Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, as the second of child of four children in a black working-class family, Morrison displayed an early interest in literature.
Toni Morrison's novels examine the black community in Ohio, the state she has known since her youth, at various stages of its history. Her passionate and poetic writing particularly address the impact that slavery had and continues to have on people who struggle to retain their dignity.
In 1993, Toni Morrison became the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Payne, Tom. "Toni Morrison." A-Z of Great Writers, Carlton Books, 1997, p. 258.
"Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another"
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage, 2007.