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Archive 1

award

Was she the first black person to win the nobel or the first afro-american (there is a difference.) -- Ævar Arnfjörð [//en.wikipedia.org /w/index.php?title=%C3%86var_Arnfj%C3%B6r%C3%B0_Bjarmason&action=edit&section=new Bjarmason] 07:27, 2004 Aug 27 (UTC)

it seems she was the first black woman and the second black person.

Has she earned a doctorate degree? (I'm not talking honorary degrees)

69.173.147.96 03:38, 1 December 2005 (UTC)I am a senior in high school and have recently visited Princeton. The tour guide said that all of Princeton's professors teach freshmen, but having read the wikipedia entry, I said to her, "Toni Morrison doesn't." However, my tour guide actually had taken one of Morrison's classes as a freshman, so I guess she does teach. Thanks a lot wiki! I felt like an idiot. For the sake of others, I took out the part about her not teaching.

That's WP:OR original research so unless you've got documented proof it'll have to go back in. QuentinUK (talk) 23:34, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

Removed "Films" section

I removed the following section (quoted in its entirety) because it was contributed by an IP address associated with California Newsreel. Maybe the information should be included somehow, but I don't know. If it is relevant and worthy of inclusion, I leave it to the regular contributors to this article to determine how it should be included and put it back. -- ke4roh 02:21, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

==Films== *[http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0048-3&s=Toni Documentary: "Toni Morison In Black and White: volume 3" distributed by California Newsreel] <br>

Politics

Someone removed the following section. I don't see why, unless there's a factual error. This was a famous quote and there's nothing wrong with an artist being involved in politics. The Nation is a well-known, established magazine. Serving on its board is simply another fact from her resume. InkQuill 03:39, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Politics

Morrison caused a stir when she called Bill Clinton "the first Black president;" saying "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

She currently holds a place on the editorial board of The Nation magazine.

  • I am not sure that the last comment should be under this heading unless it is made clear what her role on the editorial board of The Nation magazine says about her politics. In fact I am not sure that her comment regarding Bill Clinton sheds any light on her political views, unless one assumes that she is attempting to embrace his politics by saying it. () 17:10 16 February 2007

The Nation is a famously liberal magazine. Although I haven't found a complete list of its board members, directors are usually chosen because they are philosophically in tune with the organization. I have attached a reference to the New Yorker article about Clinton being the first black president. It doesn't say she necessarily agrees with his politics, but it is certainly political in the broad sense. Or is there a better heading for this section? InkQuill 18:59, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Major research, trims

I've recently begun a huge overhaul and serious research undertaking for this article, including the addition of numerous sources. I removed the lengthy list and description of Morrison's novels because of its superfluous; the article already links to every one of her work, and if readers want an explanation of plot or themes, they can go to the novels' respective articles. I hope to bring this article up to GA standards one day and will be closely following the Biography and MoS guidelines. There will be some more information and more sources to come in the future, but if anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me on my talk page. María (habla conmigo) 17:34, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Influences

I have added Herman Melville under "influences" in the info box. Morrison discusses Melville as an influence in her essay "Unspeakable Things Unspoken"[1]. 70.160.240.45 20:14, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

This article has been subject to a lot of vandalism. Is something being done about this? InkQuill 04:20, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Don't vandalize my comment, for Pete's sake!InkQuill 03:33, 16 February 2007 (UTC)


Two and a half months later, this page is still being vandalized on a regular basis. Would someone please protect it? InkQuill 02:01, 5 May 2007 (UTC)!

I concur to you, InkQuill. Its getting serious

The DarkArcher was here 00:33, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

An edit which contains this blog link, which doesn't even work, concerns an addition of an outside party source on the famous "Bill Clinton" quote. I feel that the link, which doesn't even work, does not add to the article in any way, and justifiably violates WP:NPOV,WP:LINKSTOAVOID, and WP:GRAPEVINE. The edit is made by User: Kevin j and can clearly be seen in the history. Anyone care to comment? Icarus of old (talk) 20:50, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Toni Morrison On World Book Club

A chance to ask questions to improve this article! On Monday 27th October 2008, Toni Morrison will be talking about Beloved on the BBC radio programme World Book Club. If you're in the UK, you can be part of the audience at a London venue to be confirmed at 16.00 hours. If you cannot attend, but would still like to put a question to Toni Morrison about 'Beloved', email worldbookclub@bbc.co.uk (until 21th October)[2]. EdQuine (talk) 21:24, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Morrison's "Black President" Phrase Was Obviously Not "Taken Out Of Context"

When you compare her 1998 essay to her 2008 takeback, you will find that the woman is contradicting herself. In 1998, Morrison mentioned Clinton had at least five personal background characteristics of a black person, which is a lot more than just saying how that the essay was only deploring to just the way Clinton was being treated by the hands of Congress during the Lewinsky Scandal. By neutral comparission of the two statements, it is easy to assume that Ms. Morrison was only saying that remark to hype Obama's campaign. With regards to her takeback to her earlier essay about Bill Clinton being "Our First Black President," the woman is a poor liar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.112.121.29 (talk) 17:28, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Neutrality POV

The page on Toni Morrison is obviously biased. I don't know anything about the author. I have never read anything that she wrote. I simply note that first paragraph reads like a book jacket blurb, with "epic," "vivid," and "richly detailed." Those word express opinions. I googled up this Wikipedia page after reading an article that is critical of Ms. Morrison's writing: http://nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=424 Jive Dadson (talk) 05:53, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Use of the term "genre."

I disagree with the characterization of African American literature as a "genre." Genre is a somewhat pejorative term that suggests a limited range of characters and situations, e.g., the "genre" of crime fiction, the "genre" of film noir.

How exactly is "genre" pejorative? It refers to a specific type of literature. Are you saying there's no such thing as African American literature? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.163.106.71 (talk) 23:03, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

I think the person is complaining because a lot of people do use genre as a dismissive term like "pulp". With postmodern literary devices and magical realism, genre is a fluid notion, with many books falling into more than one: the "genres" of fantasy, ghost story, historical fiction, magical realism, African-American . . . all could include "Beloved", for instance. But to shelve a book anywhere but the "lit" section is offensive to many. The truth is, most books by African-Americans have explicitly African-American themes, and you could include any such book be its author non-black ("Uncle Tom's Cabin" for example) or non-fiction in intent and call it the African-American genre. Not every book by a black writer is part of the AA genre (for example, Samuel Delany's science fiction) but the term could be useful, say for assigning books for an AA lit class. Be aware that "genre" means a lot of different things but the essence of art is not subject to hierarchy or where something's shelved in a bookstore. 98.246.184.50 (talk) 17:44, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Criticism?

Where's a section of negative criticism of her? She's not even close to as great as is implied by all the praise she gets, and while it's true that my claim is an opinion here, it also happens to be true, and so there shall be plenty of articles from professional critics who agree if someone less lazy than myself wishes to go find them. Either way, I'll be on the lookout. I do recall something biting from Bloom on Morrison. Chicopac (talk) 01:43, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm reading Beloved right now and beg to differ, Morrison's writing is up there with the very best I have ever read from any genre.

Sean7phil (talk) 19:00, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

I agree that there has been a substantial amount of criticism of Morrison, ranging from perceived inadequacy in her writing style to claims her themes are two-dimensional . . . it doesn't matter if such criticism is right or wrong, Morrison has been given enough praise to balance it out. In my opinion she's up there with the greats like Harry Potter and that lady who did A Thousand Acres. But yo girlfriend our girl Toni can take it! Dish it out yo! 98.246.184.50 (talk) 17:53, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

toni morrison

is an amazing author —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.197.107.158 (talk) 19:26, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but this is not the place to state that. Mathgod333 (talk) 03:00, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

But what if you're just really really proud of yourself for finishing a grown-up book all the way done first time ever? 98.246.184.50 (talk) 17:55, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Sexism in Songs of Solomon

Has there been any discussion in regards Toni and Sexism in her book Songs of Solomon? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.218.255.209 (talk) 08:30, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

This article has been reverted by a bot to this version as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) This has been done to remove User:Accotink2's contributions as they have a history of extensive copyright violation and so it is assumed that all of their major contributions are copyright violations. Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. VWBot (talk) 13:57, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

Oprah?

