The loss of the incomparable writer Toni Morrison leaves a gaping hole in the literary landscape.
Fortunately for us, before she died on Monday, she filled the world
with prose that touched millions of readers worldwide. Through her
novels, children’s books and essays, she communicated the black
experience on a canvas writ large – one that spoke to the pain of
slavery, racial prejudice and bigotry for audiences that knew it
firsthand as well as for those who learned, perhaps for the first time,
about the stinging and horrific aftermath of treating fellow human
beings as less than equal.
Morrison’s works are of course an important part of the literary
collections of the Library of Congress. But the Library also had a very
special connection to her. In 2000, the Library named her a Living Legend;
in 2011, it awarded her the Library of Congress National Book Festival
Creative Achievement Award. (The prize has since been renamed the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.)
During the 2011 book festival, held on the Washington Mall, Morrison
accepted the award from then-Librarian of Congress James H. Billington,
who cited her for “being one of the most unique voices in world
literature anywhere.” Scroll down to the end of this post to view a
video of Morrison at the festival.
The award was just one of the dozens she received during her career
of more than 40 years. Most notably, she received the Pulitzer Prize in
1988 for her masterwork, “Beloved,” and the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1993; she was the first African American woman to receive the honor.
In 2012, the Library mounted an exhibition called “Books That Shaped America.”
It was no surprise that “Beloved” was one of 88 books named to the
list, a novel that in 2006 was named by the New York Times as “the best
work of American fiction of the past 25 years.”
Morrison was one of the rare literary writers of fiction whose works
were also bestsellers. She was able to communicate, in prose both poetic
and powerful, her message of the importance of humanity and
righteousness in a world that sometimes seems to impart neither.
The Library is proud to have been able to present Toni Morrison to
its appreciative audiences on several occasions throughout the years.
The Library is also honored to retain a physical manifestation of
Morrison’s legacy on its campus. In 2017, a bench was installed in front
of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building in collaboration with the
Toni Morrison Society as part of its Bench By the Road Project, which
recognizes African Americans who fought, in various ways, to improve the
lot of their people throughout U.S. history. The bench is dedicated to
Daniel A.P. Murray, the first African American assistant Librarian of
Congress.
via https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2019/08/remembering-toni-morrison/
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen