WRITER

Teacher.

Toni Morrison never planned to become an author. Born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, she changed her first name to Toni while attending Howard University and acquired her last name after a later marriage. Morrison excelled in the classics and received a master's degree from Cornell in 1955, after which she began teaching English at Texas Southern University and then at Howard. There she became influenced by a small group of poets and fiction writers, who encouraged her to work on a short story—the first she had ever attempted—about a young black girl's yearning for the white ideal of beauty and perfection. The story, which later became her first novel, was set aside while Morrison pursued a publishing career in the 1960s.

Champion.

Morrison's editing talent and linguistic skill allowed her to move swiftly in her new career at Random House. She was promoted from textbook editor to...