I think it is inappropriate to mention Oprah in the first paragraph on "one of the most prominent authors in world literature". This could go at the end of the article under a section on movie adaptations of Morrison's work.

Can you be more specific?L.cash.m (talk) 00:28, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Later Life

The article states that she's taught at two branches of the State University of New York, but only mentions SUNY Albany. Has she taught at another one?

mtVessel 00:52, 11 December 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by MtVessel (talk • contribs)

"Toni"

She claims "Toni" is from middle name of Anthony (spelling?) on City Arts & Lectures Friday, November 21 , 2008 City Arts & Lectures 1/4/2009 Radio Xb2u7Zjzc32 (talk) 21:36, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

In The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison (p. 38) [3], John N. Duvall writes:
Duvall goes on to speculate why "Morrison constructed 'Anthony' as the fictional origin of 'Toni'." —Offenbach (talk) 16:01, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

The Guardian reports that Anthony is Morrison's baptismal name, given to her at age 12. [4] 66.108.24.201 (talk) 00:41, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

So add it in. With the ref. Span (talk) 00:51, 14 April 2012 (UTC)
No one seems to have ever added in the explanation for how she got the name "Toni", from the April 2012 interview in The Guardian, so I just did. --Arxiloxos (talk) 22:36, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Writing career

In 2002, Morrison was invited to serve as the first Mentor in Literature in the inaugural cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, an international philanthropic programme that pairs masters in their disciplines with emerging talents for a year of one-to-one creative exchange. Out of a very gifted field of candidates, Morrison chose young Austrialian novelist Julia Leigh as her protégée.
<ref>http://www.rolexmentorprotege.com/pairing/2002-2003/toni_morrison_and_julia_leigh</ref>
RMP2014 (talk) 13:04, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Your user name RMP2014 and edit history seems to indicate a connection to the Rolex Mentor and Protégé program, and thus WP:COI. If so, please explicitly state the connection. It is good that you brought these squibs to the talk pages of articles. However, I have a concern, in this case, that your text has too much detail; there is already a Wikipedia article Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative; the link should be enough, no need to explain the award. A bare mention should be sufficient. Additionally, a very similar user name user:RMP updates, has been blocked "because it appears to be mainly intended for publicity and/or promotional purposes." – Neonorange (talk) 19:14, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Whole sentences in the 'Early life and career' section are lifted from a 2006 publication Women on Women: a Feminist Study; (Bhaskar A.Shukla, Sarup & Sons, New Dehli;Jan 1, 2006) on the Internet at ( http://www.google.com/books?isbn=8176257230 pages 79 and 71 ). The whole section likely must be completely rewritten. And there may be more exact copyvio. — Neonorange (talk) 12:10, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Neonorange, it's been more than two months since you've posted this, but looks like a lot of it is gone. I've just rephrased a few bits that are a little close to one of the NYT articles. I did download a couple of articles from a database to fill in the section, and hopefully will get to it before another two months goes by. Victoria (tk) 18:50, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

Removed "Films" section

I removed the following section (quoted in its entirety) because it was contributed by an IP address associated with California Newsreel. Maybe the information should be included somehow, but I don't know. If it is relevant and worthy of inclusion, I leave it to the regular contributors to this article to determine how it should be included and put it back. -- ke4roh 02:21, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

==Films== *[http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0048-3&s=Toni Documentary: "Toni Morison In Black and White: volume 3" distributed by California Newsreel] <br>

Politics

Someone removed the following section. I don't see why, unless there's a factual error. This was a famous quote and there's nothing wrong with an artist being involved in politics. The Nation is a well-known, established magazine. Serving on its board is simply another fact from her resume. InkQuill 03:39, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Politics

Morrison caused a stir when she called Bill Clinton "the first Black president;" saying "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

She currently holds a place on the editorial board of The Nation magazine.

