Weekend Writing: Celebrating Toni Morrison

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." - Toni Morrison 

Toni Morrison (photo/Goodreads)

I'm writing this blog post as my worn and highly annotated copy of Morrison's The Bluest Eye rests on my bookshelf. There is so much to celebrate today on her 87th birthday. Not only is she a Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, but she is also an editor and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, beautiful and often poetic language, and detailed African-American characters who are central to the narratives.

Born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio as Chloe Ardelia Wofford, her childhood was plagued by racial division. When she was two years old, her landlords set fire to the house her family lived in, while they were home, because her parents didn't pay their rent on time. Her parents instilled in her a sense of African-American heritage and language, which enabled Morrison to read frequently as a child. Perhaps her love for reading inspired her future career as a writer.

Morrison is a highly intelligent woman. After all, she earned a Master of Arts degree from Cornell University and worked as a professor at Texas Southern University and Howard University (where she received her undergraduate education). She eventually became an editor at Random House, where she became their first African-American senior editor in the fiction department.

Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" (photo/Kasy Long).

Her first novel was inspired from a writing group she participated in at Howard University. She shared with others her short story about a young African-American girl who longed to have blue eyes. She was encouraged to turn the story into a full-length novel, which she did in 1970 with my favorite work of hers, The Bluest Eye. She would wake up every morning at 4 a.m. to work on her novel while raising two young children by herself. That's dedication!

The first time I read The Bluest Eye, I was inspired by Morrison's eloquent writing. Even though I am a white woman who never experienced the racial divide her characters are faced with, I connected with her characters because they are so real. I root for Pecola Breedlove and cry along with her as she pleads to become beautiful with blue eyes.

I have read the book five times now, but I could easily read it again and still be amazed at Morrison's beautiful storytelling. I love this book, and while her most celebrated book might be Beloved, The Bluest Eye will always be my favorite.

Morrison's other wonderful best-selling works include Sula, in which she explores the good and evil through the friendship of two women living in Morrison's home state of Ohio; Song of Solomon, which follows the journey of Milkman Dead, a Midwestern urban denizen who attempts to make sense of his family roots; and, Beloved, Morrison's most well-known novel about a slave woman haunted by the decision to kill her children rather than see them enslaved. Morrison received a Pulitzer Prize for Beloved. 

A collection of Morrison's work (photo/Kasy Long).

In 1993, Morrison received a Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first African-American woman to win the prize. In her acceptance speech, she talked about the power of storytelling, speaking 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."

And Morrison has done just that: made up stories that we still love and read today. She made up stories that had to be told. If she wasn't going to write them, who would? Toni Morrison is a writer every reader should know.

She said, "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." And I'm very thankful she decided to write the books she wanted to read, and knew others would want to read.

We celebrate Toni Morrison today on her birthday, but every day that follows. Go out and read her beautiful work. You won't be sorry.

Read on.

-KJL-

(photo/pinterest.com)