Toni Morrison

Pulitzer Prize 1988
Nice clean copy. No writing, dog ears or tears. Outside page edges clean but starting to “yellow” a bit from light exposure. Spine intact with no outer creasing. Cover in good shape with moderate shelf wear. Bottom of spine near corner is worn (see photo). Solid copy. 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Michigan

Beloved

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Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is persistantly haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl

Trade paperback in good condition but does have writing on some pages. Also a name is written  in the book! Sorry bout that!! See pics. 

North Carolina

The story of Pecola Breedlove profiles an eleven-year-old African-American girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes and the tragedy that results from her longing to be accepted.

The Bluest Eye

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*will add as a freebie with a purchase of 2 books *

Connecticut

Nominated for the National Book Award, this rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines-from their growing up in a small Ohio town, through their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation. The one, Nel Wright, chooses to remain in the place of her birth, to marry, to raise a family, and to become a pillar of the tightly knit black community. The other, Sula Peace, rejects all that Nel has accepted. She escapes to college, immerses herself in city life, and when she returns to her roots, it is as a rebel, a mocker, and a seductress. Both women must suffer the consequences of their choices; both must decide if they can afford to harbor the love they have for each other; and both combine to create an unforgettable rendering of what it means and costs to exist and survive as a black woman in America.Hailed by critics for its stunning language and its original, honest depiction of the black way of life after the Civil War, Sula is a lyrical blend of myth and magic, as real as a history lesson, as enchanting as a fable.

Sula

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The intense friendship shared by two African American women raised in an Ohio town changes when one of them leaves to roam the countryside and returns ten years later.

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

California

Song of Solomon

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Macon Dead, Jr., called Milkman, son of the richest Negro in town, moves from childhood into early manhood, searching, among the disparate, mysterious members of his family, for his life and reality

#hardcover #fiction #tonimorrison #oprahsbookclub #historical #woc #blackauthors #historicalfiction 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New Jersey

Captures the dreams, memories, conflicts, and complex interior lives of the citizens of a small, all-Black town as four young women are brutally attacked in a convent near the town during the 1970s, in a novel that blends past, present, and future

Paradise

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Set in Harlem during the 1920s, this novel chronicles a bittersweet triangle involving Joe Trace, a middle-aged door-to-door salesman, his mentally unstable wife Violet, and his eighteen-year-old girlfriend. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

Jazz

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In a simple love story set in 1926 Harlem, fiftyish door-to-door salesman Joe Trace murders his teenaged lover, whom his hairdresser wife, Violet, then tries to disfigure at the funeral. By the author of Beloved. 75,000 first printing. Major ad/promo. BOMC Dual Main.

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

In exchange for a bad debt, an Anglo-Dutch trader takes on Florens, a young slave girl, who feels abandoned by her slave mother and who searches for love--first from an older servant woman at her master's new home, and then from a handsome free blacksmith--in an evocative novel set against late seventeenth-century America, by the Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved. 300,000 first printing.

A Mercy

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In exchange for a bad debt, an Anglo-Dutch trader takes on Florens, a young slave girl, who feels abandoned by her slave mother and who searches for love--first from an older servant woman at her master's new home, and then from a handsome free blacksmith

Kentucky

The arrival of an ominous black stranger disturbs the precisely choreographed interactions among the five people living in a beautiful house on a Caribbean island--a millionaire candy manufacturer, his wife, and their servants--in a novel that explores the spectrum of emotions underlying the relationships between the races. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Tar Baby

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A Novel

From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner--a spellbinding symphony of passion and hatred, power and perversity, color and class that spans three generations of Black women in a fading beach town.

"A marvelous work, which enlarges our conception not only of love but of racial politics." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

In life, Bill Cosey enjoyed the affections of many women, who would do almost anything to gain his favor. In death his hold on them may be even stronger. Wife, daughter, granddaughter, employee, mistress: As Morrison's protagonists stake their furious claim on Cosey's memory and estate, using everything from intrigue to outright violence, she creates a work that is shrewd, funny, erotic, and heartwrenching.



Love

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The epitome of a group of women's ideals about love, fatherhood, and friendship, wealthy hotel owner Bill Cosey finds his life compromised by his troubled past and his feelings about a spellbinding woman named Celestial. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 200,000 first printing.

Oklahoma

Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Here is the Nobel Prize winner in her own words: a rich gathering of her most important essays and speeches, spanning four decades that "speaks to today's social and political moment as directly as this morning's headlines" (NPR).

These pages give us her searing prayer for the dead of 9/11, her Nobel lecture on the power of language, her searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., her heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. She looks deeply into the fault lines of culture and freedom: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, "black matter(s)," human rights, the artist in society, the Afro-American presence in American literature. And she turns her incisive critical eye to her own work (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, Paradise) and that of others.

An essential collection from an essential writer, The Source of Self-Regard shines with the literary elegance, intellectual prowess, spiritual depth, and moral compass that have made Toni Morrison our most cherished and enduring voice.

The Source of Self-Regard

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Massachusetts

"The story of a Korean war veteran on a quest to save his younger sister"--

Home

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Presents the story of embittered Korean War veteran Frank Money, who struggles against trauma and racism to rescue his medically abused sister and work through identity-shattering memories.

