, where she had the opportunity to travel the Deep South, which was a defining experience of her life.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roynon |first=Tessa |title=The Cambridge introduction to Toni Morrison |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University press |isbn=978-1-107-00391-0 |series=Cambridge introductions to literature |location=Cambridge}}</ref>

Morrison went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in 1955 from [[Cornell University]] in [[Ithaca, New York|Ithaca]], New York.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wilensky|first=Joe|date=August 6, 2019|title=Literary icon Toni Morrison, M.A. '55, dies at 88|url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/08/literary-icon-toni-morrison-ma-55-dies-88|access-date=December 13, 2019|website=[[Cornell Chronicle]]|language=en}}</ref> Her master's thesis was titled "[[Virginia Woolf]]'s and [[William Faulkner]]'s treatment of the alienated".<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Wofford|first1=Chloe Ardellia|title=Virginia Woolf's and William Faulkner's Treatment of the Alienated|date=September 1955|url=https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/1152836|publisher=Cornell University|access-date=March 5, 2016}}</ref> She taught English, first at [[Texas Southern University]] in [[Houston]] from 1955 to 1957, and then at Howard University for the next seven years. While teaching at Howard, she met Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect, whom she married in 1958. Their first son was born in 1961 and she was pregnant with their second son when she and Harold divorced in 1964.<ref name="Mote" /><ref name=":2">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/25/toni-morrison-books-interview-god-help-the-child|title=Toni Morrison: 'I'm writing for black people&nbsp;... I don't have to apologize'|last=Hoby|first=Hermione|author-link=Hermione Hoby|date=April 25, 2015|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite book |last=Gillespie |first=Carmen |title=Critical Companion to Toni Morrison: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-1438108575 |page=6}}</ref>

After her divorce and the birth of her son Slade in 1965, Morrison began working as an editor for L. W. Singer, a textbook division of publisher [[Random House]],<ref name=":7" /> in [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]], New York. Two years later, she transferred to Random House in New York City, where she became their first Black woman senior editor in the fiction department.<ref name="ReferenceA">[http://www.biography.com/people/toni-morrison-9415590 "Toni Morrison Biography"], Bio.com, April 2, 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2015.</ref><ref name="nobel">{{cite news |last=Grimes |first= William |title=Toni Morrison Is '93 Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 8, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/28957.html |access-date =June 11, 2007}}</ref>

In that capacity, Morrison played a vital role in bringing [[African-American literature|Black literature]] into the mainstream. One of the first books she worked on was the groundbreaking ''Contemporary African Literature'' (1972), a collection that included work by Nigerian writers [[Wole Soyinka]], [[Chinua Achebe]], and South African playwright [[Athol Fugard]].<ref name=":7" /> She fostered a new generation of Afro-American writers,<ref name=":7" /> including poet and novelist [[Toni Cade Bambara]], radical activist [[Angela Davis]], [[Black Panther Party|Black Panther]] [[Huey P. Newton|Huey Newton]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-07/toni-morrison-nobel-prize-winning-author-dies-at-88/11390016|title=Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison dies at 88|date=August 7, 2019|website=ABC News|access-date=August 7, 2019}}</ref> and novelist [[Gayl Jones]], whose writing Morrison discovered. She also brought to publication the 1975 [[autobiography]] of the outspoken boxing champion [[Muhammad Ali]], ''[[The Greatest: My Own Story]]''. In addition, she published and promoted the work of [[Henry Dumas]],<ref>{{cite journal | last=Morrison | first=Toni | jstor=2904523 | title=On behalf of Henry Dumas | journal=[[Black American Literature Forum]] | volume=22 | issue=2 | date=Summer 1988 | pages=310–312 | doi=10.2307/2904523 | issn=0148-6179 }}</ref> a little-known novelist and poet who in 1968 had been shot to death by a transit officer in the [[New York City Subway]].<ref name=Ghansah /><ref name="paradise">{{cite news| last = Verdelle| first = A. J. | title = Paradise found: a talk with Toni Morrison about her new novel – Nobel Laureate's new book, 'Paradise' – Interview| magazine = [[Essence (magazine)|Essence]]| date = February 1998| url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1264/is_n10_v28/ai_20187690/pg_2| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130811053111/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1264/is_n10_v28/ai_20187690/pg_2| url-status = dead| archive-date = August 11, 2013| access-date =June 11, 2007 | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Among other books that Morrison developed and edited is ''[[The Black Book (Morrison book)|The Black Book]]'' (1974), an anthology of photographs, illustrations, essays, and documents of Black life in the United States from the time of slavery to the 1920s.<ref name=Ghansah /> Random House had been uncertain about the project but its publication met with a good reception. Alvin Beam reviewed the anthology for the [[Cleveland]] ''[[The Plain Dealer|Plain Dealer]]'', writing: "Editors, like novelists, have brain children{{snd}}books they think up and bring to life without putting their own names on the title page. Mrs. Morrison has one of these in the stores now, and magazines and newsletters in the publishing trade are ecstatic, saying it will go like hotcakes."<ref name=":7" />

