March is Women’s History Month and we’re celebrating women authors. Through the rest of this month, you can expect blog post about different authors. We’re starting with Toni Morrison, whose book Mercy is currently part of our Celebrate Women Author’s Display.

Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in 1931. She was raised in Lorain, Ohio and credited her parents with instilling her with a love of language and her cultural history. As a child, Morrison was a voracious reader, citing Leo Tolstoy and Jane Austen as her favorite authors. In her early adult life, she studied literature, and in 1967 she became the first black woman senior fiction editor at Random House. In this position, she is credited with helping to bring African American literature to the mainstream. In this role, she was able to develop and edit 1972’s Contemporary African Literature. She was able to serve as editor and fight for the publications of works by famous boxer Muhammad Ali, Gayl Jones, Angela Davis and Hewey Newton.

Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. While it initially didn’t sell well, it received positive reviews, and ended up on the reading list on several colleges Black Studies departments. Morrison published her next two books, Sula and The Song of Solomon, in 1973 and 1977 respectfully. The Song Of Solomon was very well received. It was the first book chosen for the Book Of The Month Club by an African American author since 1940.

In her life, Toni Morrison published 11 novels. With her son, Slade Morrison, she published 7 books. Morrison was the recipient of numerous awards, including The Presidential Medal Of Freedom in 2012. Her work has been subject to much scholarship and analysis.

You can find several works by and about Toni Morrison in our collection, including but not limited to…