What:

The U.S. Postal Service and Bridgeport Public Library will honor American author Toni Morrison in a special stamp dedication event. The event will include an unveiling of the stamp and speakers.

The Toni Morrison stamp was released on March 7, 2023 at a Princeton University First-Day-of-Issue ceremony and is now available for purchase at usps.com.

Who:

U.S. Postal Service Manager Post Office Operations Maria Kresmery.
U.S. Postal Service Bridgeport Manager Customer Services Ricky Sherrod.
U.S. Postal Service Bridgeport Supervisor Customer Service Support Emma Lawson.
Bridgeport Public Library.
Newfield Public Library.
Bridgeport Public Schools.

When:

Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 10 a.m. ET

Where:

Newfield Library, Community Room
755 Central Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06607

RSVP:

Attendees are encouraged to RSVP at amy.n.gibbs@usps.gov

Background:

Toni Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on Feb. 18, 1931, in Lorain, OH, where she would later recall growing up in a family filled with storytelling and song.

After graduating from high school in 1949, she enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and began using the name Toni, a reference to Anthony, the saint whose name she took when she was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church at age 12.

After graduating from Howard, she earned a master’s degree in English at Cornell University and later taught English at Texas Southern University and at Howard.

In 1965, she began working as a textbook editor in upstate New York. In 1968, she was promoted and moved to New York City to become the first African American woman senior editor at Random House, where she prioritized the publication of books by African American authors.

Eager to see the previously untold stories of African Americans portrayed in fiction, Morrison published her first novel in 1970 while working full-time as an editor and raising two children. “The Bluest Eye” is an important inquiry into the life of an 11-year-old African American girl grappling with internalized negative racial stereotypes. “The Bluest Eye” is a mainstay of high school and college literature classes and a canonical novel about society’s neglect and mistreatment of African American girls.

Published in 1973, Morrison’s second novel, “Sula,” dramatizes the relationship between two intelligent women who grow up poor in small-town Ohio. The novel explores themes of escape and living outside the confines of conventional society. “Sula” was nominated for a National Book Award.

Her next novel, “Song of Solomon,” was a national bestseller and recipient of tremendous critical acclaim. Considered one of her masterpieces, “Song of Solomon” invokes generations of folklore as it follows a young man’s search for identity. The novel on the National Book Critics Circle Award and was the first African American selection in the Book of the Month Club since Richard Wright’s “Native Son” in 1940.

The decade that followed brought the author widespread recognition, beginning with President Jimmy Carter appointing her to the National Council on the Arts in 1980. After the publication of her 1981 novel “Tar Baby,” a study of racism and conflicting social identities on a Caribbean island, Morrison was the subject of a cover story in Newsweek. In 1983, she left her full-time job as an editor to continue teaching.

The publication of “Beloved” in 1987 brought Morrison a new level of critical success. The novel tells the story of a woman who escapes enslavement but murders her infant daughter to prevent her from the same fate she did. A harrowing rumination on trauma and the lingering, even haunting nature of the past, “Beloved” won the Pulitzer Prize and secured Morrison’s reputation as a great American writer.

In 1993, Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first African American woman to receive the rare distinction. Her Nobel lecture is remembered for its celebration of the power of language. Three years later, she received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Her poignant acceptance speech, “The Dancing Mind,” addressed the relationship between writers and readers and the need for both to defend authors’ freedom of expression.

The 1996 inclusion of “Song of Solomon” in Oprah’s Book Club brought even broader public awareness of her work. Three other novels were later included in the club, further increasing sales and attention.

Toni Morrison died in New York City on Aug. 5, 2019, at the age of 88.

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 844-737-7826, by mail through USA Philatelic or at Post Office locations nationwide.

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