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What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction
What Moves at the Margin collects three decades of Toni Morrison's writings about her work, her life, literature, and American society. The works included in this volume range from 1971, when Morrison (b. 1931) was a new editor at Random House and a beginning novelist, to 2002 when she was a professor at Princeton University and Nobel Laureate. Even in the early days of her career, in between editing other writers, writing her own novels, and raising two children, she found time to speak out on subjects that mattered to her. From the reviews and essays written for major publications to her moving tributes to other writers to the commanding acceptance speeches for major literary awards, Morrison has consistently engaged as a writer outside the margins of her fiction. These works provide a unique glimpse into Morrison's viewpoint as an observer of the world, the arts, and the changing landscape of American culture. The first section of the book, "Family and History," includes Morrison's writings about her family, Black women, Black history, and her own works. The second section, "Writers and Writing," offers her assessments of writers she admires and books she reviewed, edited at Random House, or gave a special affirmation to with a foreword or an introduction. The final section, "Politics and Society," includes essays and speeches where Morrison addresses issues in American society and the role of language and literature in the national culture. Among other pieces, this collection includes a reflection on 9/11, reviews of such seminal books by Black writers as Albert Murray's South to a Very Old Place and Gayl Jones's Corregidora , an essay on teaching moral values in the university, a eulogy for James Baldwin, and Morrison's Nobel lecture. Taken together, What Moves at the Margin documents the response to our time by one of American literature's most thoughtful and eloquent writers.
212 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2008
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1,274 people want to read
About the author
Toni Morrison
224 books21.9k followersChloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her novel Beloved was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience.
The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996. She was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters the same year. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. She received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. Morrison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.
Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her novel Beloved was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience.
The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996. She was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters the same year. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. She received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. Morrison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.
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February 16, 2025
In a 1998 interview, Toni Morrison was asked by Charlie Rose asked when she would stop writing about race and Black culture. Unshaken by what was delivered as a sort of provocation, Morrison eloquently replied ‘the person who asks that question doesn’t understand he is also raced.’ No matter the format, be it novels, essays, speeches, or interviews, Toni Morrison delivered with perfect poise, prose, and profundity that makes her more than deserving of the immortalization from the Nobel Prize in Literature and the legacy of her stories. Yet, as her response demonstrates, it was also her ability to craft a universal importance to all she did that makes her work so enduring and important. A white person is also raced, she reminds Rose, her novels being thought of as just being about Black culture were also novels about the soul of America, the scope of humanity. To engage with her works is to understand insights into a collective of the human race, our complicities and complexities. It is also what makes What Moves at the Margin such a breathtaking read. Bringing together a selection of essays, speeches and other nonfiction pieces, Morrison is as cerebral as she is accessible examining life, literature, family, history, politics and society at large. We are treated to a genius at work and a blissful variety of insights and ideas that serve as a wonderful testament to this giant in literature.
‘Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.’
Divided into three sections—Family & History, Writers & Writing, Politics & Society—Morrison demonstrates an impressive scope of intellect and emotional resonance. It is a staggering collection and, as Carolyn C. Denard writes in the introduction ‘what moves at the margin of Toni Morrison’s impressive body of fiction are the forces that shape her both as woman and as artist: truth, outrage, hope and love.’ Hope is certainly alive in these essays, hope to retain a history that has long been under attack and attempts of erasure by oppressive powers, and hope to build a brighter and more equitable and humane future. While I found the final segment to be the most enthralling, each essay here is an indispensable glimpse into the mind of this amazing writer. And even as she looks towards the future, Morrison draws from a long lineage of the past, the writers that have shaped her and the family and friends that helped her thrive because ‘when you kill the ancestor you kill yourself.’ It is a great lesson to bear in mind.
‘We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.’
There are some rather incredible pieces in this collection. Morrison moves through looks at various novels, such as her favorite book&mdashlCorregidora by Gayl Jones— and the writings of James Baldwin. ‘In your hands language was handsome again,’ she writes in James Baldwin: His Voice Remembered (read it HERE), ‘ In your hands we saw how it was meant to be: neither bloodless nor bloody, and yet alive.’ It is a beautiful testament to an incredible writer.
There is a call for unity and positive action as a through-line for many of these essays. Even in the face of adversity or horror, as she addresses in her essay on 9/11. ‘We teach values by having them,’ she writes in her speech at Princeton in 2000, How Can Values Be Taught in the University, calling on universities—but also, all of us—to put into practice the good we want to see in the world. In FOr A Heroic Writers Movement, a speech given at a 1981 writers conference, she calls on writers to unite as a collective. ‘competitiveness and grief are the inevitable lot of a writer only when there is no organization or network to which he can turn,’ she explains, calling for a supportive network to advance creativity, intellectual insight and more.