Spare and unsparing, 'God Help the Child' - the first novel by Toni Morrison to be set in our current moment - weaves a tale about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult. At the centre: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love. There is Booker, the man Bride loves, and loses to anger. Rain, the mysterious white child with whom she crosses paths. And finally Sweetness, Bride's mother herself, who takes a lifetime to come to understand that 'what you do to children matters.

God Help the Child

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A latest novel by the Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Bluest Eye traces the impact of childhood trauma on the lives of a beautiful multiracial woman, the man she loves and an abused white girl who looks to her for help.

Two instances of highlighting in the book. Otherwise in perfect condition! Please see the pictures. 

Whiteness and the Literary Imagination

Playing in the Dark

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An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race--and promises to change the way we read American literature--from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner

Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires. According to the Chicago Tribune, Morrison "reimagines and remaps the possibility of America." Her brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. 

Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature.

Zadie Smith

New York

A Story

A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Toni Morrison, in a stand-alone Knopf hardcover for the first time, with an introduction by Zadie Smith. In this 1983 short story--the only short story Morrison ever wrote--we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other's throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them. Another work of genius by this masterly writer, Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. Morrison herself described Recitatif, a story which will keep readers thinking and discussing for years to come, as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage? A remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and how perceptions are made tangible by reality, Recitatif is a gift to readers in these changing times.

Recitatif

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Ta-Nehisi Coates

What is race and why does it matter? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid? America’s foremost novelist reflects on themes that preoccupy her work and dominate politics: race, fear, borders, mass movement of peoples, desire for belonging. Ta-Nehisi Coates provides a foreword to Toni Morrison’s most personal work of nonfiction to date.

The Origin of Others

Idaho

Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality

It was perhaps the most wretchedly aspersive race and gender scandal of recent times: the dramatic testimony of Anita Hill at the Senate hearings on the confirmation of Clarence Thomas as Supreme Court Justice. Yet even as the televised proceedings shocked and galvanized viewers not only in this country but the world over, they cast a long shadow on essential issues that define America.

In Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison contributes an introduction and brings together eighteen provocative essays, all but one written especially for this book, by prominent and distinguished academicians--Black and white, male and female. These writings powerfully elucidate not only the racial and sexual but also the historical, political, cultural, legal, psychological, and linguistic aspects of a signal and revelatory moment in American history.

With contributions by:
Homi K. Bhabha, Margaret A. Burnham, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Paula Giddings, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Claudia Brodsky Lacour, Wahneema Lubiano, Manning Marable, Nellie Y. McKay, Toni Morrison, Nell Irvin Painter, Gayle Pemberton, Andrew Ross, Christine Stansell, Carol M. Swain, Michael Thelwell, Kendall Thomas, Cornel West, Patricia J. Williams

Race-Ing Justice, en-gendering Power

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A Gathering of Wisdom

At once the ideal introduction to the legendary Nobel Prize winner and a lovely and moving keepsake for her devoted readers: a treasury of quotations from her work. With a foreword by Zadie Smith. "She was our conscience. Our seer. Our truthteller." —Oprah Winfrey This inspirational book juxtaposes quotations, one to a page, drawn from Toni Morrison's entire body of work, both fiction and nonfiction—from The Bluest Eye to God Help the Child, from Playing in the Dark to The Source of Self-Regard—to tell a story of self-actualization. It aims to evoke the totality of Toni Morrison's literary vision. Its compelling sequence of flashes of revelation—stunning for their linguistic originality, keenness of psychological observation, and philosophical profundity—addresses issues of abiding interest in Morrison's work: the reach of language for the ineffable; transcendence through imagination; the self and its discontents; the vicissitudes of love; the whirligig of memory; the singular power of women; the original American sin of slavery; the bankruptcy of racial oppression; the complex humanity and art of black people. The Measure of Our Lives brims with elegance of style and mind and moral authority.

The Measure of Our Lives

Is who we are really only skin deep? In this searing, remonstrative book, Toni Morrison unravels race through the stories of those debased and dehumanised because of it. A young black girl longing for the blue eyes of white baby dolls spirals into inferiority and confusion. A friendship falls apart over a disputed memory. An ex-slave is haunted by a lonely, rebukeful ghost, bent on bringing their past home. Strange and unexpected, yet always stirring, Morrison's writing on race sinks us deep into the heart and mind of our troubled humanity.Includes selections from the books Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, Belovedby Toni MorrisonVINTAGE MINIS- GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series-Sisters by Louisa May AlcottLove by Jeanette WintersonBabiesby Anne EnrightLanguageby Xiaolu Guo

Race

To make three youngsters - Patty, Mickey and Liza Sue - abide by their rules, the grown-ups - parents, teachers and other adults - create a world inside a box, a world with toys, games, treats and gifts. But all Patty, Mickey and Liza Sue really want is the freedom to be themselves.

The Big Box

#paperback #essays #OJSimpson #crime #race #sex #class #africanamerican

Minnesota

Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case

Co-edited and introduced by Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Birth of a Nation'hood elucidates as never before the grim miasma of the O.J. Simpson case, which has elicited gargantuan fascination.