  • I am not sure that the last comment should be under this heading unless it is made clear what her role on the editorial board of The Nation magazine says about her politics. In fact I am not sure that her comment regarding Bill Clinton sheds any light on her political views, unless one assumes that she is attempting to embrace his politics by saying it. () 17:10 16 February 2007

The Nation is a famously liberal magazine. Although I haven't found a complete list of its board members, directors are usually chosen because they are philosophically in tune with the organization. I have attached a reference to the New Yorker article about Clinton being the first black president. It doesn't say she necessarily agrees with his politics, but it is certainly political in the broad sense. Or is there a better heading for this section? InkQuill 18:59, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Major research, trims

I've recently begun a huge overhaul and serious research undertaking for this article, including the addition of numerous sources. I removed the lengthy list and description of Morrison's novels because of its superfluous; the article already links to every one of her work, and if readers want an explanation of plot or themes, they can go to the novels' respective articles. I hope to bring this article up to GA standards one day and will be closely following the Biography and MoS guidelines. There will be some more information and more sources to come in the future, but if anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me on my talk page. María (habla conmigo) 17:34, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Influences

I have added Herman Melville under "influences" in the info box. Morrison discusses Melville as an influence in her essay "Unspeakable Things Unspoken"[5]. 70.160.240.45 20:14, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

This article has been subject to a lot of vandalism. Is something being done about this? InkQuill 04:20, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Don't vandalize my comment, for Pete's sake!InkQuill 03:33, 16 February 2007 (UTC)


Two and a half months later, this page is still being vandalized on a regular basis. Would someone please protect it? InkQuill 02:01, 5 May 2007 (UTC)!

I concur to you, InkQuill. Its getting serious

The DarkArcher was here 00:33, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

An edit which contains this blog link, which doesn't even work, concerns an addition of an outside party source on the famous "Bill Clinton" quote. I feel that the link, which doesn't even work, does not add to the article in any way, and justifiably violates WP:NPOV,WP:LINKSTOAVOID, and WP:GRAPEVINE. The edit is made by User: Kevin j and can clearly be seen in the history. Anyone care to comment? Icarus of old (talk) 20:50, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Toni Morrison On World Book Club

A chance to ask questions to improve this article! On Monday 27th October 2008, Toni Morrison will be talking about Beloved on the BBC radio programme World Book Club. If you're in the UK, you can be part of the audience at a London venue to be confirmed at 16.00 hours. If you cannot attend, but would still like to put a question to Toni Morrison about 'Beloved', email worldbookclub@bbc.co.uk (until 21th October)[6]. EdQuine (talk) 21:24, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Morrison's "Black President" Phrase Was Obviously Not "Taken Out Of Context"

When you compare her 1998 essay to her 2008 takeback, you will find that the woman is contradicting herself. In 1998, Morrison mentioned Clinton had at least five personal background characteristics of a black person, which is a lot more than just saying how that the essay was only deploring to just the way Clinton was being treated by the hands of Congress during the Lewinsky Scandal. By neutral comparission of the two statements, it is easy to assume that Ms. Morrison was only saying that remark to hype Obama's campaign. With regards to her takeback to her earlier essay about Bill Clinton being "Our First Black President," the woman is a poor liar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.112.121.29 (talk) 17:28, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Neutrality POV

The page on Toni Morrison is obviously biased. I don't know anything about the author. I have never read anything that she wrote. I simply note that first paragraph reads like a book jacket blurb, with "epic," "vivid," and "richly detailed." Those word express opinions. I googled up this Wikipedia page after reading an article that is critical of Ms. Morrison's writing: http://nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=424 Jive Dadson (talk) 05:53, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Use of the term "genre."

I disagree with the characterization of African American literature as a "genre." Genre is a somewhat pejorative term that suggests a limited range of characters and situations, e.g., the "genre" of crime fiction, the "genre" of film noir.

