Toni Morrison, the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in literature, has died aged 88.
The author, known for her works Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye and Beloved, has passed away. Morrison’s publisher Knopf confirmed in a statement today (6 August) that the writer died on Monday (5 August) at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Her cause of death has not been disclosed.
Her long-time editor Robert Gottlieb, from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, said: “She was a great woman and a great writer, and I don’t know which I will miss more.”
“I can think of few writers in American letters who wrote with more humanity or with more love for language than Toni,” said editor-in-chief Sonny Mehta. “Her narratives and mesmerising prose have made an indelible mark on our culture. Her novels command and demand our attention.”
“They are canonical works,” she added, “and more importantly, they are books that remain beloved by readers.”
Former tennis champion and activist Billie Jean King has paid tribute to the late writer, tweeting: “May she rest in power”. Merky Books, the imprint set up by Stormzy, have also paid their respects to Morrison online.
“If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” – Toni Morrison, 1931-2019 pic.twitter.com/V9UYbz8Gzw
— #Merky Books (@MerkyBooks) August 6, 2019
Morrison was a novelist, essayist and teacher in addition to being a professor at Princeton University. The Swedish Academy, who awarded her the Nobel Prize in 1993, described her as an author “who in novels characterised by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.”
Born in Ohio in 1931 during the Great Depression, Morrison went on to write 11 novels between 1970 and 2015, including The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Jazz, Paradise, Tar Baby and her most recent book, God Help the Child.
In 1996 she was honoured with the National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and in 2012, President Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Morrison became the first African-American woman to take on an editor’s role at Random House. She worked at the company between 1967 and 1983.