Toni Morrison was a giant in the literary world, both in her work as an author of Pulitzer Prize-winning tales and as a Random House editor bringing Black voices into publishing.
To children’s book author Andrea Davis Pinkney, Morrison was also a “mentor, a guide, and a sister friend,” she recalls in an interview with TODAY.com.
Now, Pinkney is honoring Morrison’s legacy with an illustrated children’s book about late novelist. “And She Was Loved,” which takes its title from a line in Morrison’s “Song of Solomon,” was published Jan. 7.
“I want to pay the highest tribute to someone who meant so much to me, personally and professionally, who meant so much to so many other authors and emerging talent, and still does today,” Pinkney says, describing the book as a “praise poem, a love letter, a thank you and an invitation.”
It’s a full-circle moment for Pinkney, given how her relationship with Morrison began. The two collaborated on Morrison’s books for children starting in 1991, where Pinkney had the formidable task of editing a literary icon.
“Having grown up reading Toni Morrison as a child, being in a home where her books were everywhere, and then now working with her to create books for the next generation of readers — you can imagine how powerful and meaningful that was,” Pinkney says.
Pinkney was “completely awestruck” the first time she met Morrison, greeting her at the entrance of the publishing house and bringing her into the office. Morrison had a “regal presence,” Pinkney recalls.
Unsure of what to say to her literary hero, Pinkney “babbled” and tried to bond with Morrison through her daughter’s name, Chloe — as Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison.
She was similarly nervous about actually editing Morrison’s work. “You can’t imagine what a tall order it is to edit the work of Toni Morrison. I would have a quivering pencil,” she says.
But the nerves and quivers subsided, Pinkney says, as the two women began their “wholly collaborative” relationship. “That had to go away so we could make some great books,” she says.
Morrison’s approach to children’s literature was similar to her works for adults, like “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye,” Pinkney says.
“Toni Morrison was just a master storyteller and she was very committed to inviting young people into narratives. She wanted to reach out a hand and invite them in,” she says.
Pinkney says Morrison would handwrite her children’s books, as she did her adult books. Periodically, Pinkney would receive installments via fax machine.
“We’re here to embrace you and show you that you have worth. You have agency. You have dignity — you’re never alone, because here we are.”
What Andrea Davis Pinkney says books told her as a child
“She had a very curly, artistic, calligraphic handwriting, She would then call me and say, ‘Andrea, go to the fax machine.’ Out of the fax would come this waxy paper with her handwriting on it. We’d line them up and like a beautiful mosaic, that is how the narratives for young people came together,” she says.
Their connection goes deeper than their working relationship. In Morrison, Pinkney found someone whose story arc echoed her own.
Growing up, both women were integrated into their elementary schools and were the only Black students in their first grade classrooms. Pinkney describes the feeling of being the only Black student in first grade as “anxious apartness,” or the feeling that “you are completely alone in the world.”
During this time, Pinkney found solace in books and stories. “They said, ‘Come. You belong here,’” she says. “We’re here to embrace you and show you that you have worth. You have agency. You have dignity — you’re never alone, because here we are.”
After working in publishing, Pinkney, like Morrison, became an author. She learned from Morrison to wake up early (very early — think 4 a.m.) to better convene with the “muse.”
She specializes in children’s books, linking pivotal moments in history with beautiful illustration — often from her husband, award-winning illustrator Brian Pinkney (though “And She Was Loved” was illustrated by Daniel Minter).
Minter’s artwork is a “visual ode” to Morrison — and the covers tell a deliberate story about Morrison’s philosophy.
“Toni Morrison was committed to representing, rendering and celebrating Blackness,” Pinkney says. “(On the cover), she’s looking right at us. When you peel off the case cover, there she is again. We, as a people, must always be front and center. We must show our faces. We must show up. We must look at you.”
With her book, Pinkney hopes to capture what Morrison provided for her readers and what books meant to Pinkney as a girl. “The title means everything to me. Toni Morrison left all of us that feeling of love,” she says.
It’s fitting that Pinkney’s last conversation with Morrison before her death in 2019 was about the importance of books for children.
“She said something about the importance of giving young people enjoyment — lifting them up through the enjoyment of a story,” she says.