Toni Morrison

Novelist Toni Morrison has received national acclaim for books such as The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. Morrison often credits the works of William Faulkner, Jane Austen and Virginia Wolf for helping her develop complex characters, settings and plots. Yet I discovered while writing that she admired and was deeply encouraged by James Baldwin. In 1987, Morrison wrote an essay in The New York Times Book Review honoring Baldwin's work as a writer.