--- title: Toni Morrison Was Writing a New Novel When She Died description: Celebrated American writer Toni Morrison died Monday at the age of 88, leaving an unfinished manuscript behind. canonical: https://time.com/5645194/toni-morrison-new-novel-before-death/ author: Lucy Feldman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-08-06T16:25:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T00:10:03.912Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Toni Morrison Was Writing a New Novel When She Died og:description: The celebrated author of 'Beloved' left behind an unfinished manuscript og:url: https://time.com/5645194/toni-morrison-new-novel-before-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt823d5e7d7b9df0d8/698a00f54ee26225b6316103/gettyimages-105854474-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GettyImages-105854474 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Toni Morrison Was Writing a New Novel When She Died twitter:description: The celebrated author of 'Beloved' left behind an unfinished manuscript twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt823d5e7d7b9df0d8/698a00f54ee26225b6316103/gettyimages-105854474-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Toni Morrison Was Writing a New Novel When She Died  by [Lucy Feldman](https://time.com/author/lucy-feldman/)  ## Lucy Feldman Editorial Director Aug 6, 2019 4:25 PM UTC  Toni Morrison attends the Carl Sandburg literary awards dinner at the University of Illinois at Chicago Forum on October 20, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. Toni Morrison attends the Carl Sandburg literary awards dinner at the University of Illinois at Chicago Forum on October 20, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois.Daniel Boczarsk—Getty Images  by [Lucy Feldman](https://time.com/author/lucy-feldman/)  ## Lucy Feldman Editorial Director Aug 6, 2019 4:25 PM UTC Toni Morrison, [who died Monday](https://time.com/5630489/toni-morrison-dies/) at the age of 88, was working on a new novel at the time of her death, her publisher confirmed. There are no other details available at this time, including whether the unfinished manuscript will ever be made available to the public. The existence of more [pages by Morrison](https://time.com/5606750/toni-morrison-inspiring-quotes/), [considered by many](https://time.com/5615610/colson-whitehead-the-nickel-boys-interview/) to be the Great American Writer, is sure to prove tantalizing to readers who have admired her work since she began publishing in the 1970s. Morrison’s lyric and genre-expanding novels, from her 1970 debut, _The Bluest Eye,_ about a Depression-era teen struggling with race and self-image, to the 1987 escaped-slave narrative _Beloved_, which won a Pulitzer Prize, cemented her place as a preeminent chronicler of black American life in all its complexity. [Morrison](https://time.com/3522570/toni-morrison-princeton/), who became the first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, also wrote multiple books for children, an opera and two plays. The unfinished book would have been Morrison’s 12th work of fiction. Her most recent novel, _God Help the Child_, was published in 2015 and told the story of a woman grappling with her parents’ rejection of her based on her skin tone. Her final work published during her lifetime, _The Source of Self-Regard_, was a nonfiction collection of essays and speeches on culture and society, released in February. She also participated in the documentary film _Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am,_ released in June. President Obama shared a tribute to Morrison Tuesday morning. “Toni Morrison was a national treasure, as good a storyteller, as captivating, in person as she was on the page,” he [wrote on Twitter](https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1158764847800213507). “Her writing was a beautiful, meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination. What a gift to breathe the same air as her, if only for a while.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5645194/toni-morrison-new-novel-before-death/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5645194/toni-morrison-new-novel-before-death/"},"headline":"Toni Morrison Was Writing a New Novel When She Died","datePublished":"2019-08-06T16:25:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T00:10:03.912Z","description":"The celebrated author of 'Beloved' left behind an unfinished manuscript","url":"https://time.com/5645194/toni-morrison-new-novel-before-death/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt823d5e7d7b9df0d8/698a00f54ee26225b6316103/gettyimages-105854474-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lucy Feldman","jobTitle":"Editorial Director","url":"https://time.com/author/lucy-feldman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt823d5e7d7b9df0d8/698a00f54ee26225b6316103/gettyimages-105854474-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-105854474","caption":"Toni Morrison attends the Carl Sandburg literary awards dinner at the University of Illinois at Chicago Forum on October 20, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois.","creditText":"Daniel Boczarsk—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5645194/toni-morrison-new-novel-before-death/","name":"Toni Morrison Was Writing a New Novel When She Died"}}]}] ```