Toni Morrison Net Worth, Writer, Novelist & Editor

Toni Morrison is a professor, editor, and American novelist. She wrote famous works of historical fiction, including "Song of Solomon" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Beloved."

For her work, which openly explores the experiences of Black Americans and the legacy of racism in the US, she received awards like the Nobel Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction.

Her debut book, "The Bluest Eye," was published in 1970. For her 1973 book, "Sula," she received a nomination for the National Book Award.

In 1977, the Book-of-the-Month club selected her novel, "Song of Solomon." It was the first book written by a black author to be honored with the National Book Critics Circle Award in nearly four decades.

Let's explore Toni Morrison Net Worth, book records, professional career and awards.

Toni Morrison Net Worth

Toni Morrison net worth is estimated to be $20 million. In 2014, she paid $3.8 million for an apartment in the Tribeca district of New York City. Her estate put the house up for $4.75 million in October 2020. Her NYC residence was sold in 2012 for an undisclosed sum.

She purchased a waterfront home in Grand View-on-Hudson, a village 25 miles north of New York City, in the late 1970s. She bought the property for $120,000, or about $500,000 in modern currency. A fire in the early 1990s damaged the old building. She reconstructed a bigger home. Not long after Toni passed away, her son inherited this residence.

Toni Morrison Biography and Personal Life

She met Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect while working as a professor at Howard University from 1957 to 1964. The two were married in 1958. She acquired his last name and became known as Toni Morrison.

Their first child, Harold Ford, was born in 1961. In 1964, she and Harold divorced when she was pregnant. 1965 saw the birth of Slade Kevin, her second son.

Halfway through her novel Home, Morrison lost her son Slade to pancreatic cancer on December 22, 2010. She took a year or two off from writing the book before finishing it, which was released in 2012.

Toni Morrison Early life and Education

Toni Morrison, born in Lorain, Ohio, to Ramah and George Wofford, was the second of four children in a Black working-class family. Her mother, born in Greenville, Alabama, went north as a child with her family. She was a devoted African Methodist Episcopal Church member and a homemaker.

Cartersville, Georgia, was the birthplace of George Wofford. A couple of African-American businesspeople who lived on Wofford's block were lynched by a bunch of white people when he was around fifteen years old. Later on, Morrison said: "He never disclosed to us that he had seen bodies. But he was aware of them.

Morrison's parents couldn't afford to pay the rent, so when she was around two years old, the landlord set fire to the property they were living in. Rather than giving up on the landlord, the Toni Morrison family laughed at this "bizarre form of evil" instead of losing hope. Morrison later stated that in the face of such "monumental crudeness," her family's answer showed how to maintain your integrity and take responsibility for your life.

Toni Morrison Career

• 1949–1975: Adulthood, Howard and Cornell years, and editing career

She enrolled at Washington, D.C.'s Howard University in 1949 in an attempt to surround herself with other black intellectuals. She first enrolled in Howard's drama program, where she trained under renowned drama teachers Owen Dodson and Anne Cooke Reid. While attending Howard, she first experienced racially segregated transport and restaurants. She earned a B.A. in 1953.

• 1970-1986: First writings and Toni Morrison teaching

As a member of a loosely organized group of poets and writers at Howard University who got together to talk about their work, Morrison started writing fiction. She brought a brief story about a Black girl who yearned for blue eyes to a meeting she attended. Later, Morrison expanded the tale into her debut book, The Bluest Eye, writing from 4 a.m. every morning while parenting her two children alone.

• 1987-1998: Beloved trilogy and the Nobel Prize

Morrison's best-known book, beloved, came out in 1987. It was based on the real-life account of Margaret Garner, an enslaved African-American whom Morrison had encountered while collecting the black book Toni Morrison. Slave hunters pursued Garner after he ran away from labor.

Toni Morrison Death

On August 5, 2019, Morrison passed away at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, New York City, as a result of pneumonia-related complications. Her age was eighty-eight. On November 21, 2019, the Cathedral of St.

John the Divine in Manhattan's Morningside Heights area hosted a memorial service. Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Michael Ondaatje, David Remnick, Fran Lebowitz, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Edwidge Danticat were among others who paid tribute to Morrison. David Murray, a jazz saxophonist, also paid musical respects.

Toni Morrison Politics, Literary Reception, and Legacy

• Politics

Morrison honestly discussed race relations and American politics. The term "our first Black president" was embraced positively by those who supported Bill Clinton. On September 29, 2001, for example, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-TX, told the audience that Clinton "took so many initiatives he made us think for a while we had elected the first black president" when the group honored the former president at its dinner in Washington, D.C.

• Relationship to feminism

Even though Morrison's books usually include black women, she did not label her writing as feminist in a 1998 interview when asked, "Why distance oneself from feminism?" "I can't take positions that are closed in my imagination to be as free as possible," she retorted.

Toni Morrison Honors and Awards

• 1986: New York State Governor's Arts Award
• 1988: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved
• 1988: American Book Award for Beloved
• 1986: New York State Governor's Arts Award
• 1993: Nobel Prize in Literature
• 1997: Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Gustavus Adolphus College.
• 2002: 100 Greatest African Americans, list by Molefi Kete Asante
• 2005: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
• 1994: Condorcet Medal, Paris
• 2009: Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement

Best Toni Morrison Novels

• Song of Solomon. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. 1977.
• The Bluest Eye. Knopf. 1970.
• Knopf. 1998.
• A Mercy. Knopf. 2008.
• Tar Baby. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. 1981.
• Knopf. 1987.

Toni Morrison Children's Books

• The Book of Mean People (2002). 
• The Big Box (1999).
• Remember: The Journey to School Integration (2004).
• Peeny Butter Fudge (2009).
• Please, Louise (2014).
• Little Cloud and Lady Wind (2010).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Which is Toni Morrison's best book?

Toni Morrison's best books are Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Paradise and Toni Morrison Playing in the Dark.

Q. What was Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize earnings?

Morrison was the ninety-ninth prize recipient, and he was given $825,000. "This is a palpable tremor of delight for me," she remarked in an interview with The New York Times.

Q. What caused Toni Morrison's death?

On August 5, 2019, Morrison passed away at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, New York City, as a result of pneumonia-related complications.