Toni Morrison - BIOGRAPHY

Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio in 1931. Her father, George Wofford was a shipyard wielder and her mother, Rahmah Willis Wofford, raised her family. Her family’s move from the south to the north is much like the Breedloves in The Bluest Eye. Her mother’s family moved from Alabama and her father’s family moved from Georgia. Rahmah and George had four children, Toni Morrison being the second child. Morrison’s family was rich in folkloric knowledge and musical acumen. Her mother sang in the church choir and her grandfather was a professional violinist. Morrison grew up hearing folktales from the adults in her family and community, tales of slave times, Emancipation, tales of dealing with the racism of the white majority, and tales of the supernatural. Morrison married Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect, had two sons, and then was divorced in 1964.

Morrison began to write fiction in 1957. She was especially spurred in this direction by her participation in a group of African-American writers in Washington D.C. While living in Syracuse, New York, Morrison completed and published The Bluest Eye (1970). Morrison moved to New York City and worked at Random House until 1984. While working as an editor, Morrison also taught in various universities the State University of New York at Purchase, Yale University, Bard College, the State University of New York at Albany, Princeton University where she teaches today.Morrison developed a love of literature early in her life. She earned a B.A. degree from Howard University in 1953. Her major was English and her minor, classics. She went on the Cornell University to earn a master’s degree in 1955. She wrote a thesis on the theme of suicide in the novels of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner. Morrison moved to Houston, Texas and taught for two years at Texas Southern University, then she returned to Howard University and taught until 1964. Morrison lived briefly with her parents in Lorain, Ohio in 1964, then she moved to Syracuse, New York in 1965 to work as a textbook editor.

Morrison’s second novel, Sula (1973) is set in a fictional town of Medallion, Ohio. Sula was enthusiastically received by literary critics and reviewers. Song of Solomon (1977) was a bestseller and culled several prestigious literary awards. In 1981, Morrison published Tar Baby, another popular and critical success. Morrison wrote one short story, "Recitatif" in 1983 and one play, Dreaming Emmett, still unpublished. In 1987, Morrison wrote a tour de force in novelistic fiction,Beloved, a novel which explores the history of slavery especially as it affected relations within black families. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and other prestigious awards. In 1992, Morrison published another novel, Jazz. In the same year, Morrison published a collection of essays of literary criticism, Playing in the Dark - Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. It provides a compelling critique of the European-American canon of literature as it relies upon the African-American presence while presuming to ignore it or place it on the periphery of important literary concerns. In 1993, Morrison won the Novel Prize in Literature.