For Toni Morrison, we are all a part of ‘the human project,’ which is to 'remain human and to block the dehumanization and estrangement of others.’ These ideas are quite prominent in her fabulous Nobel Prize lecture (you can read and listen to it HERE) which consists of a parable about two children questioning a blind woman if the bird they are holding in their hands is alive or dead. It is less a trick and more a ‘gesture towards possibility,’ as she puts it, prompting both parties to try and push the other into conversation to examine the authenticity in each other. It is a rather lovely lecture, one that speaks on the importance of language and how ‘narrative is radical,’ she says, ‘creating us at the very moment it is being created.’
But how we create narrative, how we use language, is what matters. And how to use it effectively and productively. ‘Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence,’ she teaches, it ‘does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.’ An important lesson in the age of mass media where oppressive language tries to cower in a “just joking” or “he didn’t mean it literally” that occurs at a political level. We must call it out, because it is harmful.
It is a great point, particularly in a time in the United States when combatting misinformation or deplatforming abusers is being criticized as silencing free speech instead of acknowledging that, as Morrison teaches, oppressive language is the actual silencer and violence. Morrison, as always, delivers her message with beauty and grace.
‘Look. How lovely it is, this thing we have done – together.’
Toni Morrison was an incredible thinker and writer and What Moves at the Margin is an indispensable selection of her nonfiction work. A joy to read, both heady yet accessible and always engaging, this collection proves again and again why Morrison has left such a lasting legacy that will continue on into the future. A very worthwhile read.
5/5
‘Tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light…Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company.’
‘Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.’
Divided into three sections—Family & History, Writers & Writing, Politics & Society—Morrison demonstrates an impressive scope of intellect and emotional resonance. It is a staggering collection and, as Carolyn C. Denard writes in the introduction ‘what moves at the margin of Toni Morrison’s impressive body of fiction are the forces that shape her both as woman and as artist: truth, outrage, hope and love.’ Hope is certainly alive in these essays, hope to retain a history that has long been under attack and attempts of erasure by oppressive powers, and hope to build a brighter and more equitable and humane future. While I found the final segment to be the most enthralling, each essay here is an indispensable glimpse into the mind of this amazing writer. And even as she looks towards the future, Morrison draws from a long lineage of the past, the writers that have shaped her and the family and friends that helped her thrive because ‘when you kill the ancestor you kill yourself.’ It is a great lesson to bear in mind.
‘We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.’
There are some rather incredible pieces in this collection. Morrison moves through looks at various novels, such as her favorite book&mdashlCorregidora by Gayl Jones— and the writings of James Baldwin. ‘In your hands language was handsome again,’ she writes in James Baldwin: His Voice Remembered (read it HERE), ‘ In your hands we saw how it was meant to be: neither bloodless nor bloody, and yet alive.’ It is a beautiful testament to an incredible writer.
‘Those who saw the paucity of their own imagination in the two-way mirror you held up to them attacked the mirror, tried to reduce it to fragments which they could then rank and grade, tried to dismiss the shards where your image and theirs remained - locked but ready to soar. You are an artist after all and an artist is forbidden a career in this place; an artist is permitted only a commercial hit. But for thousands and thousands of those who embraced your text and who gave themselves permission to hear your language, by that very gesture they ennobled themselves, became unshrouded, civilized.’
There is a call for unity and positive action as a through-line for many of these essays. Even in the face of adversity or horror, as she addresses in her essay on 9/11. ‘We teach values by having them,’ she writes in her speech at Princeton in 2000, How Can Values Be Taught in the University, calling on universities—but also, all of us—to put into practice the good we want to see in the world. In FOr A Heroic Writers Movement, a speech given at a 1981 writers conference, she calls on writers to unite as a collective. ‘competitiveness and grief are the inevitable lot of a writer only when there is no organization or network to which he can turn,’ she explains, calling for a supportive network to advance creativity, intellectual insight and more.
For Toni Morrison, we are all a part of ‘the human project,’ which is to 'remain human and to block the dehumanization and estrangement of others.’ These ideas are quite prominent in her fabulous Nobel Prize lecture (you can read and listen to it HERE) which consists of a parable about two children questioning a blind woman if the bird they are holding in their hands is alive or dead. It is less a trick and more a ‘gesture towards possibility,’ as she puts it, prompting both parties to try and push the other into conversation to examine the authenticity in each other. It is a rather lovely lecture, one that speaks on the importance of language and how ‘narrative is radical,’ she says, ‘creating us at the very moment it is being created.’
But how we create narrative, how we use language, is what matters. And how to use it effectively and productively. ‘Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence,’ she teaches, it ‘does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.’ An important lesson in the age of mass media where oppressive language tries to cower in a “just joking” or “he didn’t mean it literally” that occurs at a political level. We must call it out, because it is harmful.
‘Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek – it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language – all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.’
