Author Toni Morrison, First Black Woman To Win Nobel Prize In Literature, Dies At 88 After Complications From Pneumonia
Toni Morrison, the acclaimed writer who explored black identity in the United States in her literature, died in the Bronx, New York on Monday. She was 88.
According to several reports, Morrison — who in 1993 became the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature — died due to complications from pneumonia. In 1993, the Toni Morrison Society was founded to honor her work and life.
Among Morrison’s most famous works were Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, 1970’s The Bluest Eye, and 1977’s Song of Solomon. Many of her novels received both commercial success and critical acclaim.
Morrison’s story-lines were known for paying tribute to black culture and history, for being non-linear and for frequently shifting between different time periods. Among the historical eras her novels were set in were slavery, the Civl War and the Civil Rights Movement. Her use of fantastical elements in her novels also led to them being often compared to Latin American magical realist writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
IN MEMORIAM SLIDESHOW: CELEBRITIES WHO DIED IN 2019
Ohio served as the setting for many of Morrison’s work, as she was born in and grew up in the state as a member of a working-class family. She was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford.
After graduating from Howard University in Washington in 1953, Morrison obtained her graduate degree at Cornell in 1955. She then went on to teach English for two years at Texas Southern University, a historically black college in Houston and then returned to teach at Howard. Morrison also worked as an editor at Random House.
The author married a Jamaican architect named Harold Morrison in 1958 and got divorced from him six years later.
Among the other accolades Morrison received throughout her life were the National Humanities Medal in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2012.
Morrison is survived by her son Harold and three grandchildren. She had a son named Slade, with whom she collaborated on children’s books, who died in 2010.
Social media quickly lit up on Tuesday with tributes to Morrison after her death was announced:
‘Toni reaches us deeply, using a tone that is lyrical, precise, distinct, and inclusive.’ — President Obama gave Toni Morrison the ultimate tribute while awarding her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Morrison died today at 88. pic.twitter.com/1XGe8Fs73e
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 6, 2019
“If you look at the world as a brutal game, then you bump into the mystery of the tree-shaped scar. There seems to be such a thing as grace, such a thing as beauty, such a thing as harmony. All of which are wholly free and available to us.” Your life was our gift, #ToniMorrison pic.twitter.com/wcD7w9zKYp
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 6, 2019
Toni Morrison was a towering intellect, a brilliant scribe of our nation’s complex stories, a heartbreaking journalist of our deepest desires, and a groundbreaking author who destroyed precepts, walls and those who dared underestimate her capacity. Rest well and in peace. pic.twitter.com/nMkxXRtEoz
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 6, 2019
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” Toni Morrison. I’m deeply sadden to share that one of our greatest writers and minds in American History, Toni Morrison, passed away at the age of 88. May God Bless Her Soul. pic.twitter.com/Dq1UL4ENIY
— COMMON (@common) August 6, 2019
The world just lost an incredible soul. Rest in peace, Toni Morrison. pic.twitter.com/30w6yt8Dkc
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) August 6, 2019
RELATED ARTICLES
Get the most-revealing celebrity conversations with the uInterview podcast!
Leave a comment