Toni Morrison Books

Description /Buy link takes you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Toni Morrison was an American novelist that wrote literary fiction. Born in Lorain, Ohio, in 1931, Toni came from a family of four children. Her father (George Wofford) was 15 when two black businessmen were lynched.

While he never admitted it to his family, Toni knows that George saw the dead bodies. The event traumatized him, and he quickly moved to Lorain, a racially integrated town.

By then, George’s hatred of white people was so strong that he wouldn’t even invite them to his house. Toni’s experiences were no better. She was just two years old when their landlord took drastic actions in response to the family’s inability to pay their rent.

The family was still in the house when the landlord in question set it on fire. To the landlord’s surprise, Toni’s parents laughed at him. They refused to succumb to despair in the face of evil.

They also told their daughter African-American stories, teaching her to revere her language and heritage. A former student at Lorain High School, Toni eventually joined Howard University (Washington, DC).

The experience was eye-opening. On the one hand, it introduced her to black intellectuals. On the other hand, she encountered racially segregated businesses for the first time in her life.

After getting her degree in English and attending Cornell University (Master of Arts), the author landed teaching positions at Texas Southern University and Howard University.

Toni was still at Howard when she met Harold Morrison, her future husband. They married one another in 1958. Although, by the time their second child came along, the pair were divorced.

The divorce did little to slow the author down. While she appreciated her time at L.W. Singer, Toni did wonders for black literature when she became Random House’s first black female senior editor (Fiction Department).

It did not take long for Toni to write her own stories. Initially, she experimented with fiction after joining a group of poets and writers. By the time she was 40, the author had published her first book.

Even though the novel was a financial failure, it secured several favorable reviews from notable publications, including The New York Times. Later on, when it was added to the reading list at the City University of New York, sales for ‘The Bluest Eye’ improved. Toni drew the interest of a Knopf editor (Robert Gottlieb), who edited many of her novels.

‘Beloved’ is still her most famous book. The story follows an enslaved black woman that kills her infant daughter after escaping her masters. Unfortunately, they capture her before she can kill herself, forcing the woman to contend with her dead baby, who returns as a ghost.

Toni Morrison Awards

Toni’s accolades include a Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize.

Tony Morrison Books into Movies

‘Beloved’ received a live-action adaptation. It was directed by Jonathan Demme. Oprah Winfrey was the producer.

Best Toni Morrison Books

The author’s birth name was Chloe Ardelia Wofford. She died in 2019. Toni’s best books include:

Beloved: Sethe survived more pain than most people could ever bare. She started enduring the horrors of slavery at a young age. The woman thought she had escaped the memories of her hideous captors and their beautiful farm with her sanity intact.

But her past refuses to stay hidden. The ghost of her baby is back. The infant died a meaningless death. If Sethe had her way, she would keep her actions in the past where they belong.

But the baby refuses to stay silent. It wants to be heard. And now, a new wrinkle has entered the equation in the form of a mysterious girl with a familiar name.

The Bluest Eye: Pecola is a curious 11-year-old girl. Born in Lorain, Ohio, Pecola has an inferiority complex because of all the people that have equated her dark skin with ugliness.

Pecola wants to change everything about her life, which is why she prays for the blue eyes all the beautiful white children of America have. But when change comes, it takes a form Pecola doesn’t expect.

‘The Bluest Eye’ was Toni’s first novel. It was set in her childhood town. Some people have called it one of the most influential novels about the African-American experience publishers have ever put out.

When Does The Next Toni Morrison book come out?

Toni Morrison doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Toni Morrison and was released on July, 7th 2020. It is the newest book in the The Last Interview Series.

Home » Author » Toni Morrison

BookSeries.org