Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison has died. She was 88 years old.
According to her publisher, Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Her family said in a statement she passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones following a "short illness."
Morrison, born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, was almost 40 when she published her first book, "The Bluest Eye," in 1970. But once her writing career took off, she was extraordinarily successful.
In all, Morrison authored 11 novels, as well as children's books and collections of essays. But she's probably best known for "Beloved," which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988.
In 1993, Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first African-American woman to do so. In 1996, she was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. And in 2012, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Morrison is survived by her son and three grandchildren.
Additional reporting from Newsy affiliate CNN.
