A brief collection of works about and by Toni Morrison

Editor's Note: Wenkai Tay is a freelance writer based in Singapore. Several months ago he approached me with the suggestion of writing a review of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye." Tay is a gifted reviewer and I looked forward to reading what he had to say about Morrison's work. Since posting the review, I have seen more people visit Northeast Book Reviews looking for information on Toni Morrison than any other author. In recognition of this, I have put together a sampling of information that is available about the author and her works.

As one might expect of a laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993), there is no dearth of information on Ms. Morrison. Using the online databases available through my public library, the Library of Congress Online Catalog, The Official Web Site of The Nobel Foundation, and a web search, I have put together the following information. I have cited the sources of this information in the hopes that those of you searching for references to Toni Morrison's work and life will have an easier time locating and accessing these quality resources. Lastly, and this almost goes without saying, this is only a small subset of information available on Toni Morrison.

What follows is:
Online database resources | Related websites | Bibliography

Timothy E. McMahon
Executive Editor
Northeast Book Reviews

Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2004

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison has a central role in the American literary canon, according to many critics, award committees, and readers. Her award-winning novels chronicle small-town African-American life, employing "an artistic vision that encompasses both a private and a national heritage," to quote Time magazine contributor Angela Wigan. Through works such as The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, Morrison proves herself to be a gifted storyteller of stories in which troubled characters seek to find themselves and their cultural riches in a society that warps or impedes such essential growth. According to Charles Larson, writing in the Chicago Tribune Book World, each of Morrison's novels "is as original as anything that has appeared in our literature in the last twenty years. The contemporaneity that unites them--the troubling persistence of racism in America--is infused with an urgency that only a black writer can have about our society."

Twayne on Authors

Biography
Toni Morrison was the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Morrison, whose father was a shipyard welder, was born the second of four children. In the first grade, she was the only black student and the only child able to read in her class. Her early literary influences included Leo Tolstoy, Gustave Flaubert, and Jane Austen. At Howard University, Morrison toured the South with the Howard University Players. She was married in 1958 and divorced in 1964. She has two children, Harold Ford and Slade Kevin. Morrison received her B.A. in English and minored in classics. She taught at the State University of New York at Purchase as a professor of English from 1971 to 1972 and was the Albert Schweitzer Chair in the Humanities at State University of New York at Albany from 1984 to 1989. Beginning in 1989, Morrison held the position of Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University. Other positions include trustee of the National Humanities Center, co-chair of the Schomberg Commission for the Preservation of Black Culture, and member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Council on the Arts, the Authors Guild, and the Authors League of America. Morrison became a popular public lecturer, focusing on African American literature.

Analysis
In all of her fiction, Toni Morrison explores the conflict between society and the individual. She shows how the individual who defies social pressures can forge a self by drawing on the resources of the natural world, on a sense of continuity within the family and within the history of a people, and on dreams and other unaccountable sources of psychic power.

Associated Press: Recent Update

August 8, 2003

Morrison is working on a children's book about the Supreme Court decision to desegregate schools, Remember: A Pictorial Tribute to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Decision. The book includes many black and white photographs and will be published by Houghton Mifflin in 2004 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the landmark case.

Source: Associated Press, http://customwire.ap.org, August 8, 2003.

Black Issues in Higher Education

Jan 4, 2001 v17 i23 p18

White House Names Humanities Honorees. (National Endowment for the Humanities awards)

WASHINGTON

President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the 2000 National Humanities Medallists, an award administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities. An award ceremony was held last month in Washington and the winners were honored at a White House dinner.

"The 2000 National Humanities Medallists are distinguished individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to American cultural life and thought," says NEH Chairman William R. Ferris. "Through their powers of creativity and vision, the National Humanities Medallists are helping to preserve, interpret and expand the nation's cultural heritage. Their work represents an invaluable public service."

