Nobel laureate Toni Morrison legendary author of several works of fiction that honour her African ancestry passed on to Nirvana at the human age of 88 after boldly and courageously capturing the horrendous racism of America in many if not all of her award winning story tales.
Toni Morrison, author and Nobel Laureate, has died aged 88
writes Bill Trott, The Independent
U.S. author Toni Morrison, whose 1987 novel “Beloved” about a runaway slave won a Pulitzer Prize and contributed to a body of work that made her the first black woman to be presented the Nobel Prize in Literature, has died at the age of 88, her publisher said.
Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for the publishing company Alfred A. Knopf, announced the death but did not provide an immediate cause.
- Toni Morrison after being awarded the Officer de la Legion d’Honneur, the Legion of Honour, France’s highest award, during a ceremony at the Culture Ministry in Paris, France November 3, 2010. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo
Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) was set during the U.S. Civil War and based on the true story of a woman who killed her 2-year-old daughter so she would not become a slave. The woman was captured before she could kill herself and the child’s ghost, known as Beloved, visits her mother.
Her older novel Song of Solomon published 1977 traced several generations of slavery from Africa, capturing the horrendous racism of America in what has been called violent and sexually explicit language, and references to incest, as well as references to several real-life hate crimes, including the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till and the murders of four African-American girls in an Alabama church bombing.
Other contributions of Toni Morrison to world literature include To Kill A Mockingbird (1960), Tar Baby (1981), The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973)and Jazz (1992) among others. Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
