She was born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, but Toni Morrison’s impact reached around the globe and across generations. Her timeless contributions will be required reading for decades to come.
Morrison was the first black female editor for fiction at Random House, a position she earned in the late 1960s. As the next decade began, her reputation as an author in her own right began to grow and her legendary string of novels and stories began to unfold. Here are a few of her selected works.
Her first novel, published in 1970, converting a short story about a black girl who longed for blue eyes. She created the novel while working full time and raising two children on her own, rising in the wee hours of the morning to write. The book garnered a good review in The New York Times but sales lagged until it was placed on a suggested reading list by the City University of New York.
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If you know Toni Morrison, chances are it’s because of this novel, the beginning of what many call the Beloved Trilogy. Published in 1987, it not only became a critical success, but topped the best seller list for almost half a year. It failed to win the prestigious National Book Award or the National Book Critics Circle Award, generating a huge wave of protest. Justice was served when the novel earned Morrison the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The critical and commercial success did not translate onto the big screen, however. Oprah Winfrey spent nearly a decade converting Beloved into a movie, but the result was a movie that tanked at the box office and failed to inspire critics. Oprah’s star power would buoy Morrison’s career in another way. Read on …
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Oprah Winfrey selected four of Morrison’s novels for her vaunted book club over the years, including this one. And when Oprah speaks, people listen. Her mentions of Morrison’s novels resulted in a bigger sales boost than the Pulitzer Prize. Song of Solomon is often described as a coming-of-age story, but that seems to simple. It involves a spoiled man named Milkman Dead (what a great name) and his sole motivation in life – seeking pleasure. Bottom line, if you enjoy Morrison’s style, you will find this one of her most compelling novels. It was a main selection for the Book of the Month Club, the first time a black author enjoyed that designation since 1940.
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Morrison continued to produce quality work well into her 80s, with a brief respite after her son passed away in 2010. So much of Morrison’s work leaned on historical settings, but this novel takes a more modern approach. The story centers on Lula Ann Bridewell – Bride, a black woman in her early 20s who overcomes a series of obstacles including childhood challenges to become a successful businesswoman. The novel produced mixed reviews. The New York Times review ended this way: … I was left hungering for warmth. I wanted to be lured even deeper into that awful golden landscape. I wanted to tug at the sleeve of the storyteller and say, “Yes, yes, I know all that, I get the message, but the story is the thing; tell me the part about the trees again, and don’t forget the sunlight.”
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Morrison’s gift for storytelling is unquestioned, but her ability to use powerful language to evoke a wide range of emotions may be her greatest ability. That makes this collection of quotes so inspiring. It’s presented almost like a daily devotional, supported by the advice to “Take time to ponder and read at a leisurely pace.” It is inspiring and uplifting while at turns witty and humorous. “Don’t ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn’t fall in love, I rose in it.”
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