Princeton University English professor TONI MORRISON is America's most renowned Black woman writer. Author of seven novels, a collection of essays and dozens of articles and reviews, she won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first American woman to win the award since 1938 and the first African American ever. Her novel Song of Solomon won the 1977 National Book Critics Award, and Beloved won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize. She was a senior editor at Random House for 20 years before being appointed Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities at Princeton in 1989. In 1990 she delivered the Clark Lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Massey Lectures at Harvard. She also wrote the lyrics, with music by Andre Previn, for "Honey and Rue" and "Four Songs," which premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1992 and 1994 respectively. Her lyrics for "Sweet Talk," with music by Richard Danielpour, premiered in 1997. Morrison is a founding member of the Academic Universelle des Cultures and a trustee of the New York Public Library. She is also a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the International Parliament of Writers, the Author's Guild, and the Africa Watch and Helsinki Watch Committees on Human Rights. Some of her honors include the Rhegium Julii Prize for Literature (1994), the Condorcet Medal, Paris (1994), the Pearl Buck Award (1994), Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, Pads (1993), and the Modern Language Association's Commonwealth Award in Literature (1989).

The Columbia Encyclopedia

Edition 6, 2000 p26530

Morrison , Toni , 1931-, American writer, b. Lorain, Ohio, as Chloe Anthony Wofford. Her fiction is noted for its spare poetic language, emotional intensity, and sensitive observation of life. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), is the story of a girl ruined by a racist society and its violence. Song of Solomon (1977; National Book Award) established her as one of America's leading novelists. It concerns a middle-class man who achieves self-knowledge through the discovery of his rural black heritage. Her later fiction includes Beloved (1987; Pulitzer), a powerful account of the legacy of slavery, and Jazz (1992), a tale of love and murder set in Harlem in the 1920s. Her other work includes the novels Sula (1973), Tar Baby (1981), and Paradise (1997) and the essay collections Race-ing Justice, En-Gendering Power and Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (both: 1992). Morrison was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature

Related Sites

The History Channel

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At The History Channel you will find historical information ranging from Great Speeches (in audio) to facts about This Day in History. The History Channel is your guide through time. Step back into history with The History Channel.

Biography.com

http://www.biography.com/
Biography.com is the online destination of A&E’s popular, award-winning documentary series, Biography, and the new digital network, The Biography Channel. Biography.com features a searchable biographical database of 25,000 famous names, Born On This Day, Top 10 lists, TV listings, Biography Magazine features and crossword puzzle, discussion boards, trivia quizzes; and the Who Am I? game.

The Toni Morrison Society

The Society

The Toni Morrison Society was founded May 28, 1993 at the annual meeting of the American Literature Association in Baltimore, Maryland. At the invitation of Dr. Carolyn Denard of Georgia State University, twenty-six scholars and supporters of Morrison's work met in Baltimore to organize the Society. With its founding in 1993, the Toni Morrison Society became an official member of the Coalition of American Author Societies that make up the American Literature Association.

In April 1995, the society was chartered at Georgia State University in Atlanta and was officially incorporated in the state of Georgia in December 1995. The Society is the 41st society of the American Literature Association and the fourth named for an African-American author. The purpose of the society is "to initiate, sponsor, and encourage critical dialogue, scholarly publications, conferences and projects devoted to the study of the life and works of Toni Morrison."

Nobel e-Museum

Background
In 1994, Internet was first used to present the Prize Winners. A year later, the Official Web Site of the Nobel Foundation was created. The web site is today called "Nobel e-Museum" and can be reached at www.nobel.se or www.nobelprize.org.

What Nobel e-Museum Offers
Nobel e-Museum offers information on all 758 Prize Winners to date, the Nobel Organization, Alfred Nobel, and Nobel events, as well as educational material and games. Nobel e-Museum consists of more than 9,000 static documents, several databases and a number of multimedia productions with Nobel Prize connection.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1993
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1993
Biography - http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-bio.html