=== First writings and teaching, 1970–1986 ===
Morrison had begun writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard University who met to discuss their work. She attended one meeting with a short story about a Black girl who longed to have [[blue eyes]]. Morrison later developed the story as her first novel, ''[[The Bluest Eye]]'', getting up every morning at 4&nbsp;am to write, while raising two children on her own.<ref name=":2" />

[[File:Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye author portrait).jpg|thumb|upright|Morrison's portrait on the first-edition [[dust jacket]] of ''[[The Bluest Eye]]''{{nbsp}}(1970)]]

''The Bluest Eye'' was published by [[Holt, Rinehart, and Winston]] in 1970, when Morrison was aged 39.<ref name="nobel" /> It was favorably reviewed in ''[[The New York Times]]'' by [[John Leonard (critic)|John Leonard]], who praised Morrison's writing style as being "a prose so precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry ... But ''The Bluest Eye'' is also history, sociology, folklore, nightmare and music."<ref>{{cite news | last=Leonard | first=John|author-link=John Leonard (critic)| title=Books of the ''Times''| newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | date=November 13, 1970 | url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/morrison-bluest.html |access-date=March 24, 2025| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809092939/http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/morrison-bluest.html | archive-date=August 9, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> The novel did not sell well at first, but the [[City University of New York]] put ''The Bluest Eye'' on its reading list for its new [[Black studies]] department, as did other colleges, which boosted sales.<ref name="Kachka">{{cite web | title=Who Is the Author of Toni Morrison? | first=Boris | last=Kachka | work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] | date=April 27, 2012 | url=http://nymag.com/news/features/toni-morrison-2012-5/ | access-date=August 7, 2019}}</ref> The book also brought Morrison to the attention of the acclaimed editor [[Robert Gottlieb]] at [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]], an imprint of the publisher Random House. Gottlieb later edited all but one of Morrison's novels.<ref name="Kachka" />

In 1975, Morrison's second novel ''[[Sula (novel)|Sula]]'' (1973), about a friendship between two Black women, was nominated for the [[National Book Award]]. Her third novel, ''[[Song of Solomon (novel)|Song of Solomon]]'' (1977), follows the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead III, from birth to adulthood, as he discovers his heritage. This novel brought her national acclaim, being a main selection of the [[Book of the Month Club]], the first novel by a Black writer to be so chosen since [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]]'s ''[[Native Son]]'' in 1940.<ref>[[Margaret Busby|Busby, Margaret]] (October 9, 1993), [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/books-toni-morrison-beloved-and-all-that-jazz-margaret-busby-on-the-new-nobel-laureate-whose-wisdom-1509591.html "Books: Toni Morrison: beloved and all that jazz: Margaret Busby on the new Nobel laureate, whose wisdom can nourish us all"], ''[[The Independent]]''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422035020/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/books-toni-morrison-beloved-and-all-that-jazz-margaret-busby-on-the-new-nobel-laureate-whose-wisdom-1509591.html |date=April 22, 2019 }}.</ref> ''Song of Solomon'' also won the [[National Book Critics Circle Award]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards|title=All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists|publisher=National Book Critics Circle |access-date=August 6, 2019|archive-date=October 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191006045535/http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

At its 1979 commencement ceremonies, [[Barnard College]] awarded Morrison its highest honor, the [[Barnard Medal of Distinction]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs20050518-01.2.32|title=Quindlen Tells Grads to Lead, Be Fearless |first=Megan|last=Greenwell|work=Columbia Daily Spectator |publisher=Columbia University Libraries|date=May 18, 2005|access-date=August 6, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718101549/http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/imageserver.pl?oid=cs20050518-01&getpdf=true |archive-date= Jul 18, 2020 }}</ref>

Morrison gave her next novel, ''[[Tar Baby (novel)|Tar Baby]]'' (1981), a contemporary setting. In it, a looks-obsessed fashion model, Jadine, falls in love with Son, a penniless drifter who feels at ease with being Black.<ref name=":2" />

