Profile of the Day: Toni Morrison

On this day in 1931, author Toni Morrison was born. Known for her rich story telling of the Black experience in America, Morrison was the first African American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Image: Toni Morrison / Library of Congress

Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. She was the second of four children born to George Wofford and Ella Ramah Willis. At the age of 12, she joined the Roman Catholic Church and took the baptismal name Anthony, which later led to her nickname, Toni. Growing up, Morrison’s family instilled a strong sense of cultural heritage through the telling of traditional African-American folktales and ghost stories. With a love of reading from a young age, Morrison majored in English at Howard University and later earned her Masters from Cornell University.

Before becoming an author, Morrison returned to Howard University to teach English. She later began working as an editor for Random House. In 1970, she published her first book, The Bluest Eye, at the age of 39. Over the course of her career, she would publish 11 novels. She published her most celebrated novel Beloved in 1987. Generally regarded as her masterpiece, the book earned Morrison the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The book was later adapted into a film starring Oprah Winfrey. In 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Morrison died on August 5, 2019 at the age of 88.

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