After the birth of her son, Morrison joined a writers group that met on campus. The couple married in 1958 and welcomed their first child, Harold, in 1961. There she met Harold Morrison, an architect originally from Jamaica. In 1957, Morrison returned to Howard University to teach English. She then moved to the Lone Star State to teach at Texas Southern University. She wrote her thesis on the works of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner and completed her master's degree in 1955. After graduating from Howard in 1953, Morrison continued her education at Cornell University. She majored in English and chose the classics for her minor.

She graduated from Lorain High School with honors in 1949.Īt Howard University, Morrison continued to pursue her interest in literature. Dedicated to her studies, Morrison took Latin in school and read many great works of European literature. I was the only Black in the class and the only child who could read,' she later told a reporter from The New York Times. 'When I was in first grade, nobody thought I was inferior. Living in an integrated neighborhood, Morrison did not become fully aware of racial divisions until she was in her teens. Morrison later credited her parents with instilling in her a love of reading, music and folklore along with clarity and perspective. Her mother, Ramah, was a domestic worker. Her father, George Wofford, worked primarily as a welder but held several jobs at once to support the family. Early Life and Educationīorn Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio, Toni Morrison was the second oldest of four children. Morrison earned a plethora of book-world accolades and honorary degrees, also receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Among her best-known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, Love and A Mercy. Her novels are known for their epic themes, exquisite language and richly detailed African American characters who are central to their narratives. Toni Morrison was a Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, editor and professor.

Toni morrison on beloved