Toni Morrison, born Chloe Ardelia Wofford (February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), was an American novelist, editor, essayist, teacher, and professor. She was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Her work examined the Black experience, especially the Black female experience, in American culture of the past and present. [At right, Morrison’s author portrait on The Bluest Eye (1970), courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

Morrison was born and raised in Lorain, Ohio in a working-class African-American family. They influenced her immense love and appreciation for Black culture as she grew up hearing folktales, songs, and storytelling. Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy were two of her favorite authors.