Resigning from Random House in 1983,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lithub.com/why-toni-morrison-left-publishing |website=Literary Hub|title=Why Toni Morrison Left Publishing|first=Dan|last=Sinykin|date=October 24, 2023|access-date=October 30, 2023}}</ref> Morrison left publishing to devote more time to writing, while living in a converted boathouse on the [[Hudson River]] in [[Nyack, New York|Nyack]], New York.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/26/nyregion/new-york-home-of-toni-morrison-burns.html |url-access=subscription |title=New York Home of Toni Morrison Burns|date=December 26, 1993|access-date=August 6, 2019|work=The New York Times|page=38}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last=Jaggi | first=Maya | author-link=Maya Jaggi | title=Solving the riddle | newspaper=[[The Guardian]]| date=November 14, 2003 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/15/fiction.tonimorrison | access-date=August 7, 2019}}</ref> She taught English at two branches of the [[State University of New York]] (SUNY) and at [[Rutgers University–New Brunswick|Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a28622158/toni-morrison-death-obit-tribute/|title=Toni Morrison's Monumental Impact on Literature and Culture Will Be Felt For Centuries to Come|last=Westenfeld|first=Adrienne|date=August 6, 2019|website=[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]|access-date=August 6, 2019}}</ref> In 1984, she was appointed to an [[Albert Schweitzer]] chair at the [[University at Albany, SUNY]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-06/toni-morrison-first-black-woman-writer-to-win-nobel-dies-at-88|title=Toni Morrison, First Black Woman Writer to Win Nobel, Dies|last=Henry|first=David|date=August 6, 2019|work=Bloomberg|access-date=August 6, 2019}}</ref>

Morrison's first play, ''[[Dreaming Emmett]]'', is about the 1955 murder by white men of Black teenager [[Emmett Till]]. The play was commissioned by the New York State Writers Institute at the State University of New York at Albany, where she was teaching at the time. It was produced in 1986 by [[Capital Repertory Theatre]] and directed by [[Gilbert Moses]].<ref name="playwriting">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/29/theater/toni-morrison-tries-her-hand-at-playwriting.html|title=Toni Morrison Tries Her Hand at Playwriting|first=Margaret |last=Croyden|date=December 29, 1985|work=The New York Times|access-date=May 1, 2017}}</ref> Morrison was also a visiting professor at [[Bard College]] from 1986 to 1988.{{Sfn|Fultz|2003|p=xii}}

=== ''Beloved'' trilogy and the Nobel Prize: 1987–1998 ===
[[File:Toni Morrison and sons.jpg|thumb|Morrison, with her sons Ford (left) and Slade (right) at their upstate New York home, between 1980 and 1987]]
In 1987, Morrison published her most celebrated novel, ''[[Beloved (novel)|Beloved]]''. It was inspired by the true story of an enslaved African-American woman, [[Margaret Garner]],<ref name=Rothstein>{{cite news | last=Rothstein | first=Mervyn | title=Toni Morrison, in Her New Novel, Defends Women |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| date=August 26, 1987 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/14013.html | access-date=June 20, 2016}}</ref> whose story Morrison had discovered when compiling ''The Black Book''. Garner had escaped slavery but was pursued by slave hunters. Facing a return to slavery, Garner killed her two-year-old daughter but was captured before she could kill herself.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blackpast.org/aah/margaret-garner-incident-1856|title=Margaret Garner Incident (1856)|date=December 5, 2007|publisher=[[BlackPast.org|Black Past]]|first=Casey|last=Nichols|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref> Morrison's novel imagines the dead baby returning as a ghost, Beloved, to haunt her mother and family.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mathieson|first=Barbara Offutt|date=1990|title=Memory and Mother Love in Morrison's ''Beloved''|jstor=26303963|journal=[[American Imago]]|volume=47|issue=1|pages=1–21|issn=0065-860X}}</ref>

''Beloved'' was a critical success and a bestseller for 25 weeks. ''[[The New York Times]]'' book reviewer [[Michiko Kakutani]] wrote that the scene of the mother killing her baby is "so brutal and disturbing that it appears to warp time before and after into a single unwavering line of fate".<ref name=Hevesi>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/01/nyregion/toni-morrison-s-novel-beloved-wins-the-pulitzer-prize-in-fiction.html|title=Toni Morrison's Novel ''Beloved'' Wins the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction|last=Hevesi|first=Dennis|date=April 1, 1988|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref> Canadian writer [[Margaret Atwood]] wrote in a review for ''The New York Times'', "Ms. Morrison's versatility and technical and emotional range appear to know no bounds. If there were any doubts about her stature as a pre-eminent American novelist, of her own or any other generation, ''Beloved'' will put them to rest."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/13/books/jaunted-by-their-nightmares.html|title=Jaunted By Their Nightmares |last=Atwood|first=Margaret|author-link=Margaret Atwood|date=September 13, 1987|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=May 1, 2017}}</ref>

Some critics panned ''Beloved''. African-American conservative social critic [[Stanley Crouch]], for instance, complained in his review in ''[[The New Republic]]''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://rvannoy.asp.radford.edu/rvn/444/beloved.htm|title=Literary Conjure Woman|last=Crouch|first=Stanley|date=October 19, 1987|magazine=The New Republic|access-date=May 8, 2017}}</ref> that the novel "reads largely like a melodrama lashed to the structural conceits of the miniseries", and that Morrison "perpetually interrupts her narrative with maudlin ideological commercials".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/control/1999/01/19/crouch_2/|title=The bull in the black-intelligentsia china shop|last=Alexander|first=Amy|author-link=Amy L. Alexander|date=January 19, 1999|website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|access-date=May 8, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewcanon.com/beloved.html|title=Beloved by Toni Morrison|last=Gioia|first=Ted|author-link=Ted Gioia|publisher=thenewcanon.com|access-date=May 8, 2017}}</ref>

