The Bluest Eye
Morrison's first novel and the natural starting point for a publication-order reading of her fiction.
Author guide
Toni Morrison Books in Order
Toni Morrison was an American writer, editor, and professor whose eleven novels established her as one of the most influential voices in modern literature. Her fiction includes The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise, A Mercy, Home, and God Help the Child. She also wrote literary criticism, essays, lectures, children's books, plays, and the libretto for the opera Margaret Garner. Morrison received the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
literary fictionhistorical fictionnonfictionessayschildren's literatureplays
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Beloved
A landmark, self-contained novel and the most widely recognized entry point to Morrison's fiction.
Read in order
Books by series
children's-book-series · completed
Who's Got Game?
A completed series of illustrated children's fables co-authored by Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison.
- 1 Who's Got Game?: The Ant or the Grasshopper?
Book 1 · children's-book · 2003
- 2 Who's Got Game?: The Lion or the Mouse?
Book 2 · children's-book · 2003
- 3 Who's Got Game?: The Poppy or the Snake?
Book 3 · children's-book · 2004
- 4 Who's Got Game?: The Mirror or the Glass?
Book 4 · children's-book · 2005
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (13)
- The Bluest Eye
novel · 1970
"So that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment."-- Provided by Amazon
- Sula
novel · 1973
Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of…
- Song of Solomon
novel · 1977
Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison…
- Tar Baby
novel · 1981
Winner of the 1978 National Book Critic's Circle Award for fiction. "Beautiful and satisfying . . . an unusually wise and large-spirited book . . . consistently picturesque, charged with startling images".--Baltimore Sun Copyright © Libri…
- Beloved
novel · 1987
Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
- Jazz
novel · 1992
In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks…
- The Nobel Lecture in Literature
nonfiction · 1994
- Paradise
novel · 1998
"Rumors had been whispered for more than a year. Outrages that had been accumulating all along took shape as evidence. A mother was knocked down the stairs by her cold-eyed daughter. Four damaged infants were born in one family. Daughters…
- Love
novel · 2003
From the internationally acclaimed Nobel laureate comes a richly conceived novel that illuminates the full spectrum of desire. May, Christine, Heed, Junior, Vida -- even L: all women obsessed by Bill Cosey. More than the wealthy owner of…
- What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction
nonfiction-collection · 2008
The commanding voice of Morrison's essays, speeches and reviews offers compelling insights into family, history, other writers and politics. The pieces span from 1971, when Morrison was an editor at Random House, to 2002, the year she won…
- A Mercy
novel · 2008
A powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece by the Nobel Prize--winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier.In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the…
- Home
novel · 2012
America’s most celebrated novelist, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption: a taut and tortured story about one man’s desperate search for himself in a…
- God Help the Child
novel · 2015
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times Notable Book • This fiery and provocative novel from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner weaves a tale about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult. At the…
Essays and speeches (4)
- Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
essay-collection · 1992
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison brings the genius of a master writer to this personal inquiry into the significance of African-Americans in the American literary imagination. Her goal, she states at the outset, is to "put…
- The Dancing Mind
lecture · 1996
On the occasion of her acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on the sixth of November, 1996, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison speaks with brevity and passion to the pleasures, the…
- The Origin of Others
essay-collection · 2017
America's foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it…
- The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
essay-collection · 2019
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…
Children's books (7)
- The Big Box
children's-book · 1999
In her first illustrated book for children, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author Toni Morrison introduces three feisty children who show grown-ups what it really means to be a kid.
- The Book of Mean People
children's-book · 2002
A young bunny finds a unique way to cope with the various mean people in his life.
- Remember: The Journey to School Integration
children's-nonfiction · 2004
- Peeny Butter Fudge
children's-book · 2009
Children spend the day with their grandmother, who ignores their mother's carefully planned schedule in favor of activities that are much more fun.
- The Tortoise or the Hare
children's-book · 2010
Jamey Tortoise is smarter than anyone else and Jimi Hare is faster, but when a race is announced each consults a reporter about how to get what he really wants when and if he should win.
- Little Cloud and Lady Wind
children's-book · 2010
Little Cloud does not want to join the other clouds in terrorizing the earth with storms, but grows lonely and longs to look closer at mountains and seas, until Lady Wind makes her dream come true.
- Please, Louise
children's-book · 2013
Plays (2)
- Margaret Garner
libretto · 2004
- Desdemona
play · 2012
Ripped from the world by her husband's paranoia, Desdemona turns in death towards the memory of Barbary, the North African maid who raised her: together, they explore the contours of death, race, war, love and motherhood, in a moving…
Other (1)
- My Book of Mean People Journal
ephemera · 2002
Frequently asked questions about Toni Morrison
When and where was Toni Morrison born, and what was her birth name?
Toni Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio.
What did Toni Morrison do before becoming a celebrated novelist?
She studied English at Howard University and Cornell University, taught at Texas Southern and Howard, and then spent about 20 years as a senior editor at Random House before joining Princeton’s faculty.
Sources: dof.princeton.edu (opens in a new tab)princeton.edu (opens in a new tab)
What influenced Toni Morrison’s writing?
Her writing drew on African American history, contemporary Black life, and the storytelling traditions she encountered growing up, including her father’s stories and family interest in folktales.
Sources: nobelprize.org (opens in a new tab)dpul.princeton.edu (opens in a new tab)
Which major awards did Toni Morrison win?
She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved, the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, the 2000 National Humanities Medal, and the 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sources: pulitzer.org (opens in a new tab)princeton.edu (opens in a new tab)dpul.princeton.edu (opens in a new tab)
What is Toni Morrison’s literary legacy?
Morrison is regarded as one of the most influential authors of 20th-century American fiction. She became the first African American to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, and her writing, teaching, and mentorship helped broaden American literary culture and inspired generations of readers and writers.
Sources: dpul.princeton.edu (opens in a new tab)princeton.edu (opens in a new tab)