Toni Morrison, author of the acclaimed novel Beloved, died Monday night at the age of 88.
An acclaimed storyteller, Morrison was born in Ohio in 1931 and is known for her essays and books exploring the culture and experience of African Americans. Her 1987 book Beloved garnered much acclaim and in 1993 she won the Nobel Prize for fiction, making her the first black woman to achieve the honor.
Over her decades-long career, Morrison penned 11 novels, multiple children’s books, two plays, and an opera. Among her most famous works include Paradise, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon.
Speaking to Time in 1998, Morrison spoke of her roots and her success, “The world back then didn’t expect much from a little black girl, but my father and mother certainly did.”
In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“I remember reading Song of Solomon when I was a kid and not just trying to figure out how to write, but also how to be and how to think,” Obama said of her work. “Toni Morrison’s prose brings us that kind of moral and emotional intensity that few writers ever attempt.”
The cause of her death is not yet known.