Despite overall high acclaim, ''Beloved'' failed to win the prestigious [[National Book Award]] or the [[National Book Critics Circle Award]]. Forty-eight Black critics and writers,<ref>{{cite news | title=48 Black Writers Protest By Praising Morrison | last=McDowell | first=Edwin | work=The New York Times | date=January 19, 1988 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/19/books/48-black-writers-protest-by-praising-morrison.html | access-date=August 9, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://aalbc.com/tc/index.php?/topic/1615-writers-demand-recognition-for-toni-morrison-1988/|title='Writers Demand Recognition for Toni Morrison (1988)', June Jordan Houston A. Baker Jr. Statement|date=July 27, 2012 |via=AALBC.com's Discussion Boards}}</ref> among them [[Maya Angelou]], protested the omission in a statement that ''[[The New York Times]]'' published on January 24, 1988.<ref name="nobel" /><ref>{{cite news | title=Black Writers in Praise of Toni Morrison | work=The New York Times | date=April 8, 2018 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/15084.html | access-date=August 8, 2019 | department=Book Review}}</ref><ref name="glitters">{{cite news| last = Menand| first = Louis |author-link=Louis Menand| title = All That Glitters – Literature's global economy| magazine = The New Yorker| date = December 26, 2005| url = http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/26/051226crbo_books| access-date =June 11, 2007}}</ref> "Despite the international stature of Toni Morrison, she has yet to receive the national recognition that her five major works of fiction entirely deserve", they wrote.<ref name=Ghansah /> Two months later, ''Beloved'' won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]].<ref name=Hevesi /> It also won an [[Anisfield-Wolf Book Award]].<ref name="Anisfield" />

''Beloved'' is the first of three novels about love and African-American history, sometimes called the ''Beloved'' Trilogy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6149.Beloved?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=lxA9AStsOO&rank=1|title=Beloved Trilogy #1 {{!}} Beloved
|publisher=goodreads.com|access-date=October 29, 2024}}</ref> Morrison said they are intended to be read together, explaining: "The conceptual connection is the search for the beloved – the part of the self that is you, and loves you, and is always there for you."<ref name=":3" /> The second novel in the trilogy, ''[[Jazz (novel)|Jazz]]'', came out in 1992. Told in language that imitates the rhythms of jazz music, the novel is about a love triangle during the [[Harlem Renaissance]] in New York City. According to [[Lyn Innes]], "Morrison sought to change not just the content and audience for her fiction; her desire was to create stories which could be lingered over and relished, not 'consumed and gobbled as fast food', and at the same time to ensure that these stories and their characters had a strong historical and cultural base."<ref name="Lyn Innes, Guardian obituary">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/06/toni-morrison-obituary|title=Toni Morrison obituary|first=Lyn|last=Innes|author-link=Lyn Innes|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=August 6, 2019}}</ref>

In 1992, Morrison also published her first book of literary criticism, ''[[Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination]]'' (1992), an examination of the African-American presence in White American literature.<ref name="Anisfield">{{cite web|url=http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/books/beloved/|title=Beloved|publisher=Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards |access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref> (In 2016, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine noted that ''Playing in the Dark'' was among Morrison's most-assigned texts on U.S. college campuses, together with several of her novels and her 1993 [[Nobel Prize]] lecture.)<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Johnson |first1=David |title=These Are the 100 Most-Read Female Writers in College Classes |url=https://time.com/4234719/college-textbooks-female-writers/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=February 25, 2016}}</ref> Lyn Innes wrote in the ''[[The Guardian|Guardian]]'' obituary of Morrison, "Her 1990 series of Massey lectures at Harvard were published as Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992), and explore the construction of a 'non-white Africanist presence and personae' in the works of [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]], [[Nathaniel Hawthorne|Hawthorne]], [[Herman Melville|Melville]], [[Willa Cather|Cather]] and [[Ernest Hemingway|Hemingway]], arguing that 'all of us are bereft when criticism remains too polite or too fearful to notice a disrupting darkness before its eyes'."<ref name="Lyn Innes, Guardian obituary" />

Before the third novel of the ''Beloved'' Trilogy was published, Morrison was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1993. The citation praised her as an author "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-facts.html|title=Toni Morrison – Facts|publisher=nobelprize.org|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref> She was the first Black woman of any nationality to win the prize.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/08/06/toni-morrison-nobel-prize-terrifying-staircase-king-who-rescued-her/|title=Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize, a terrifying staircase and the king who rescued her|last=Brockell|first=Gillian|date=August 6, 2019|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=August 6, 2019}}</ref> In her acceptance speech, Morrison said: "We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 30, 2020|title=Toni Morrison's Personal Library Is Now Available to Purchase|url=https://www.galeriemagazine.com/toni-morrison-library-for-sale/|first=Michelle Sinclair|last=Colman|access-date=November 16, 2020|website=Galerie|language=en-US}}</ref>

