Some authors have influence that goes beyond the sum total of their work. This is certainly true of Toni Morrison, the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993).
Her many other career accolades included winning a Pulitzer (for Beloved in 1988) and being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, from President Barack Obama. Beloved also became a film, starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, in 1998. Then in 2005, Morrison wrote the libretto for ‘Margaret Garner’, an opera based on ‘Beloved’ by Richard Danielpour, which premiered at the Detroit Opera House.
However, Toni Morrison no doubt saw her greatest accolade as the exposure she gained for black identity issues, the legacy of slavery and particularly the way African-American women are treated.
The fact her books reached the conscience and heart of so many people is in large part due to the quality of her writing. It’s rare for any author to acquire both critical acclaim and commercial success in such equal measure, which is why Toni Morrison earned a regular spot on the prestigious New York Times best-seller list.
Such widespread respect led to many television appearances, as well as making her books popular for study and critical analysis. So, what was it about Toni Morrison’s writing that made such a lasting imprint?
Elevating black lived experience
One core value of her work is pain-soaked prose, with unflinching exposure to the taboos and terrors faced by her characters, including child abuse, rape, incest and murder. It is often discomforting to read her books, but deliberately so.
In Beloved, which many believe is Toni Morrison’s most outstanding book, an African American female says white men can take your ‘whole self’. She adds:
“Not just work, kill or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn’t like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn’t think it up.”
This book also features the ghost of a murdered child and links to a true story.
In all her fiction, Ms Morrison builds your connection to her characters so strongly that it feels vital to understand their pain, no matter how harrowing.
The author pulls you into her stories by using a fluid form of prose that has echoes the oral traditions, myths and superstitions of black culture. Her stories flow across time, weaving backwards and forwards, using the voices of people both living and dead.
The strength of her work also pivots on the way she demonstrates the central role women play in families and communities, as well as the way one person’s life journey and the connections can bring redemption.
The author’s influences
It is easy to assume that an author who writes so vividly about suffering must have been scarred by her own early experiences, but this is not the case for Toni Morrison, though her origins do explain the way she framed stories largely in locations and situations that were untraditional for black identity literature. Not the world of plantations, but everyday communities.
Toni Morrison’s real name was Chloe Ardelia Wofford. She was both in 1931, in Lorain, Ohio. Chloe was part of a well-integrated working-class community and a stable and loving home. However, as a child, Morrison loved the ghost stories, superstitions and oral traditions passed on by her Grandmother.
At 12, she gained the Roman Catholic baptismal name ‘Anthony’, which then became the nickname Toni when fellow students at Washington’s Howard University struggled with Chloe. Not surprisingly, Morrison’s core studies at Howard were English and a minor in Classics. She then acquired an English Masters from Cornell University.
Her life and writing
Following university, Toni Morrison taught at the historically black Texas Southern University before returning to her alma mater Howard as a faculty member. It was at this point she began her own writing, including prose that would eventually influence her first published novel.
After marriage and divorce, Toni Morrison saw her first book published, ‘The Bluest Eyes’ (1970). She completed it while juggling her job as a book editor with Random House and raising two young sons.
After moving to New York, she went to write a total of 11 novels, as well as collections of writing for children.
An enduring legacy of Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison died in 2019 at aged 88, while living in New York and enjoying Emeritus status at Princeton University. Apart from her body of fiction, there are other important aspects of her role as a literary great.
In her time as a book editor, Morrison sought out works by black writers. This process began as early as the 1960s and 70s when the idea of black authors speaking directly to black readers was a ‘novel’ phenomenon.
Also, her own body of work is not solely in the realms of fiction. For example, ‘The Black Book’ (1974) was a carefully curated and fascinating scrapbook of material covering 300 years of African American history. It includes a wealth of imagery.
Her other nonfiction books include a critical collection called ‘Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination’ (1992).
Consider as well the influence Toni Morrison has had on future generations of writers, who are inspired by reading her raw subject matter and poetic prose and attending her university classes.
In 2006, after collecting the views of hundreds of editors, critics and writers, The Book Review named ‘Beloved’ the best American work of fiction for 25 years.
The Oprah Winfrey magazine’s obituary says Toni Morrison “was one of the greatest living literary voices of our time.” Oprah herself said in 2018: “It’s impossible to actually imagine the American literary landscape without a Toni Morrison.”
Many of her worldwide readers are in full agreement.