How exactly is "genre" pejorative? It refers to a specific type of literature. Are you saying there's no such thing as African American literature? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.163.106.71 (talk) 23:03, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

I think the person is complaining because a lot of people do use genre as a dismissive term like "pulp". With postmodern literary devices and magical realism, genre is a fluid notion, with many books falling into more than one: the "genres" of fantasy, ghost story, historical fiction, magical realism, African-American . . . all could include "Beloved", for instance. But to shelve a book anywhere but the "lit" section is offensive to many. The truth is, most books by African-Americans have explicitly African-American themes, and you could include any such book be its author non-black ("Uncle Tom's Cabin" for example) or non-fiction in intent and call it the African-American genre. Not every book by a black writer is part of the AA genre (for example, Samuel Delany's science fiction) but the term could be useful, say for assigning books for an AA lit class. Be aware that "genre" means a lot of different things but the essence of art is not subject to hierarchy or where something's shelved in a bookstore. 98.246.184.50 (talk) 17:44, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Criticism?

Where's a section of negative criticism of her? She's not even close to as great as is implied by all the praise she gets, and while it's true that my claim is an opinion here, it also happens to be true, and so there shall be plenty of articles from professional critics who agree if someone less lazy than myself wishes to go find them. Either way, I'll be on the lookout. I do recall something biting from Bloom on Morrison. Chicopac (talk) 01:43, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm reading Beloved right now and beg to differ, Morrison's writing is up there with the very best I have ever read from any genre.

Sean7phil (talk) 19:00, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

I agree that there has been a substantial amount of criticism of Morrison, ranging from perceived inadequacy in her writing style to claims her themes are two-dimensional . . . it doesn't matter if such criticism is right or wrong, Morrison has been given enough praise to balance it out. In my opinion she's up there with the greats like Harry Potter and that lady who did A Thousand Acres. But yo girlfriend our girl Toni can take it! Dish it out yo! 98.246.184.50 (talk) 17:53, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

toni morrison

is an amazing author —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.197.107.158 (talk) 19:26, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but this is not the place to state that. Mathgod333 (talk) 03:00, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

But what if you're just really really proud of yourself for finishing a grown-up book all the way done first time ever? 98.246.184.50 (talk) 17:55, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Sexism in Songs of Solomon

Has there been any discussion in regards Toni and Sexism in her book Songs of Solomon? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.218.255.209 (talk) 08:30, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

This article has been reverted by a bot to this version as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) This has been done to remove User:Accotink2's contributions as they have a history of extensive copyright violation and so it is assumed that all of their major contributions are copyright violations. Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. VWBot (talk) 13:57, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

Oprah?

I think it is inappropriate to mention Oprah in the first paragraph on "one of the most prominent authors in world literature". This could go at the end of the article under a section on movie adaptations of Morrison's work.

Can you be more specific?L.cash.m (talk) 00:28, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Later Life

The article states that she's taught at two branches of the State University of New York, but only mentions SUNY Albany. Has she taught at another one?

mtVessel 00:52, 11 December 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by MtVessel (talk • contribs)

"Toni"

She claims "Toni" is from middle name of Anthony (spelling?) on City Arts & Lectures Friday, November 21 , 2008 City Arts & Lectures 1/4/2009 Radio Xb2u7Zjzc32 (talk) 21:36, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

In The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison (p. 38) [7], John N. Duvall writes:
Duvall goes on to speculate why "Morrison constructed 'Anthony' as the fictional origin of 'Toni'." —Offenbach (talk) 16:01, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

The Guardian reports that Anthony is Morrison's baptismal name, given to her at age 12. [8] 66.108.24.201 (talk) 00:41, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

So add it in. With the ref. Span (talk) 00:51, 14 April 2012 (UTC)
No one seems to have ever added in the explanation for how she got the name "Toni", from the April 2012 interview in The Guardian, so I just did. --Arxiloxos (talk) 22:36, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Writing career