In her Nobel lecture, Morrison talked about the power of storytelling. To make her point, she told a story. She spoke about a blind, old, Black woman who is approached by a group of young people. They demand of her, "Is there no context for our lives? No song, no literature, no poem full of vitamins, no history connected to experience that you can pass along to help us start strong? ...&nbsp;Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-lecture.html|title=Toni Morrison – Nobel Lecture|publisher=nobelprize.org|date=December 7, 1993|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref>

In 1996, the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]] selected Morrison for the [[Jefferson Lecture]], the U.S. federal government's highest honor for "distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities".<ref name="jefflect">[http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/jefflect.html Jefferson Lecturers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020121101/http://www.neh.gov///whoweare/jefflect.html |date=October 20, 2011 }} at NEH Website. Retrieved January 22, 2009.</ref> Morrison's lecture, entitled "The Future of Time: Literature and Diminished Expectations",<ref>Morrison, Toni, "The Future of Time, Literature and Diminished Expectations," reprinted in Toni Morrison, ''What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction'' (University Press of Mississippi, 2008), {{ISBN|978-1604730173}}, pp. 170–186.</ref> began with the aphorism: "Time, it seems, has no future." She cautioned against the misuse of history to diminish expectations of the future.<ref>Hawkins, B. Denise (June 16, 2007), [https://diverseeducation.com/article/7533/ "Marvelous Morrison – Toni Morrison – Award-Winning Author Talks About the Future From Some Place in Time"], ''Diverse Online'' (formerly ''Black Issues in Higher Education''). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512124851/http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/printer_7533.shtml |date=May 12, 2012}}.</ref> Morrison was also honored with the 1996 [[National Book Award#Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters|National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters]], which is awarded to a writer "who has enriched our literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html|title=National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, Presenter of National Book Awards|publisher=Nationalbook.org|access-date=May 30, 2012}}</ref>

The third novel of her ''Beloved'' Trilogy, ''[[Paradise (Morrison novel)|Paradise]]'', about citizens of an all-Black town, came out in 1997. The following year, Morrison was on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, making her only the second female writer of fiction and second Black writer of fiction to appear on what was perhaps the most significant U.S. magazine cover of the era.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bookriot.com/2013/08/14/a-brief-history-of-novelists-on-the-cover-of-time/|title=A Brief History of (Novelists on the Cover of) Time|last=Corman|first=Josh|date=August 14, 2013|website=Book Riot|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref>

===''Beloved'' onscreen and "the Oprah effect"===
Also in 1998, the movie adaptation of ''[[Beloved (1998 film)|Beloved]]'' was released, directed by [[Jonathan Demme]] and co-produced by [[Oprah Winfrey]], who had spent ten years bringing it to the screen. Winfrey also stars as the main character, Sethe, alongside [[Danny Glover]] as Sethe's lover, Paul D, and [[Thandiwe Newton]] as Beloved.<ref name=RogerEbert>{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beloved-1998|title=Beloved Movie Review & Film Summary (1998) |last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|website=www.rogerebert.com|date=October 16, 1998|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref>

The movie flopped at the box office. A review in ''[[The Economist]]'' opined that "most audiences are not eager to endure nearly three hours of a cerebral film with an original storyline featuring supernatural themes, murder, rape, and slavery".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/node/177239|title=Beloved it's not|date=November 19, 1998|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|access-date=May 2, 2017}}</ref> Film critic [[Janet Maslin]], in her ''New York Times'' review "No Peace from a Brutal Legacy", called it a "transfixing, deeply felt adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel. ...&nbsp;Its linchpin is of course Oprah Winfrey, who had the clout and foresight to bring 'Beloved' to the screen and has the dramatic presence to hold it together."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/16/movies/film-review-no-peace-from-a-brutal-legacy.html|title=Film Review; No Peace From A Brutal Legacy|last=Maslin|first=Janet|author-link=Janet Maslin|date=October 16, 1998|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=May 2, 2017}}</ref> Film critic [[Roger Ebert]] suggested that ''Beloved'' was not a genre ghost story but the supernatural was used to explore deeper issues and the non-linear structure of Morrison's story had a purpose.<ref name=RogerEbert />

