Toni+Morrison+Biography+and+Bibliography



Toni Morrison was the first African American woman to earn the **Nobel Prize in Literature**. She was born near Lake Erie in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931. Her real name is Chloe Anthony Wofford. She changed her first name to Toni while attending college at Howard University because many of her peers could not pronounce her name correctly. Toni was very smart and earned good grades while in school. She had many white friends and did not encounter discrimination until she grew older. Her parents moved from the south to escape racism. Toni eventually experienced racism when she made several visits to the south while in college. She graduated Howard University in 1953 and earned a B.A. in English. She moved on to Ithica, New York and attended Cornell University where she earned a master’s degree in 1955. Toni began teaching English at Texas Southern University in Houston. She was introduced to a new idea of black culture as a discipline while teaching there. Harold Morrison and Toni met when she returned as a member of the faculty at Howard University in 1957. They married one year later and she took his last name. They had two children together. Their marriage did not work out and it ended in a divorce. She returned home to Lorain, Ohio. She got an offer to work in Syracuse, NY at the Random House as an associate editor. Three years later she became a senior editor at the Random house in New York City. Toni published nine novels. Her first novel **__The Bluest Eye__** was published in 1970. She continued to work at the Random House and also became a professor of English at New York State University. In 1973, her second novel **__Sula__** was published. **__Sula__** was later nominated for the **National Book Award in fiction** in 1975. Her successes as a writer continued. She was recognized by President Jimmy Carter who appointed her to the **National Council on the Arts**. She published two more novels, **__Song of Solomon__** and **__Tar Baby__**. Her novel **__Song of Solomon__** won the **National Book Critics Circle Award** and the **American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award**. Her fifth novel, **__Beloved__** became a best seller and won the **Pulitzer Prize for fiction** in 1988. Toni published her novel **__Jazz__** and in 1993 she earned the **Nobel Prize in Literature**. She published three more novels after winning the **Nobel Prize**: **__Paradise__**, **__Love__**, and **__A Mercy__**. Her last novel, __**A Mercy**__ made the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008". Toni Morrison has played an important role in African American literature and opened the door for many African American writers. She used her works to bring awareness of the issues affecting the African American community. She included themes and images that African American children could relate to in text books and in her works. Toni Morrison is one of the most popular African American writers today and her contributions to African American literature have paved the way for many African American writers in the past and in the future. 

Bibliography 1. Beaulieu, Elizabeth A. //The Toni Morrison Encyclopedia.// Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999. Web. 05 Dec. 2009 .     2 . Toni Morrison  by Douglas Century, Chelsea House Publishers, 1994   