Toni Morrison

Date

1931–

Description

City of birth: Lorain
Country of birth: United States
Field of activity: Culture — literature

More detail coming ...

Quotes

‘Today, the world lost a storyteller of unmatched empathy, elegance and power. Toni Morrison’s belief that language is the “measure of our lives” leaves an extraordinary, inspiring inheritance, and her beautiful writing will continue to be a blessing for generations to come.’

Author

Nancy Pelosi

Speaker

Nancy Pelosi

Title of the publication

‘Today, the World Lost a Storyteller’

Other contributors

n/a

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

‘Twitter’

City of publication

San Francisco

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

7 August 2019

Location [pp. or web]

https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1158753626959089665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1158753626959089665&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.ie%2Fworld-news%2Fobama-and-beyonce-lead-tributes-to-toni-morrison-38381184.html

Original language

English

Genre

Context

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007–2011, is the first woman in American history to hold this position.

‘Her writing was not just beautiful but meaningful — a challenge to our conscience and a call to greater empathy. She was as good a storyteller, as captivating, in person as she was on the page. And so even as Michelle and I mourn her loss and send our warmest sympathies to her family and friends.’

Author

Barack Obama

Speaker

Barack Obama

Title of the publication

‘Time is No Match for Toni Morrison’

Other contributors

n/a

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

Facebook

City of publication

Washington DC

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

17 August 2019

Location [pp. or web]

https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/photos/time-is-no-match-for-toni-morrison-in-her-writing-she-sometimes-toyed-with-it-wa/10156901908101749/

Original language

English

Genre

Facebook post

Context

Former President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, posts a message on his Facebook page following the death of Toni Morrison.

‘I have to confess to all of you, Madame President, Board of Trustees, members of the faculty, relatives, friends, students. I have had some conflicted feelings about accepting this invitation to deliver the Commencement Address to Wellesley’s Class of 2004. My initial response, of course, was glee, a very strong sense of pleasure at, you know, participating personally and formally in the rites of an institution with this reputation: 125 years of history in women’s education, an enviable rostrum of graduates, its commitment sustained over the years in making a difference in the world, and its successful resistance to challenges that women’s colleges have faced from the beginning and throughout the years. An extraordinary record-and I was delighted to be asked to participate and return to this campus. But my second response was not so happy. I was very anxious about having to figure out something to say to this particular class at this particular time, because I was really troubled by what could be honestly said in 2004 to over 500 elegantly educated women, or to relatives and friends who are relieved at this moment, but hopeful as well as apprehensive. And to a college faculty and administration dedicated to leadership and knowledgeable about what that entails. Well, of course, I could be sure of the relatives and the friends, just tell them that youth is always insulting because it manages generation after generation not only to survive and replace us, but to triumph over us completely.’

Author

Toni Morrison

Speaker

Toni Morrison

Title of the publication

‘Toni Morrison’s Commencement Address to the Wellesley College Class of 2004’

Other contributors

n/a

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

Wellesley College

City of publication

Wellesley

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

28 May 2004

Location [pp. or web]

https://www.wellesley.edu/events/commencement/archives/2004commencement/commencementaddress

Other location

https://www.c-span.org/video/?182148-1/wellesley-college-commencement-address

Original language

English

Genre

Speech

Context

In May 2004, Toni Morrison was invited to Wellesley College to address recent graduates.

‘I entered this hall pleasantly haunted by those who have entered it before me. That company of Laureates is both daunting and welcoming, for among its lists are names of persons whose work has made whole worlds available to me. The sweep and specificity of their art have sometimes broken my heart with the courage and clarity of its vision. The astonishing brilliance with which they practiced their craft has challenged and nurtured my own.’

Author

Toni Morrison

Speaker

Toni Morrison

Title of the publication

‘Tony Morrison Banquet speech’

Other contributors

n/a

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

Nobel Prize

City of publication

Stockholm

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

Sweden

Publication date

10 December 1993

Location [pp. or web]

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/speech/

Other location

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crf2dcrEiHg

Original language

English

Genre

Speech

Context

In 1993, Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Morrison was the first African American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize, for ‘novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality’.

‘Anger ... it’s a paralyzing emotion ... you can’t get anything done. People sort of think it’s an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it’s any of that — it’s helpless ... it’s absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers — and I need clarity, in order to write — and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever. I can feel melancholy, and I can feel full of regret, but anger is something that is useful to the people who watch it ... it’s not useful to me.’

Author

Toni Morrison

Speaker

Toni Morrison

Title of the publication

‘Toni Morrison interviewed by Don Swaim on September 15, 1987’

Other contributors

Don Swaim

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

Ohio University Digital Archival Collections, Original: WCBS-AM

City of publication

Athens; originally New York

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

c. 26 October 1987

Location [pp. or web]

https://media.library.ohio.edu/digital/collection/donswaim/id/6350/rec/2

Other location

http://donswaim.com/bookbeatpodcastvol06.html

Original language

English

Genre

Interview

Context

From 1982 through to 1993, Book Beat, hosted by Ohio University alumnus Don Swaim and broadcast on WCBS-AM in New York and syndicated nationally by the CBS Radio Stations New Service, ran daily snippets of the candid taped interviews that Swaim conducted with authors, editors and other publishing industry professionals. In 1997 Ohio University Libraries became stewards of the Don Swaim Collection and made them available from Wired for Books, an online education project. In 2016 when the website went dark, the Libraries began a two-part preservation and accessibility project to digitize the Book Beat tapes and full-length interviews to become the Don Swaim Digital Collection.