In 1996, television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey selected ''Song of Solomon'' for her newly launched [[Oprah's Book Club|Book Club]], which became a popular feature on her ''[[The Oprah Winfrey Show|Oprah Winfrey Show]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/the-bluest-eye-by-toni-morrison|title=''The Bluest Eye'' at Oprah's Book Club official page|publisher=Oprah.com}}</ref> An average of 13 million viewers watched the show's book club segments.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Lister |first=Rachel |title=Reading Toni Morrison |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2009 |isbn=978-0313354991 |page=113 |chapter=Toni Morrison and the Media |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LLpR_AEfSEsC&q=toni+morrison+appears+on+Oprah+winfrey&pg=PA113}}</ref> As a result, when Winfrey selected Morrison's earliest novel ''The Bluest Eye'' in 2000, it sold another 800,000 paperback copies.<ref name=":7" /> John Young wrote in the ''[[African American Review]]'' in 2001 that Morrison's career experienced the boost of "[[Oprah effect|The Oprah Effect]], ...&nbsp;enabling Morrison to reach a broad, popular audience."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Young|first=John K.|date=January 1, 2001|title=Toni Morrison, Oprah Winfrey, and Postmodern Popular Audiences|url=http://mds.marshall.edu/english_faculty/16/|journal=African American Review|volume=35|issue=2|pages=181–204|doi=10.2307/2903252|jstor=2903252}}</ref>

Winfrey selected a total of four of Morrison's novels over six years, giving Morrison's works a bigger sales boost than they received from her Nobel Prize win in 1993.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2016/08/03/with-new-book-club-pick-oprah-has-still-got-the-golden-touch/|title=With New Book Club Pick, Oprah's Still Got the Golden Touch|last=Berg|first=Madeline|date=August 3, 2016|magazine=[[Forbes]]|access-date=May 2, 2017}}</ref> The novelist also appeared three times on Winfrey's show. Winfrey said, "For all those who asked the question 'Toni Morrison again?'...&nbsp;I say with certainty there would have been no Oprah's Book Club if this woman had not chosen to share her love of words with the world."<ref name=":8" /> Morrison called the book club a "reading revolution".<ref name=":8" />

=== Early 21st century ===
Morrison continued to explore different art forms, such as providing texts for original scores of classical music. She collaborated with [[André Previn]] on the song cycle ''Honey and Rue'', which premiered with [[Kathleen Battle]] in January 1992, and on ''Four Songs'', premiered at [[Carnegie Hall]] with [[Sylvia McNair]] in November 1994. Both ''Sweet Talk: Four Songs on Text'' and ''Spirits In the Well'' (1997) were written for [[Jessye Norman]] with music by [[Richard Danielpour]], and, alongside [[Maya Angelou]] and [[Clarissa Pinkola Estés]], Morrison provided the text for composer [[Judith Weir]]'s ''woman.life.song'' commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Jessye Norman, which premiered in April 2000.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://classicalmusicindy.org/toni-morrison-in-classical-music/|title=Toni Morrison in Classical Music|first=Anna|last= Hinkley|website=Classical Music Indy|date=September 8, 2020|access-date=February 12, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://honor.carnegiehall.org/honor/artists/artistDetail.aspx?art=tmorrison|title=Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy – Festival Artists – Toni Morrison|website=honor.carnegiehall.org|date=March 2009|access-date=August 6, 2019}}</ref>

Morrison returned to Margaret Garner's life story, the basis of her novel ''Beloved'', to write the [[libretto]] for a new opera, ''[[Margaret Garner (opera)|Margaret Garner]]''. Completed in 2002, with music by Richard Danielpour, the opera was premièred on May 7, 2005, at the [[Detroit Opera House]] with [[Denyce Graves]] in the title role.<ref name=Norman>[http://www.margaretgarner.org/brown_normanrelease.html "Rising Opera Star Angela M. Brown to replace Jessye Norman in World Premiere Production of Margaret Garner"], Michigan Opera Theater, April 1, 2005. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029220805/http://www.margaretgarner.org/brown_normanrelease.html |date=October 29, 2014 }}.</ref> ''[[Love (Morrison novel)|Love]]'', Morrison's first novel since ''Paradise'', came out in 2003. In 2004, she put together a children's book called ''Remember'' to mark the 50th anniversary of the ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' Supreme Court decision in 1954 that declared racially segregated public schools to be unconstitutional.<ref name=":4">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/toni-morrison-cornel-west-politics/|title='We Better Do Something': Toni Morrison and Cornel West in Conversation|date=May 6, 2004|magazine=[[The Nation]]|access-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref>

From 1997 to 2003, Morrison was an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at [[Cornell University]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu/all-professors-at-large-1965-to-june-30-20222/|title=All Professors at Large 1965 to June 30, 2023|website=Cornell University|access-date=June 8, 2018}}</ref>

In 2004, Morrison was invited by [[Wellesley College]] to deliver the [[commencement address]], which has been described as "among the greatest commencement addresses of all time and a courageous counterpoint to the entire genre".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/07/21/toni-morrison-wellesley-commencement/|title=Toni Morrison on How to Be Your Own Story and Reap the Rewards of Adulthood in a Culture That Fetishizes Youth|first=Maria|last=Popova|website=The Marginalian|date=July 21, 2015|access-date=October 13, 2024}}</ref>

