Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison has died.
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf says Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. She was 88.
She was the first black woman to receive the Nobel literature prize, awarded in 1993. The Swedish academy hailed her use of language and her “visionary force.”
Her novel “Beloved,” in which a mother makes a tragic choice to murder her baby to save the girl from slavery, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988.
The author is also known for novels "Song of Solomon," and "The Bluest Eye."
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
We are profoundly sad to report that Toni Morrison has died at the age of eighty-eight.
— Alfred A. Knopf (@AAKnopf) August 6, 2019
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019 pic.twitter.com/DWnElCpMKc
From Sonny Mehta: “Toni Morrison’s working life was spent in the service of literature: writing books, reading books, editing books, teaching books. I can think of few writers in American letters who wrote with more humanity or with more love for language than Toni.” (1/2)
— Alfred A. Knopf (@AAKnopf) August 6, 2019
“Her narratives and mesmerizing prose have made an indelible mark on our culture. Her novels command and demand our attention. They are canonical works, and more importantly, they are books that remain beloved by readers.” (2/2)
— Alfred A. Knopf (@AAKnopf) August 6, 2019