In 2002, Morrison was invited to serve as the first Mentor in Literature in the inaugural cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, an international philanthropic programme that pairs masters in their disciplines with emerging talents for a year of one-to-one creative exchange. Out of a very gifted field of candidates, Morrison chose young Austrialian novelist Julia Leigh as her protégée.
<ref>http://www.rolexmentorprotege.com/pairing/2002-2003/toni_morrison_and_julia_leigh</ref>
RMP2014 (talk) 13:04, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Your user name RMP2014 and edit history seems to indicate a connection to the Rolex Mentor and Protégé program, and thus WP:COI. If so, please explicitly state the connection. It is good that you brought these squibs to the talk pages of articles. However, I have a concern, in this case, that your text has too much detail; there is already a Wikipedia article Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative; the link should be enough, no need to explain the award. A bare mention should be sufficient. Additionally, a very similar user name user:RMP updates, has been blocked "because it appears to be mainly intended for publicity and/or promotional purposes." – Neonorange (talk) 19:14, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Whole sentences in the 'Early life and career' section are lifted from a 2006 publication Women on Women: a Feminist Study; (Bhaskar A.Shukla, Sarup & Sons, New Dehli;Jan 1, 2006) on the Internet at ( http://www.google.com/books?isbn=8176257230 pages 79 and 71 ). The whole section likely must be completely rewritten. And there may be more exact copyvio. — Neonorange (talk) 12:10, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Neonorange, it's been more than two months since you've posted this, but looks like a lot of it is gone. I've just rephrased a few bits that are a little close to one of the NYT articles. I did download a couple of articles from a database to fill in the section, and hopefully will get to it before another two months goes by. Victoria (tk) 18:50, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

Edited quote from a Toni Morrison interview in the London Telegraph

An editor used an edited quote from a Toni Morrison interview, citing a tweet. A second editor improved the citation to a short article in the Washington Times, but still left the original edit that added the no-context edit, a short paragraph under the sub-section header 'Racism'. I feel that the lack of context, exacerbated by inserting it as a short paragraph under a new sub heading, makes the material, as used, not encyclopedic. The second editor reverted my edit, stating "improve, not blank". The full interview is easy to find. I've asked the second editor to revert and discuss. - Neonorange (talk) 20:30, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

I went to the source—The Telegraph, not the garbage-y Washington Times—and added the whole quote and its context. Feel free to delete if you see fit. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 20:57, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
Thanks. Pretty much what I had in mind. The initial insertion, especially under the sub-head used, came off as pov-pushing. — Neonorange (talk) 22:31, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

History

Hօա աas ʟɨʄɛ for Tօʀɨ ɨռ tɦɛ օʟɖ ɖaʏs??? Julisha 1213141516 (talk) 10:44, 24 May 2016 (UTC)

A good place to start is with this interview with Toni Morrison on C-Span, at In Depth interview with Morrison, February 4, 2001. You can just click on the link in blue. (This link is also in the [[Toni Morrison#External links|section]).
This article has fifty-six citations in the references section, near the end of the article, that support the information presented. Below that are five lavender horizontal bars—click on (show) for links to additional information on Morrison. In addition, any word or phrase in this color link to explanatory articles in Wikipedia. The box at the top right corner of the article give a few identifying facts about Morrison. These should give you a good start at writing a school paper about Morrison, but be careful to use your own words and give credit to the sources you use, just the Morrison Wikipedia article does.
Finally, if you expect someone to help answer questions, use a readable set of characters, known as a font. And if you like using Wikipedia, Rember that you can edit and create articles in Wikipedia. Check your user talk page for a welcome page that links to resources on editing. — Neonorange (talk) 08:15, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

Critique of Morrison subsection (fails WP:NPOV)

I have removed the section shown in green. As a critique of Morrison, it is one-sided in that only negative criticism appears. This is a subsection of "Politics, literary reception and legacy" and should contain a range of criticism of her work rather just negative criticism. The section below should not be in the article until a balanced review of reception and critique of her work is put in place, at which time the information in the section below can be used. Before removal of the section below the article violated the Wikipedia neutral point of view policy.