It is a great point, particularly in a time in the United States when combatting misinformation or deplatforming abusers is being criticized as silencing free speech instead of acknowledging that, as Morrison teaches, oppressive language is the actual silencer and violence. Morrison, as always, delivers her message with beauty and grace.
‘Look. How lovely it is, this thing we have done – together.’
Toni Morrison was an incredible thinker and writer and What Moves at the Margin is an indispensable selection of her nonfiction work. A joy to read, both heady yet accessible and always engaging, this collection proves again and again why Morrison has left such a lasting legacy that will continue on into the future. A very worthwhile read.
5/5
‘Tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light…Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company.’
June 4, 2013
Toni Morrison is a writer I greatly admire but one who drives me mad because of the complex motifs and symbolism in her writing.I do find her writing, as elegant and beautiful as it is, challenging at times (Paradise is one of those Morrison books I struggled through).
I picked up this book of essays on a whim and I was glad that I did. I think my new thing will be reading author’s diaries, biographies or essays before I embark on their fiction, if at all possible. I feel that after reading these essays,several which have biographical elements), I am in a better position to understand what Ms. Morrison is trying to do as a writer and who her influences are,and so on.
This essay collection covered many topics, for example book reviews, her early life, black history, academia, language etc.My favourite essay by far was the profoundly-moving tribute to James Baldwin, “James Baldwin: His Voice Remembered; Life in His Language.”
"No one possessed or inhabited language for me the way you did. You made American English honest - genuinely international. You exposed its secrets and reshaped it until it was truly modern dialogic, representative, humane. You stripped it of ease and false comfort and fake innocence and evasion and hypocrisy. And in place of deviousness was clarity. In place of soft plump lies was a lean, targeted power. In place of intellectual disingenuousness and what you called ''exasperating egocentricity,'' you gave us undecorated truth. You replaced lumbering platitudes with an upright elegance. You went into that forbidden territory and decolonized it, ''robbed it of the jewel of its naivete,'' and un-gated it for black people so that in your wake we could enter it, occupy it, restructure it in order to accommodate our complicated passion - not our vanities but our intricate, difficult, demanding beauty, our tragic, insistent knowledge, our lived reality, our sleek classical imagination - all the while refusing ''to be defined by a language that has never been able to recognize [ us ] .'' In your hands language was handsome again. In your hands we saw how it was meant to be: neither bloodless nor bloody, and yet alive."
A beautiful collection of essays I would be happy to re-read.
I picked up this book of essays on a whim and I was glad that I did. I think my new thing will be reading author’s diaries, biographies or essays before I embark on their fiction, if at all possible. I feel that after reading these essays,several which have biographical elements), I am in a better position to understand what Ms. Morrison is trying to do as a writer and who her influences are,and so on.
This essay collection covered many topics, for example book reviews, her early life, black history, academia, language etc.My favourite essay by far was the profoundly-moving tribute to James Baldwin, “James Baldwin: His Voice Remembered; Life in His Language.”
"No one possessed or inhabited language for me the way you did. You made American English honest - genuinely international. You exposed its secrets and reshaped it until it was truly modern dialogic, representative, humane. You stripped it of ease and false comfort and fake innocence and evasion and hypocrisy. And in place of deviousness was clarity. In place of soft plump lies was a lean, targeted power. In place of intellectual disingenuousness and what you called ''exasperating egocentricity,'' you gave us undecorated truth. You replaced lumbering platitudes with an upright elegance. You went into that forbidden territory and decolonized it, ''robbed it of the jewel of its naivete,'' and un-gated it for black people so that in your wake we could enter it, occupy it, restructure it in order to accommodate our complicated passion - not our vanities but our intricate, difficult, demanding beauty, our tragic, insistent knowledge, our lived reality, our sleek classical imagination - all the while refusing ''to be defined by a language that has never been able to recognize [ us ] .'' In your hands language was handsome again. In your hands we saw how it was meant to be: neither bloodless nor bloody, and yet alive."
A beautiful collection of essays I would be happy to re-read.
September 29, 2013
She will make you remember what it means to be a writer, a woman, a human being. I adore her novels, and this collection of essays and addresses stirred my heart. She is a student of the soul and her passion for life moved me more than the exhortations of any priest or preacher. She is a genius of the human spirit and if you write or love or dream, you must read this book.
September 2, 2024
I found this title randomly in an old note that i had written from a college class, so i think this is maybe kind of an obscure book - BUT super thought provoking and diverse array of works; some are book reviews, some transcripts of live speeches, some biographical reflections. Luckily i feel like toni morrisons writing was so captivating that i didn’t feel like i needed to read the source material to understand the expansion on it. Surprisingly i have not read any of toni morrisons fiction but that’s next up for me
July 18, 2024
“The human project— which is to remain human and to block the dehumanization do others”
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
I have to start this review by mentioning I have not read her fiction works really. The one I read is far removed from memory.
