Toni Morrison (1931–2019), Nobel Prize-winning author of “Beloved”

Toni Morrison was the Nobel Prize-winning author of best-selling novels including “Beloved,” “Song of Solomon,” and “The Bluest Eye.” Her critically acclaimed books told powerful stories of black lives in America, from the time of slavery through modern days. “Beloved” (1987) won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, while “Song of Solomon” (1977) had the distinction of being the first book by a black author chosen as a main selection of the Book of the Month Club since Richard Wright’s “Native Son,” 37 years earlier. Her most recent work was “God Help the Child” (2015) and she also wrote non-fiction, children’s literature, and plays including “Desdemona.” When she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, Morrison became the first black woman to win a Nobel Prize. She was recognized with many other honors including the National Humanities Medal in 2000, the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction in 2011, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented to her by President Barack Obama in 2012.