Biography Essay

Toni Morrison is one of America's most important writers of fiction. She has received critical acclaim, most notably the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987), the 1978 National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon (1977), and the eighteen-thousand-dollar 1989 Common Wealth Award in Literature. In addition, she has enjoyed a wide readership, and her books have sold well. Besides writing novels, Morrison has also been a senior editor at Random House, and she is well known as an inspiring teacher. Currently she teaches creative writing at Princeton University, and she has taught at a number of other institutions such as Bard College, Yale University, and the State University of New York at Albany.

Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, Toni Morrison grew up in the Depression in Lorain, Ohio, the second of four children of strong-minded, self- reliant parents. Her father, George Wofford, a shipyard welder, worked three jobs simultaneously for...