This book is well organized, with great transitions between the three sections.
Now for the content: absolutely brilliant. To read timeless reflections on specific points in history, or her life, or writing in general was wonderful. She has the voice of the old, wise lady she assumed in the last piece, her Nobel Prize speech.
“Review of Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow” was excellent in maintaining key points that change one’s paradigm of women in slavery with sufficient evidence. That along with “A Slow Walk of Trees'' has enhanced my understanding of Spillers’s critical “Mama’s Baby Papa’s Maybe.” She summed up the interesting people and emotions she was faced with during the completion of the Black Book, which I’m convinced is the quintessential coffee table book. Determined completely that institutions and individuals alike have a responsibility to humanity.
Her intelligence perfectly complements her respectful and respectable critique of American Culture, black culture, and academia. Determined completely that institutions and individuals alike have a responsibility to humanity. Despite her intelligence, she has a personal and approachable voice. One that made me emotional as I read her eulogy to “Jimmy” or James Baldwin, though I am yet to read his work. Reading “She and Me” feels as though I’m receiving wisdom from a sage aunt who knows well what life will confront me with. She is the wise, black, old lady concerned with America and humanity’s preservation of itself.
Review of “On The Radiance of the King” makes me reflect on the power of fiction to redress discourse, to change minds, and mitigate racism. Before the publications of African fiction set in Africa by Africans, people were reliant on the racist accounts of white travel writers all confirming the paradoxical image of Africa: ancient and infant, intimate and ignored, and an uninvented place for self-actualization. She has an excellent description of Canada’s use of the protagonist.
As much as I can relate to Morrison’s efforts and manner in having a “news-free” summer, it is altogether inevitable today. I wonder why it is that I, born in 2003, do not recall Clinton being called “the first black president.” Perhaps because despite Morrison’s pessimism, a literal expletive ensued. It is just a little difficult to imagine what uproar the scandal caused. A little difficult because as Morrision explained America is not new to news of infidelity. Nor is it new to scandals. Nonetheless, I think the biggest obstacle to my imagination is due to the treatment Trump has received for the Stormi Daniels scandal. It is not near to the description of what Clinton endured. One could make the argument that Clinton had the privilege of being the first. However, that could easily be countered by the fact that Trump has scandals much more worthy of scandal, in fact, he’s been charged with multiple felonies. This fact does leave me to believe Morrision’s account of the difference in Clinton's treatment.
Her description of female friendship; of projecting one’s wants into a stranger; of longing for sisterhood, for community; of the potential and vitality of strangers and love is so well described in the “The fisherwoman.” It is one of my favorites in the book. She has maintained a wise view into the conditions of humanity.
She had a vision for black people to be truly liberated and all people to be whole. She wanted people to be whole, good, and fulfilled. Being whole means we use language, uphold our values, do not suppress language, and do not let it die. That we rely on and build a community that can sustain its own reliance.
It was through this book that I discovered she was an editor and published critical works that possibly might not have been printed. For example, the posthumous work of Henry Dumas, which convinced me not only of his mastery of the art but made me ponder at how many works from young, intelligent, black men the world will be oblivious to, that will not get published. I feel she has gracefully fulfilled a function of a maintainer and watcher of language, and one who uplifts black people’s memories, and I am genuinely curious at who is fulling that role now.
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
I have to start this review by mentioning I have not read her fiction works really. The one I read is far removed from memory.
This book is well organized, with great transitions between the three sections.
Now for the content: absolutely brilliant. To read timeless reflections on specific points in history, or her life, or writing in general was wonderful. She has the voice of the old, wise lady she assumed in the last piece, her Nobel Prize speech.
“Review of Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow” was excellent in maintaining key points that change one’s paradigm of women in slavery with sufficient evidence. That along with “A Slow Walk of Trees'' has enhanced my understanding of Spillers’s critical “Mama’s Baby Papa’s Maybe.” She summed up the interesting people and emotions she was faced with during the completion of the Black Book, which I’m convinced is the quintessential coffee table book. Determined completely that institutions and individuals alike have a responsibility to humanity.
Her intelligence perfectly complements her respectful and respectable critique of American Culture, black culture, and academia. Determined completely that institutions and individuals alike have a responsibility to humanity. Despite her intelligence, she has a personal and approachable voice. One that made me emotional as I read her eulogy to “Jimmy” or James Baldwin, though I am yet to read his work. Reading “She and Me” feels as though I’m receiving wisdom from a sage aunt who knows well what life will confront me with. She is the wise, black, old lady concerned with America and humanity’s preservation of itself.
