Toni Morrison Death
Toni passed away on August 5, 2019 at the age of 88 in Montefiore Medical Center Moses Division, New York, USA. Toni's cause of death was complications of pneumonia.
When did Toni Morrison die?
August 5, 2019How did Toni Morrison die? What was the cause of death?
Complications of pneumoniaHow old was Toni Morrison when died?
88Where did Toni Morrison die? What was the location of death?
Montefiore Medical Center Moses Division, New York, USA
Toni Morrison Birthday and Date of Death
Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931 and died on August 5, 2019. Toni was 88 years old at the time of death.
Birthday: February 18, 1931
Date of Death: August 5, 2019
Age at Death: 88
Toni Morrison - Biography
Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931) is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), and Beloved (1987). She was also commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for Beloved and the Nobel Prize in 1993. On May 29, 2012, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Morrison serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University.
In 1987, Morrison published her most celebrated novel, Beloved. It was inspired by the true story of an enslaved African-American woman, Margaret Garner, a piece of history that Morrison had discovered when compiling The Black Book. Garner had escaped slavery but was pursued by slave hunters. Facing a return to slavery, Garner killed her two-year-old daughter but was captured before she could kill herself. Morrison's novel imagines the dead baby returning as a ghost, Beloved, to haunt her mother and family.
Before the third novel of the trilogy came out, in 1993 Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her citation reads: Toni Morrison, "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." She was the first black woman of any nationality to win the prize.
In her Nobel acceptance speech, Morrison talked about the power of storytelling. To make her point, she told a story. She spoke about a blind, old, black woman who is approached by a group of young people. They demand of her, "Is there no context for our lives? No song, no literature, no poem full of vitamins, no history connected to experience that you can pass along to help us start strong? … Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story."
