Editing Toni Morrison (section)

=== 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}}