As they pertain to the scandal, the issues of race, sex, violence, money, and the media are refracted through twelve powerful essays that have been written especially for this book by distinguished intellectuals--black and white, male and female. Together these keen analyses of a defining American moment cast a chilling gaze on the script and spectacle of the insidious tensions that rend our society, even as they ponder the proper historical, cultural, political, legal, psychological, and linguistic ramifications of the affair.

With contributions by:
Toni Morrison, George Lipsitz, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., with Aderson Bellegarde Francois and Linda Y. Yueh, Nikol G. Alexander and Drucilla Cornell, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Ishmael Reed, Leola Johnson and David Roediger, Andrew Ross, Patricia J. Williams, Ann duCille, Armond White, Claudia Brodsky Lacour

Birth of a Nation'hood  but

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Birth of a Nation'hood

Slade Morrison

Delaware

Children spend the day with their grandmother, who ignores their mother's carefully planned schedule in favor of activities that are much more fun.

Peeny Butter Fudge

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Ohio

An Anthology of American Women Writers, 1930-1940

This comprehensive collection of fiction, poetry, and reportage by revolutionary women of the 1930s lays to rest the charge that feminism disappeared after 1920. Among the thirty-six writers are Muriel Rukeyser, Margaret Walker, Josephine Herbst, Tillie Olsen, Tess Slesinger, Agnes Smedley, and Meridel Le Sueur. Other voices may be new to readers, including many working-class Black and white women. Topics covered range from sexuality and family relationships, to race, class, and patriarchy, to party politics. Toni Morrison writes that the anthology is "peopled with questioning, caring, socially committed women writers."

Writing Red

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Lucille Clifton

Winner of the 2013 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry



"The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 may be the most important book of poetry to appear in years."--Publishers Weekly

"All poetry readers will want to own this book; almost everything is in it."--Publishers Weekly

"If you only read one poetry book in 2012,The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton ought to be it."--NPR

"The 'Collected Clifton' is a gift, not just for her fans...but for all of us."--The Washington Post

"The love readers feel for Lucille Clifton--both the woman and her poetry--is constant and deeply felt. The lines that surface most frequently in praise of her work and her person are moving declarations of racial pride, courage, steadfastness."--Toni Morrison, from the Foreword

The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 combines all eleven of Lucille Clifton's published collections with more than fifty previously unpublished poems. The unpublished poems feature early poems from 1965-1969, a collection-in-progress titledthe book of days (2008), and a poignant selection of final poems. An insightful foreword by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison and comprehensive afterword by noted poet Kevin Young frames Clifton's lifetime body of work, providing the definitive statement about this major America poet's career.

On February 13, 2010, the poetry world lost one of its most distinguished members with the passing of Lucille Clifton. In the last year of her life, she was named the first African American woman to receive the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honoring a US poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition," and was posthumously awarded the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement from the Poetry Society of America.

"mother-tongue: to man-kind" (from the unpublishedthe book of days):

all that I am asking is
that you see me as something
more than a common occurrence,
more than a woman in her ordinary skin.


The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010

A new edition for a new world of one of literary legend Toni Morrison's first picture books with her son, Slade Morrison. With an afterword by the inimitable Jewell Parker Rhodes."This is a book about mean people. Some mean people are big. Some little people are mean." In Toni Morrison's second illustrated book collaboration with her son Slade, she offers a humorous and insightful look at how children experience meanness and anger in our world. The Morrisons recognized that the world and its language can be confusing to young people. To a child, meanness can have many shapes, sizes, and sounds. The wise young narrator shows that meanness can be a whisper or a shout, a smile or a frown as the list of mean people grows to include parents, siblings, and bullies of several varieties. Today's young readers certainly know about meanness and will feel satisfied by having their perspective championed in The Book of Mean People as well as heartened by the book's message of embracing optimism, kindness, and joy despite any meanness they encounter. And adult readers will no doubt recognize some of these situations from their own life. With whimsical yet sophisticated art by bestselling illustrator Pascal Lemaitre, The Book of Mean People is as relevant today as it was when it was originally published 20 years ago. Features a new cover and back matter that includes an afterword by bestselling and critically acclaimed author Jewell Parker Rhodes.

Browse by categories

Toni Morrison

Beloved

Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

Sula

Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon

Toni Morrison

Paradise

Toni Morrison

Jazz

Toni Morrison

A Mercy

Toni Morrison

Tar Baby

Toni Morrison

Love

Toni Morrison

The Source of Self-Regard

Toni Morrison

Home

Toni Morrison

God Help the Child

Toni Morrison

Playing in the Dark

Toni Morrison

Recitatif

Toni Morrison

The Origin of Others

Toni Morrison

Race-Ing Justice, en-gendering Power

Toni Morrison

The Measure of Our Lives

Toni Morrison

Race

Toni Morrison

The Big Box

Toni Morrison

Birth of a Nation'hood

Toni Morrison

Peeny Butter Fudge

Toni Morrison

Writing Red

Lucille Clifton

The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010

Slade Morrison

The Book of Mean People (20th Anniversary Edition)