Morrison was a commercial as well as critical success, drawing praise for writing in a vivid, lyrical style while assessing issues of race, gender and love in American society.
In a 2015 interview with the Guardian centered around her book "God Help the Child", about a dark-skinned woman named Bride who was rejected by her lighter-skinned mother, Morrison said, "I'm writing for black people". At the point of capture, Garner murdered her child rather than allowing her child to be enslaved. First, she needed Morrison to be willing to sell the rights. "They are canonical works, and more importantly, they are books that remain beloved by readers", reports the BBC.
The novel was adapted into a film, starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, in 1998. Toni Morrison took the word and turned it into a Song...of Solomon, of Sula, Beloved, Mercy, Paradise Love, and more.
In 1964, she became an editor at Random House and one of the few black women in publishing.
Perhaps best known for her best-seller Beloved, which was released in 1987, Morrison was a celebrated writer and she was viewed as one of the great minds in literature.
"And so even as Michelle and I mourn her loss and send our warmest sympathies to her family and friends, we know that her stories - that our stories - will always be with us, and with those who come after, and on and on, for all time".
The documentary, "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am", which gives an "artful and intimate meditation on the life and words of the acclaimed novelist' is in theaters now". "Or if I was, it was as a joke, or as some anecdote that explained something about the main character without the main character looking like me".
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In 1996, she was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Her 1986 play "Dreaming Emmett" was about Emmett Till, whose lynching in MS in 1955 was a key moment in the USA civil rights movement.
Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931, Morrison surrounded herself with books - working as a secretary at the Lorain Public Library as a teenager - and steeped herself in her grandparents' traditional African American folktales.
She graduated from Howard in 1953 with a degree in both English and Classics.
Morrison's work also ignited controversy - notably in school districts that tried to ban her books.
FILE - In this May 29, 2012 file photo President Barack Obama awards author Toni Morrison a Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. "Her writing was a lovely, meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination". She was as good a storyteller, as captivating, in person as she was on the page.
"The consummate writer who treasured the written word, whether her own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing", it continued. Morrison shared those high opinions, repeatedly labelling one of her novels, Love, as "perfect" and rejecting the idea that artistic achievement called for quiet acceptance.
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