Review of “On The Radiance of the King” makes me reflect on the power of fiction to redress discourse, to change minds, and mitigate racism. Before the publications of African fiction set in Africa by Africans, people were reliant on the racist accounts of white travel writers all confirming the paradoxical image of Africa: ancient and infant, intimate and ignored, and an uninvented place for self-actualization. She has an excellent description of Canada’s use of the protagonist.
As much as I can relate to Morrison’s efforts and manner in having a “news-free” summer, it is altogether inevitable today. I wonder why it is that I, born in 2003, do not recall Clinton being called “the first black president.” Perhaps because despite Morrison’s pessimism, a literal expletive ensued. It is just a little difficult to imagine what uproar the scandal caused. A little difficult because as Morrision explained America is not new to news of infidelity. Nor is it new to scandals. Nonetheless, I think the biggest obstacle to my imagination is due to the treatment Trump has received for the Stormi Daniels scandal. It is not near to the description of what Clinton endured. One could make the argument that Clinton had the privilege of being the first. However, that could easily be countered by the fact that Trump has scandals much more worthy of scandal, in fact, he’s been charged with multiple felonies. This fact does leave me to believe Morrision’s account of the difference in Clinton's treatment.
Her description of female friendship; of projecting one’s wants into a stranger; of longing for sisterhood, for community; of the potential and vitality of strangers and love is so well described in the “The fisherwoman.” It is one of my favorites in the book. She has maintained a wise view into the conditions of humanity.
She had a vision for black people to be truly liberated and all people to be whole. She wanted people to be whole, good, and fulfilled. Being whole means we use language, uphold our values, do not suppress language, and do not let it die. That we rely on and build a community that can sustain its own reliance.
It was through this book that I discovered she was an editor and published critical works that possibly might not have been printed. For example, the posthumous work of Henry Dumas, which convinced me not only of his mastery of the art but made me ponder at how many works from young, intelligent, black men the world will be oblivious to, that will not get published. I feel she has gracefully fulfilled a function of a maintainer and watcher of language, and one who uplifts black people’s memories, and I am genuinely curious at who is fulling that role now.
September 6, 2019
Toni Morrison possessed and shared with us knowledge about ourselves, through the power of words.The work of the grande dame of Black American Literature has always commanded our attention. Great fiction writers create stories expressed through characters, plot and language that speak truth to all of us. Their work takes our breath away by making us look at life we never thought about, and even denied existed. Toni Morrison was a great writer who wrote about the lives of Black Americans.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution legally abolished slavery, but it did not heal the abominable wound of slavery. The damage done to lives by slavery and racism continues. Toni Morrison’s novels are about the multifarious injuries to the lives of Black Americans, over decades, day upon day. Her work speaks truth about humanity to humanity, and that truth was not always welcomed by people of all colors and hues. She caused both disruption and approval in the thoughts and feelings of many people, but she worked on. That is what great writers do.
The novels are short and concentrated by a poetic sentence structure that makes you pay attention and think and feel. This has been done by other great writers, there are a few others, but in this moment two come to mind: William Faulkner and William Shakespeare. Great poetic voices bringing us the truth about love and hate, beauty and ugliness, revelation and redemption, by way of glorious language and syntax.
The great body of her work, novels, are in the Literature & Fiction Department, as well as in the fiction sections of our 72 branches. This was acknowledged late Tuesday afternoon, August 6, 2019, by one of our patrons who dropped off a rose in honor of Toni Morrison. She wrote about other subjects, just as arresting in style and content as her novels, and all of her work that the Los Angeles Public Library owns can be found here.
Ton Morrison's essays also use poetic language and structure, but not with the same complex syntax as that found in her novels. However, her non-fiction will shift and shake a reader's perspective and assumptions as much as her fiction. She admonishes, warns, and explicates about past history, of the individual or the group, and cautions us about the future. The essays/non-fiction are as highly recommended as the fiction, and might be an entrée to the rich complexity of her novels. In whatever Toni Morrison wrote, she knocks us back with unexpected insight and truth.
As long as there is one person or one group of people, anywhere in the world, made to feel less-than, by word or deed by another, then Toni Morrison’s work speaks to them. Through her novels, and non-fiction, she looked directly at all of us, spoke truth to us whether we wanted to hear it or not. The thoughts, feelings and actions expressed through her characters and plots are here forever, as long as the printed word exists, and there are people to read her stories. She is gone but not silenced.
For three humorous remembrances, from writers who knew her, consider reading, "Remembering Toni" from The Paris Review, August 6, 2019.
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Central Library
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution legally abolished slavery, but it did not heal the abominable wound of slavery. The damage done to lives by slavery and racism continues. Toni Morrison’s novels are about the multifarious injuries to the lives of Black Americans, over decades, day upon day. Her work speaks truth about humanity to humanity, and that truth was not always welcomed by people of all colors and hues. She caused both disruption and approval in the thoughts and feelings of many people, but she worked on. That is what great writers do.
