Background
In the 1960s, during the civil rights movement, Morrison joined Random House as an editor. Before then, she had graduated from Howard University with an English degree and classics minor, then Cornell University with a master's degree in American literature, after which she taught at Texas Southern University and then back at Howard University. From then on, she would go on to edit anthologies like Contemporary African Literature and The Black Book, as well as work with writers and activists like Lucille Clifton and Huey P. Newton. [5] Through her time at Random House in the sixties, seventies, and eighties, she was also writing her own novels, like The Bluest Eye and Sula, among many others. [2]
In September 2005, Williams interviewed Morrison regarding her career as an editor. At the time, she was "celebrated worldwide for her novels yet virtually unknown for her groundbreaking work as an editor at Random House." There, Williams and Morrison would look at and discuss several books which the latter had edited. [6]
Critical reception
In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the biography "a triumphant account of an underexplored aspect of Morrison’s influence on American literature." [7] Kirkus Reviews called it "A well-researched biographical study." [8]
The New York Times called it a "fine book" but slightly wondered about the simultaneity of Morrison's careers as an editor and a writer: "While reading, I began to wonder about her experience of working with her editor, Robert Gottlieb. What was it like to be on both sides of the typewriter?" However, the reviewer noted that "That question isn’t part of Williams's brief, so it doesn't detract from her accomplishment that she doesn’t engage with it." [2]
In 2022, Henry Louis Gates Jr. stated that Morrison's hiring at Random House was "probably the single most important moment in the transformation of the relationship of Black writers to white publishers." [9] The Atlantic, in reviewing Williams' book, stated that "Williams's meticulous and intimate account of Morrison’s editorial tenure backs up the rhetoric." [5]
Chicago Review of Books concluded that "Toni at Random is an edifying look at a beloved creator’s work as not only a writer, but a champion of writers. What it reveals is not meant to overturn, but to sharpen the picture of Toni Morrison we carry in our minds. Ultimately, it confirms that she did indeed love what she, in all her words and works, professed to." [10]
Farah Jasmine Griffin called the biography "meticulously researched" and an introduction to Morrison not merely as a writer but an editor "who shaped American publishing by introducing a generation of new voices and topics to the reading public." [11] [12]
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