Purdue News
Purdue News
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April 11, 2000 Toni Morrison to mark 125th anniversary of librariesWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University will celebrate the 125th anniversary of its libraries with a free lecture by a Nobel Prize-winning novelist.
Toni Morrison, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, will be the guest of Purdue Dean of Libraries Emily Mobley on Sept. 28. The author will lecture and answer questions from the audience beginning at 7 p.m. in the Elliott Hall of Music. "An Evening With Toni Morrison" is open to the public, with free general admission seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. "We are thrilled to have a writer of Toni Morrison's stature coming to Purdue," Mobley said. "We understand that she does a very limited number of appearances each year, so it's a wonderful opportunity for the community and a very fitting program for marking the 125th anniversary of the libraries." The author's lecture is being funded by an anonymous donation to the Purdue libraries. Morrison's seven major novels – "The Bluest Eye," "Sula," "Song of Solomon," "Tar Baby," "Beloved," "Jazz" and "Paradise" – have received extensive critical acclaim. She won the National Book Critics Award in 1977 for "Song of Solomon" and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for "Beloved," which was later made into a major motion picture. John Duvall, a Purdue associate professor of English who teaches a course on Morrison's work, said he was looking forward to hearing the author discuss her writing. "She is very obviously an African-American novelist working within an African-American tradition, but her work shows us how we can read traditional white literature to see how it uses 'blackness' as a metaphor to construct identity." Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, director of Purdue's African-American Studies and Research Center, said Morrison is an insightful cultural critic as well as a prize-winning writer. "She's well-traveled and very articulate, and I think she definitely has her finger on the pulse of race and gender issues in this country," Sharpley-Whiting said. Morrison is a strong advocate of libraries and currently serves as a trustee of the New York Public Library. She is also a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Purdue libraries started as a single entity first funded by the state legislature in 1875. It initially was housed in a small room of the men's dormitory until the completion of University Hall in 1877. The system has since grown to encompass 15 libraries that house 2.2 million volumes, 2,100 electronic data files and 16,000 current periodicals. The library system is electronically linked, and many of its services are available to students, faculty and staff via the World Wide Web. Sources: Emily Mobley, (765) 494-2900, mobley@purdue.edu John Duvall, (765) 494-3759, jduvall@sla.purdue.edu Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, (765) 496-2256, tdswgww@purdue.edu Writer: Sharon A. Bowker, (765) 494-9723, sbowker@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu PHOTO CAPTION: Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison (Photo provided by ICM Artists Ltd.) A publication-quality photograph is available at the News Service Web site and at the ftp site. Photo ID: morrison.t
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