The novels are short and concentrated by a poetic sentence structure that makes you pay attention and think and feel. This has been done by other great writers, there are a few others, but in this moment two come to mind: William Faulkner and William Shakespeare. Great poetic voices bringing us the truth about love and hate, beauty and ugliness, revelation and redemption, by way of glorious language and syntax.
The great body of her work, novels, are in the Literature & Fiction Department, as well as in the fiction sections of our 72 branches. This was acknowledged late Tuesday afternoon, August 6, 2019, by one of our patrons who dropped off a rose in honor of Toni Morrison. She wrote about other subjects, just as arresting in style and content as her novels, and all of her work that the Los Angeles Public Library owns can be found here.
Ton Morrison's essays also use poetic language and structure, but not with the same complex syntax as that found in her novels. However, her non-fiction will shift and shake a reader's perspective and assumptions as much as her fiction. She admonishes, warns, and explicates about past history, of the individual or the group, and cautions us about the future. The essays/non-fiction are as highly recommended as the fiction, and might be an entrée to the rich complexity of her novels. In whatever Toni Morrison wrote, she knocks us back with unexpected insight and truth.
As long as there is one person or one group of people, anywhere in the world, made to feel less-than, by word or deed by another, then Toni Morrison’s work speaks to them. Through her novels, and non-fiction, she looked directly at all of us, spoke truth to us whether we wanted to hear it or not. The thoughts, feelings and actions expressed through her characters and plots are here forever, as long as the printed word exists, and there are people to read her stories. She is gone but not silenced.
For three humorous remembrances, from writers who knew her, consider reading, "Remembering Toni" from The Paris Review, August 6, 2019.
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Central Library
February 23, 2009
I thoroughly enjoyed this rarity among Toni Morrison's literary corpus. Generally celebrated as one of our greatest living novelists, this incredible collection of nonfiction writings by the Nobel Laureate demonstrates just how exceptional a writer she truly is. For my full review, please click on this url: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewa...
Aberjhani
Aberjhani
December 12, 2009
reading the short essays and speeches in this book reaffirms my belief that toni morrison is worthy of the title 'genius.' her command of language is so masterful and so rare, i sometimes find myself reading sentences over and over just to marvel at her skill. if you are at all a fan of morrison, this is as close as you'll get to a conversation with her.
May 29, 2015
Deep, Inspiring & Moving!!! An Excellent Read!!! I Loved It!!!
July 18, 2017
Partially read. Started with Part 3 - insightful as always.
December 30, 2022
I liked the Politics & Society section the most, and found that the Writers & Writing section had a lot of new books I haven't read (although I'm adding them to my to read list!) that Morrison reviewed and wrote reviews on. It is helpful to have a compilation of her work, but I think I liked The Source of Self-Regard more because it felt like that compilation of essays, speeches, meditations were life lessons that could be applied across generations and for different movements or personal reflections.
"The Nobel Lecture in Literature" resonated the most with me and felt the most applicable to today's society and my personal interest on language:
"The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, midwifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge" (page 201).
"... there will be more of the language of surveillance disguised as research; of politics and history calculated to render the suffering of millions mute; language glamorized to thrill the dissatisfied and bereft into assaulting their neighbors; arrogant pseudo-empirical language crafted to lock creative people into cages of inferiority and hopelessness" (page 202).
These two quotes I feel is relevant to today's discussion and debate of free speech on the internet and how majority white cis misogynistic men incels hide behind "freedom of speech" to propagate further racist, sexist language with other men and online communities.
And finally one last quote: "Language is meditation." which I loved reading and may use as a meditation to myself sometime!
I found myself disagreeing in the The "Family & History" section because... I feel like we've progressed a little bit more than Morrison wrote? That some of the language felt outdated, which is understandable given that majority of these essays were written in the 1990s or so (I'm assuming).
"The Nobel Lecture in Literature" resonated the most with me and felt the most applicable to today's society and my personal interest on language:
"The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, midwifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge" (page 201).
"... there will be more of the language of surveillance disguised as research; of politics and history calculated to render the suffering of millions mute; language glamorized to thrill the dissatisfied and bereft into assaulting their neighbors; arrogant pseudo-empirical language crafted to lock creative people into cages of inferiority and hopelessness" (page 202).
These two quotes I feel is relevant to today's discussion and debate of free speech on the internet and how majority white cis misogynistic men incels hide behind "freedom of speech" to propagate further racist, sexist language with other men and online communities.
And finally one last quote: "Language is meditation." which I loved reading and may use as a meditation to myself sometime!
I found myself disagreeing in the The "Family & History" section because... I feel like we've progressed a little bit more than Morrison wrote? That some of the language felt outdated, which is understandable given that majority of these essays were written in the 1990s or so (I'm assuming).