In June 2005, the [[University of Oxford]] awarded Morrison an [[Honorary degree|honorary]] [[Doctor of Letters]] degree.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morrison |first=Toni |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eV9_8v4pTzsC&pg=PR23 |title=Toni Morrison: Conversations |date=2008 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1604730197 |page=xxiii}}</ref>

In the spring 2006, ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'' named ''Beloved'' the best work of American fiction published in the previous 25 years, as chosen by a selection of prominent writers, literary critics, and editors.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/fiction-25-years.html|title=What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?|date=May 21, 2006|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=May 1, 2017}}</ref> In his essay about the choice, "In Search of the Best", critic [[A. O. Scott]] said: "Any other outcome would have been startling since Morrison's novel has inserted itself into the American canon more completely than any of its potential rivals. With remarkable speed, 'Beloved' has, less than 20 years after its publication, become a staple of the college literary curriculum, which is to say a classic. This triumph is commensurate with its ambition since it was Morrison's intention in writing it precisely to expand the range of classic American literature, to enter, as a living Black woman, the company of dead White males like [[William Faulkner|Faulkner]], [[Herman Melville|Melville]], [[Nathaniel Hawthorne|Hawthorne]] and [[Mark Twain|Twain]]."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/review/scott-essay.html|title=In Search of the Best|last=Scott|first=A. O.|author-link=A. O. Scott|date=May 21, 2006|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=May 1, 2017}}</ref>

In November 2006, Morrison visited the [[Louvre]] museum in Paris as the second in its "Grand Invité" program to guest-curate a month-long series of events across the arts on the theme of "The Foreigner's Home", about which ''The New York Times'' said: "In tapping her own African-American culture, Ms. Morrison is eager to credit 'foreigners' with enriching the countries where they settle."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.denverpost.com/2006/11/08/toni-morrison-puts-slam-poetry-in-louvre/|title=Toni Morrison puts slam poetry in Louvre|newspaper=[[The Denver Post]]|agency=Associated Press|date=November 8, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/books/21morr.html|title=Rap and Film at the Louvre? What's Up With That?|first=Alan |last=Riding|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 21, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/toni-morrison-louvre-13088/|title=Toni Morrison on Looking for 'Wordless Forms' at the Louvre, in 2006: From the Archives|website=[[ARTnews]]|date=August 8, 2019|access-date=February 12, 2021}}</ref>

Morrison's novel ''[[A Mercy]]'', released in 2008, is set in the Virginia colonies of 1682. [[Diane Johnson]], in her review in ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', called ''A Mercy'' "a poetic, visionary, mesmerizing tale that captures, in the cradle of our present problems and strains, the natal curse put on us back then by the Indian tribes, Africans, Dutch, Portuguese, and English competing to get their footing in the New World against a hostile landscape and the essentially tragic nature of human experience."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2008/12/morrison200812|title=Voice of America|last=Johnson|first=Diane|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=December 2008|access-date=May 1, 2017}}</ref>

=== Princeton years ===
From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Morrison held the [[Robert F. Goheen]] Chair in the Humanities at [[Princeton University]].<ref name="nola" /> She said she did not think much of modern fiction writers who reference their own lives instead of inventing new material, and she used to tell her creative writing students, "I don't want to hear about your little life, OK?" Similarly, she chose not to write about her own life in a memoir or autobiography.<ref name=":9" />

Though based in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton, Morrison did not regularly offer writing workshops to students after the late 1990s, a fact that earned her some criticism. Rather, she conceived and developed the Princeton Atelier, a program that brings together students with writers and performing artists. Together the students and the artists produce works of art that are presented to the public after a semester of collaboration.{{sfn|Gillespie|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Qo5h9LqqanAC&q=morrison+princeton+atelier&pg=PA377 377]}}
[[File:Toni Morrison 2008-2.jpg|thumb|Morrison speaking in 2008]]

Inspired by her curatorship at the Louvre Museum, Morrison returned to Princeton in the fall 2008 to lead a small seminar, also entitled "The Foreigner's Home".<ref name="ReferenceA" />

On November 17, 2017, Princeton University dedicated Morrison Hall (a building previously called West College) in her honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/11/20/princeton-dedicates-morrison-hall-honor-nobel-laureate-and-emeritus-faculty-member|last=Dienst|first=Karin|title=Princeton dedicates Morrison Hall in honor of Nobel laureate and emeritus faculty member Toni Morrison|publisher=Princeton University|date=November 20, 2017}}</ref>

=== Final years: 2010–2019 ===
In May 2010, Morrison appeared at [[PEN World Voices]] for a conversation with [[Marlene van Niekerk]] and [[Kwame Anthony Appiah]] about [[South African literature]] and specifically van Niekerk's 2004 novel ''Agaat''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4744/prmID/1984 |title=Toni Morrison and Marlene van Niekerk in Conversation with Anthony Appiah |work=PEN World Voices Festival |date=May 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005064305/http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4744/prmID/1984 |archive-date=October 5, 2012 }}</ref>