Critique of Morrison

Not all literary critics praise Morrison's writing. Some critics have found her language to be too poetic or stylized. A negative review of Paradise by James Woods titled “The Color Purple,” declared, “Morrison is so besotted with making poetry, with the lyrical dyeing of every moment, that she cannot grant characters their own words. . . . She seems to view her people as mere spokes of style, who exist to keep her lyricism in motion.”[16]

African American social commentator and cultural conservative Stanley Crouch is one of Morrison's harshest critics. Crouch wrote that Morrison has real talent but “perpetually interrupts her narrative with maudlin ideological commercials."[17] Beloved, said Crouch, “reads largely like a melodrama lashed to the structural conceits of the miniseries.”[18] Further, he contended, the novel "is designed to placate sentimental feminist ideology, and to make sure that the vision of black woman as the most scorned and rebuked of the victims doesn't weaken."[17]

Neonorange (talk) 17:07, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

I disagree with this removal. Frescadp, who added that section, greatly expanded the page overall, and adding some negative criticism gave the page more balance, not less. (Incidentally Frescadp also initially titled it "Negative criticism" and I'm the one who removed the term "negative"--perhaps adding that back would clarify the subsection's purpose.) I'm not against expanding the section, but in an entry that's over 60,000 bytes, 1,500 bytes of validly-sourced negative criticism hardly give undue weight to that point of view--in fact, striking the page's only negative criticism is what feels like the NPOV violation to me. I suggest restoring it and expanding from there as others have more to contribute. Innisfree987 (talk) 17:42, 7 May 2017 (UTC)
I've replied below Frescadp — Phil (Neonorange)

Hi, fellow editors! Frescadp here. Do you think it would work better to tuck the two negative criticisms of Morrison into the sections where the specific books are mentioned? The first is about her novel _Paradise_, which received other negative reviews (as well as positive--I could find and add those, or others could); the second about _Beloved_ (which, obviously, receives mostly high praise, so adding negative criticism would add balance?)---rather than having them in a separate section? (I don't personally agree with Crouch's criticism, but he does represent a pov shared by others--I found another literary critic who said Crouch was wrong but worth debating.) I do think the article is a bit unbalanced if it offers NO negative criticism... Thanks for the thoughtful discussion! I will wait to hear from you before I make any changes. And, hey, we could add that Ivanka Trump quotes Beloved in her new book! [JOKE]

Frescadp (talk) 20:55, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Frescadp (and Innisfree987 this is partially a reply to you also)
Thanks for coming to talk! I think that what the article really lacks is a decent amount of critical commentary on her work. Morrison is a Nobel Prize in Literature winning author, the first African American, the second American woman, and the tenth U.S. citizen out of eleven to be so honored. What you contributed is well sourced and well written, but it ends up undue, I think, because of the relative lack of critical commentary other than the section Frescadp added. The undue is exacerbated by being isolated in its own section. I believe that working the material you added plus additional critical comment into the body of the text can greatly strengthen the article. Balance really requires commentary representative of the overall critical reception, from books as well as newspaper and magazine reviews.
I've been watching this article for several years (since the catastrophic decision a few years ago by some editors to remove all the American women novelists from Category:American novelists to Category:American women novelists, leaving only men in the "real novelists" category) just trying to maintain it, and have always thought it needed to be strengthened. The first half of the article is much stronger than the last; one section is mostly a string of one sentence paragraphs. Ernest Hemingway, another American author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, has a bio in Wikipedia that has a Style section and a Themes section: I like that organization—are you up for a rewrite? We would require access to a few books of criticism. I don't have easy access to many of those that would be required, though I have not yet looked in at the new library building near me that seems much larger than the old (wonder if that means more books) but I've been finding great bargains at Amazon for books on writers in the $5 to $8 range for hardbacks.