July 21, 2018
It is abundantly clear that in the political realm the future is already catastrophe. Political discourse enunciates the future it references as something we can leave to or assure "our" children or—in a giant leap of faith—"our" grandchildren. It is the pronoun, I suggest, that ought to trouble us. We are not being asked to rally for the children, but for ours. Our children stretches our concern for two or five generations. The children gestures towards time to come of greater, broader, brighter, possibilities—precisely what politics veils from view. Instead political language is dominated by glorifications of some past decade, summoning strength from the pasted-on glamour of the twenties—a decade rife with war and the mutilation of third world countries; from attaching simplicity and rural calm to the thirties—a decade of economic depression, worldwide strikes and want so universal it hardly bears coherent thought; from the righteous forties when the "good war" was won and millions upon millions of innocent died wondering, perhaps, what that word, good, could possibly mean. The fifties, the current favorite, has acquired a gloss of voluntary orderliness, of ethic harmony, although it was a decade of outrageous political and ethic persecution. And here one realizes that the dexterity of political language is stunning, stunning and shameless. It enshrines the fifties as a model decade peopled by model patriots while at the same time abandoning the patriots who lived through them to reduced, inferior or expensive healthcare; to gutted pensions; to choosing suicide or homelessness.
- Morrison, 1996
- Morrison, 1996
February 23, 2023
Impressive, thought-provoking collection of Morrison essays, speeches, and book reviews. In her Introduction to the volume, Carolyn C. Denard aptly writes that Morrison's "ability to see value in what the world discredits, to track the patterns of the culture and the characteristics of its members that the rest of the world ignores is a hallmark of [her] writings." I always love reading Morrison's reflections on her own writing, which augment my own understanding of them. For example, re: Song of Solomon , she writes about "blend[ing] the acceptance of the supernatural and a profound rootedness in the real world at the same time..." In another essay she states: "My job becomes how to rip the veil drawn over 'proceedings too terrible to relate'." I have too many PostIt-marked pages to cite all the examples.
I very much enjoyed reading her critical reviews of others' writings, not only because of how she gets into the heart and soul of the books she is reviewing, but also because with all the literary references, they show what an incredible reader she was. In the "Politics and Society" section, she addresses social issues of the latter part of the 20th c. (such as the question of teaching values at the university level) and powerful insights on language. E.g., "Oppressive language does more than represent violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge: it limits knowledge."
Altogether the book offers great insights into Morrison's mind (or at least the mind she wants to share publicly!)
I very much enjoyed reading her critical reviews of others' writings, not only because of how she gets into the heart and soul of the books she is reviewing, but also because with all the literary references, they show what an incredible reader she was. In the "Politics and Society" section, she addresses social issues of the latter part of the 20th c. (such as the question of teaching values at the university level) and powerful insights on language. E.g., "Oppressive language does more than represent violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge: it limits knowledge."
Altogether the book offers great insights into Morrison's mind (or at least the mind she wants to share publicly!)
May 30, 2022
Toni Morrison's What Moves at the margin is a book for anyone who wants to add to their perspective of racism in america. Tonis parents were at complete opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their attitudes towards white people. Her father resented his oppressors having no faith in them changing their position of power. On the other hand Tonis mother, while still hurt over the racism she's experienced and seen, believed white people could change. So Toni grew up hearing both sides of the argument in her community daily, creating a unique perspective of her own. This book might not be interesting for people who have never lived in America since it deals with its political scene, but for a more expansive world view I would recommend hearing Tonis life told through a collection of short stories!
August 1, 2017
Guinea
The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye
"Africa, such a beautiful word."
"Africa was raw matter out of which the writer was free to forge a template to examine desire and improve character."
"having lost the right-the right or the luxury-to be angry"
'inferno of the senses"
"the life which lies beyond death"
The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye
"Africa, such a beautiful word."
"Africa was raw matter out of which the writer was free to forge a template to examine desire and improve character."
"having lost the right-the right or the luxury-to be angry"
'inferno of the senses"
"the life which lies beyond death"
January 5, 2023
Toni Morrison is da bomb. A Scholarly Literary Figure and a Journalism with Brutal Expose that is completely different in Style and Class from Ms. Alice Walker. She is Formidable, Unapologetic, and Ferociously Honest. She is so well-read. LOVE her Non-Fiction Work better than her Fictions.
Read
October 2, 2019I'm not the audience for a lot of this, but what I did read was lovely thoughtful stuff. next: read her fiction
July 21, 2022
Toni Morrison is a genius - I understood that from her fiction, and now through her nonfiction.
August 16, 2023
She’s definitely affected the way ive been thinking about my own essay writing in the moment, really cherish her words
October 2, 2024
A lot of mostly very short pieces, some more interesting than others. Obviously there's some great writing here, but I definitely like Morrison more as a novelist.