Morrison wrote books for children with her younger son, Slade Morrison, who was a painter and a musician. Slade died of [[pancreatic cancer]] on December 22, 2010, aged 45,<ref name="Kachka" /><ref name=Claudette /> when Morrison's novel ''[[Home (Morrison novel)|Home]]'' (2012) was half-completed.<ref name="Kachka" />

In May 2011, Morrison received an Honorary [[Doctor of Letters]] degree from [[Rutgers University–New Brunswick]]. During the commencement ceremony,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.rutgers.edu/news-release/nobel-laureate-toni-morrison-speak-receive-honorary-degree-rutgers%E2%80%99-245th-commencement-may-15/20110208 |title=Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison to Speak, Receive Honorary Degree at Rutgers' 245th Commencement May 15 |work=Rutgers Today |date=February 8, 2011 }}</ref> she delivered a speech on the "pursuit of life, liberty, meaningfulness, integrity, and truth".

[[File:ToniMorrison WestPointLecture 2013.jpg|upright=0.9|thumb|left|Morrison in 2013]]
In 2011, Morrison worked with opera director [[Peter Sellars]] and [[Mali]]an singer-songwriter [[Rokia Traoré]] on ''[[Desdemona (play)|Desdemona]]'', taking a fresh look at [[William Shakespeare]]'s tragedy ''[[Othello]]''. The trio focused on the relationship between [[Othello (character)|Othello]]'s wife [[Desdemona]] and her African nursemaid, Barbary, who is only briefly referenced in Shakespeare. The play, a mix of words, music and song, premiered in [[Vienna]] in 2011.<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name=":9" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/arts/music/toni-morrisons-desdemona-and-peter-sellarss-othello.html|title=Toni Morrison's 'Desdemona' and Peter Sellars's 'Othello'|last=Sciolino|first=Elaine|date=October 25, 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=May 3, 2017}}</ref>

Morrison had stopped working on her latest novel when her son died in 2010, later explaining, "I stopped writing until I began to think, He would be really put out if he thought that he had caused me to stop. 'Please, Mom, I'm dead, could you keep going&nbsp;...?{{' "}}<ref name=":5">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/toni-morrison|first=Christopher|last= Bollen|title=Toni Morrison's Haunting Resonance|magazine=[[Interview (magazine)|Interview]]|date=May 1, 2012|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref>

She completed ''[[Home (Morrison novel)|Home]]'' and dedicated it to her son Slade.<ref name="Brockes" /><ref>Minzesheimer, Bob (May 7, 2012), [https://archive.today/20141220213150/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/story/2012-05-07/toni-morrison-home-books/54814002/1 "New novel 'Home' brings Toni Morrison back to Ohio"], ''[[USA Today]]''.</ref><ref>Mitra, Ipshita (May 14, 2014), [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/features/Toni-Morrison-builds-a-Home-we-never-knew/articleshow/16463000.cms "Toni Morrison builds a 'Home' we never knew"], ''The Times of India''.</ref> Published in 2012, it is the story of a [[Korean War]] veteran in the segregated United States of the 1950s who tries to save his sister from brutal medical experiments at the hands of a white doctor.<ref name=":5" />

In August 2012, [[Oberlin College]] became the home base of the Toni Morrison Society,<ref>[https://www.tonimorrisonsociety.org/society.html "Society History"], The Toni Morrison Society.</ref> an international literary society founded in 1993, dedicated to scholarly research of Morrison's work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://new.oberlin.edu/home/news-media/detail.dot?id=3873947|title=Oberlin College Establishes Partnership with Toni Morrison Society |publisher=Oberlin College|access-date=May 2, 2017|date=July 29, 2016 }}</ref><ref>Communications Staff (September 18, 2013), [https://www.oberlin.edu/news/toni-morrison-society-celebrates-20-years "Toni Morrison Society Celebrates 20 Years"], Oberlin College.</ref><ref>[http://www2.oberlin.edu/library/friends/perspectives/49.pdf "Morrison Society Office Dedicated"], ''Library Perspectives'' (newsletter of the Oberlin College Library), Fall 2013, no. 49, p. 5.</ref>

Morrison's eleventh novel, ''[[God Help the Child]]'', was published in 2015. It follows Bride, an executive in the fashion and beauty industry whose mother tormented her as a child for being dark-skinned, a trauma that has continued to dog Bride.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/29/god-help-the-child-toni-morrison-review-novel|title=God Help the Child by Toni Morrison review – 'incredibly powerful'|last=Gay|first=Roxane|author-link=Roxane Gay|date=April 29, 2015|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=April 29, 2017}}</ref>

Morrison was a member of the editorial advisory board of ''[[The Nation]]'', a magazine started in 1865 by Northern abolitionists.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thenation.com/authors/toni-morrison/|title=Toni Morrison|website=[[The Nation]]|access-date=April 29, 2017|date=April 2, 2010}}</ref>