I hope we can all work together. — Neonorange (Phil 22:54, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

I agree with the removal of this section until a more balanced critique section can be written. There's no reason the views of Stanley Crouch and others can't be included, but their points need to be balanced with overall critiques of her writing including positive reviews. After all, she is a Nobel laureate, so obviously there are many people in the world who love her writings.--SouthernNights (talk) 23:32, 7 May 2017 (UTC)
Neonorange and Innisfree987 and SouthernNights
Hey, folks---Thanks for weighing in!
I don't have time right now to research a more balanced critique section, which I agree would be a good thing to add (go for it!), so I simply moved Stanley Crouch's criticism of _Beloved_ to after the two positive reviews I had already added last week (Michiko Kakutani and Margaret Atwood), and before the quoted praise of the letter from 48 black writers and critics and the awarding of the Pulitzer. This one countervailing voice amongst the praise added balance---necessary because, I realized as I edited it, this article runs the risk of sounding like an unabashed hagiography (NPOV FAIL).
Crouch is a contentious figure, but Ted Gioa, a jazz critic like Crouch, wrote in his review (link belwo) of _Beloved_ that "Crouch’s comments are (as so often with this critic)thought-provoking, and deserve to be part of the on-going debate and discussion surrounding this novel." :::[1] Peace!Frescadp (talk) 15:14, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
I think your addition works as an interim place-holder for broader critiques. I should have some reference material this week and can begin work by the weekend, but it won't go quickly. Through your work, Beloved is covered, I think, but, like the Hemingway article, this one needs commentary on themes and style. I'll post additional stuff and quotes in this thread as I work on the article off-line. — Neonorange (Phil) 16:08, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ http://www.thenewcanon.com/beloved.html

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Correction to Director of Imagine – Toni Morrison Remembers

In the section entitled Documentary Films there is an odd sentence that says: Morrison was the subject of a film entitled Imagine – Toni Morrison Remembers, directed by Pablo from 6th and shown on BBC1 television on July 15, 2015… I searched on google for information on Pablo from 6th and found nothing relevant.

Jill Nicholls is the director of Imagine – Toni Morrison Remembers, according to 2 sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b062mp6k/imagine-summer-2015-4-toni-morrison-remembers https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4848194/

I don’t know if these references are considered appropriate sources by Wikipedia standards, so I ask someone more knowledgeable to make a correction. Respectfully, Vigilfree Vigilfree (talk) 07:36, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

—Vigilfree, thanks for catching this. Jill Nichols is the director and producer of this film. Will update shortly. Kind Regards, Cedar777 (talk) 15:33, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

B. Denise Hawkins, "Marvelous Morrison – Toni Morrison – Award-Winning Author Talks About the Future From Some Place in Time," Diverse Online (formerly Black Issues In Higher Education), Jun 17, 2007. (currently reference 13) links to a page that does not exist.

I've updated the URL to the correct citation. --kneel (talk) 18:34, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

More section titles

I broke off Early life, Death and legacy from the long main text. I made a Personal life section by copying marriage and children text from the ling main section. That same Personal life information remains in the main section, Career. It could be removed, if an editor more familiar with this article feels it can be removed appropriately from the flow of the main section, separating Personal life events from Career. The original main section was so very long that it seemed hard to follow, which is why I added rather ordinary sections for a biographical article. I updated some url, and formatted some inline citations. - - Prairieplant (talk) 10:54, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Non-fiction

I don't think The Black Book should be included in this list. The editors of this collection are actually Middleton Harris, Roger Furman, and Morris Levitt. Morrison was part of the editorial team at Random House that worked on the project, along with others, and was obviously heavily involved in its production – she describes this in detail in a New York Times Magazine review of the collection, called "Rediscovering Black History," which is reprinted in What Moves at the Margins. But she isn't normally listed as one of the editors, and certainly isn't the sole author, as this list currently suggests.

I think a note about The Black Book should be included in the Early Career section instead, alongside the line on her other editing work. I'll make this change in a couple of days if no one disagrees. Kemn (talk) 13:51, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Page would benefit from more flattering photo.

Page would benefit from more flattering photo of the author. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sezana9213 (talk • contribs) 12:13, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 30 October 2018 and 18 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Lkarg001, Thomas Evans 1.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:30, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

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