March 7, 2025
Can’t say I feel up to critiquing TM (or ever would)
September 22, 2016
A brilliant compendium of Morrison's non-fiction and definitely an invaluable resource for studying her fiction. The first section largely deals with Morrison's personal experiences; her life and family, and although modern criticism usually champions the 'death of the author', like Morrison herself argues later in the book, the removal of the author as context for an overtly political work (and Morrison's work has always been overtly political) is a kind of intellectual vandalism or sabotage that honestly doesn't make very much sense, this section was extremely illuminating for me to read as a student of her work. I'm not going to lie either, it was agonisingly difficult at times, I'm not naive, but reading some of these essays as a white reader of Morrison's work was difficult for me- and that's just something I'll have to hash out in future. Maybe feeling uncomfortable is a good sign, or maybe it means I have a long way to go, maybe I'm laughably over sensitive to something that concerns me not at all (and I'm very aware of this possibility at least because I am aware that NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT ME and that's fine)
The second part of the collection I found less interesting- as it meditated on writers and writing; mostly made up of reviews and prefaces to other works (which to be fair, I had never read and so had very little idea how Morrison's paratext matched up with the content) although it was good to get a sense of what Morrison herself considers good writing in others and what she reads for enjoyment and WHY they appeal to her. Obviously this informs her own work in varying degrees so it was useful for me to know.
The final part of the collection was also extremely interesting as it examined various political events of our time and Morrison's take on them, as well as her thoughts about the future of the arts, and the future in general.
All in all an extremely enlightening collection which is well worth a read. I think I've now exhausted pretty much everything Morrison ever wrote (bar her children's book I think) so I'm well placed to begin writing my dissertation!
Please feel free to come chat Morrison with me in comments or in messages!
Booklove,
Grace
The second part of the collection I found less interesting- as it meditated on writers and writing; mostly made up of reviews and prefaces to other works (which to be fair, I had never read and so had very little idea how Morrison's paratext matched up with the content) although it was good to get a sense of what Morrison herself considers good writing in others and what she reads for enjoyment and WHY they appeal to her. Obviously this informs her own work in varying degrees so it was useful for me to know.
The final part of the collection was also extremely interesting as it examined various political events of our time and Morrison's take on them, as well as her thoughts about the future of the arts, and the future in general.
All in all an extremely enlightening collection which is well worth a read. I think I've now exhausted pretty much everything Morrison ever wrote (bar her children's book I think) so I'm well placed to begin writing my dissertation!
Please feel free to come chat Morrison with me in comments or in messages!
Booklove,
Grace
Read
December 16, 2016I think I totally wasn't in the mood for this book. Toni Morrison is amazing, and it seems like the kind of smart and well-written essays I should have liked, but I abandoned it after reading just a bit. Not into it right now.
January 23, 2009
How can I be an artist in this hostile land of opportunity? Elder Toni Morrison responds with this magnificent book of essays and critical thought. An expressive and expansive book that touches the mind, the ear, and the heart. The book is a mix of essays, tributes, speeches, and reviews. Before reading the book I had thought Toni Morrison to be a genius that saw herself as above the fray of the political world. Now I see more clearly that she refuses to compromise her intelligence for a politics based on sloganeering and popularity. Her art work is influenced by a fierce love for community and history and these motivations shine through in this collection of essays.
October 18, 2015
To write an unbiased review of this book is almost impossible considering how much my love for Morrison's mastery of language has influenced every part of my body (I literally bear a tattoo with a quote from Beloved). With that being said, I honestly found solitude and nourishment within the pages of What Moves at the Margins... from stories on how her familial history impacted her writing and views of the world to her poignant remarks on the craft itself, each page of this work provided a new starting point for rediscovery that I have longed for while on this path towards adulthood through a journey into literature.
August 31, 2009
"Tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and the light.... Tell us what it is to be a woman so we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of a town that cannot bear your company." - Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture, 1993
I was totally inspired by Morrison's thoughts on writing and the American literature canon.
I was totally inspired by Morrison's thoughts on writing and the American literature canon.
February 5, 2009
The book's format of short essays and brief writings was a refreshing approach. Ms. Morrison delves into heavier topics, such as family, race, feminism, and black history, with an incredible skill to convey points deftly and with poetic language.
Read
March 25, 2009It was a good collection of nonfiction by Toni Morrison, I particularly loved the article about Black Women's participation in the Wom. Lib. Movement because she so eloquently describes why black women feel how they do about black men dating white women.
March 20, 2017
Very insightful. Into Morrison's mind and into her views on culture and politics and literature. Another scary book to read in these times, since once again it appears that the conversations we're having about race and gender and the federal government haven't changed much since the 1970s...
April 10, 2015
The first and last part of this book focus on Morrison's writings about her life and race and politics, but the whole middle section was basically dedications to other writers. Overall an interesting collection of her nonfiction writing.
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