Remembering the legendary Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison, a literary icon has passed away in the Bronx.

How Toni Morrison passed

She was 88 years old.

Her death was announced by her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. A spokeswoman said the cause was complications of pneumonia.

The Morrison family issued this statement:

“It is with profound sadness we share that, following a short illness, our adored mother and grandmother, Toni Morrison, passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends. She was an extremely devoted mother, grandmother, and aunt who reveled in being with her family and friends. The consummate writer who treasured the written word, whether her own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing. Although her passing represents a tremendous loss, we are grateful she had a long, well lived life.

While we would like to thank everyone who knew and loved her, personally or through her work, for their support at this difficult time, we ask for privacy as we mourn this loss to our family. We will share information in the near future about how we will celebrate Toni’s incredible life.”

Toni Morrison was a literary icon

Morrison encapsulated the essence of black identity, in particular, the black woman experience,

She captivated readers in 1970 with the release of her first novel ‘The Bluest Eye’ – a story about a young African American girl living during the Great Depression who deals with racism, identity, and inferiority complexity as she is regarded as “ugly” because of her mannerisms and dark-skin.

Nobel Peace prize

The first African American woman to receive the Nobel Peace in Literature, Morrison would go on to author 11 novels as well as children’s books and essay collections. Among them were celebrated works like “Song of Solomon,” which received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977, and “Beloved,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

In her Nobel address in 1993, Ms. Morrison said: “The vitality of language lies in its ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers. Although its poise is sometimes in displacing experience it is not a substitute for it. It arcs toward the place where meaning may lie.”

Editor

Morrison also worked as an editor at Random House from 1967 to 1983, making company history as the first female African American editor. During her tenure, she published Gayl Jones, Toni Cade Bambara, Henry Dumas, Huey P. Newton, Muhammad Ali, and Angela Davis, among others. Random House describes her work as an editor and publisher demonstrated “a unique commitment to writers of color, and helped in opening industry doors to them”.

Toni Morrison as a teacher

And for over five decades, the revered literary icon shared her knowledge working as a part-time teacher of creative writing and literature, often bringing students together with other writers, at Howard University (from which she graduated in 1953), Yale University, SUNY Purchase, Bard College, Rutgers University, SUNY Albany, and Princeton University, where she retired as Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities in 2006.

Her ability to imaginations

Morrison’s ability to galvanize people’s imaginations through experiences have always enamored many writers like myself to the endless possibilities in the world of literature.

Toni Morrison may now be gone, but her words, her legacy, will always remain timeless.

Rest in Peace, Toni Morrison.