Legacies in Black Literature: Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison
Maya Angelou honored by the book world before her death.
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It's an Honor - In November 2013, Maya Angelou was finally honored by the book world. At the 64th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison presented Angelou with the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Angelou died on Wednesday (May 28) and she will continue to live on in her poetry, song, television and play appearances Here, BET.com takes a look some of Angelou’s and Morrison’s most acclaimed works and accomplishments. —Dominique Zonyeé (@DominiqueZonyee) (Photos: Brett Le Blanc/Correspondent/Getty Images; Francois Durand/Getty Images)
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The Highest Honor - "I am a writer, so a Literarian Award is what I long for," Angelou told BET.com before receiving her Literarian Award, her first and highest accomplishment for penning 32 books, including autobiographies, poetry and children's books.(Photo: Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup)
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"Still I Rise" - "For over 40 years, imagine it, I have tried to tell the truth as I understand it, in prose, amazingly. I know that there's a difficulty in trying to write prose," Angelou told the audience at the 64th annual National Book Awards. "You know that easy reading is damn hard writing." Angelou is currently working on her 33rd book, which she said is harder to write than ever. (Photo: Kris Connor/Getty Images)
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - At the urging of her friend, author James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, who was already an accomplished dancer, linguist and lecturer, penned her first in a series of eight autobiographies. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings details the first 17 years of her life and issues of rape, identity and motherhood. (Photo: Courtesy of Random House)
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Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie - Angelou’s career as a nightclub singer influenced Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, a two-part book of 38 poems. The book was a best-seller and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Literature in 1972. (Photo: Courtesy of Random House)
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The Bluest Eye - A year after Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published, Morrison’s first book, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970.The novel instantly became an American classic as it exposed American concepts of self-identity and beauty.(Photo: Courtesy of Vintage Publishing)
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“On the Pulse of Morning” - “History, despite its wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, and if faced With courage, need not be lived again.”Excerpt from “On the Pulse of Morning”Angelou recited "On the Pulse of Morning" as the Inaugural Poet at the 1993 presidential inauguration for President Bill Clinton. She won the first Grammy Award for an inaugural poem the following year.(Photo: Consolidated News Pictures/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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Sula - “It is sheer good fortune to miss somebody long before they leave you” is one of the famous quotes from Toni Morrison's Sula, the 1973 follow-up to The Bluest Eye. Sula revealed the rigid dichotomy of African-American life in the Bottom, or hood, and in suburban life. (Photo: Courtesy of Vintage Publishing)
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Song of Solomon - By 1977, Morrison had already published two highly respected novels, and that year she returned with her first book featuring a leading male character in Song of Solomon. This book won the National Book Critics Award, was featured in Oprah’s Book Club in 1996 and eventually helped her win a Noble Peace Price in 1993.(Photo: Courtesy of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)
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Phenomenal Woman - “It’s the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I’m a womanPhenomenally.Phenomenal woman,That’s me.”— Excerpt from “Phenomenal Woman”Maya Angelou spoke to women across the globe with each line of her uplifting and empowering poem “Phenomenal Woman.” Angelou won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for the audio recording of the poem.(Photo: Jack Sotomayor/New York Times Co./Getty Images)
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Beloved - "If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up." — Toni Morrison, Beloved, Ch. 1Beloved, a deep, dark and extremely vivid novel, deals with themes of slavery and survival. It won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 1998, it was adapted into a film starring Oprah Winfrey and a 2006 New York Times survey of writers and literary critics ranked it as the best work of American fiction of the past 25 years. (Photo: Publisher Alfred Knopf)
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Presidential Medal of Arts - In 2000, Angelou was honored with the Presidential Medal of the Arts. That same year, she narrated the award-winning documentary film The Black Candle and published a book of guidance for young women, Letter to My Daughter.(Photo: AP Images)
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Medals of Freedom - For their contributions to American history in literature and beyond, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou were both recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. President Obama awarded Angelou in 2011 and Morrison the following year.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)