Birth, life, and death

"Birth, life, and death - each took place on the hidden side of a leaf." - Toni Morrison

My quote of the week is by Toni Morrison. I came across it a while ago on the blog of an American member of the book blogging community who used the pseudonym Dewey and who, sadly, died last week. Dewey set various blog challenges and had a most informative and readable literary blog. She will be missed.

Not knowing who Toni Morrison was I looked her up on Wikipedia. Once I found out something about her it occurred to me how different are the two worlds of American and British literature. I suspect there are few Americans who are know;edgeable about books and literature who don’t know who Toni Morrison is. Yet despite my interest in literature I hadn’t come across her before. Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931, she is a Nobel Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters; among the best known are her novels "The Bluest Eye", "Song of Solomon", and "Beloved", which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. In 2001 she was named one of the "30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal. Perhaps I should be ashamed that I hadn’t heard of a Pulitzer prize-winning Nobel prize-winner but I suspect a lot of other British people don’t know of her either.