Toni Morrison passes away, aged 88

Celebrated American novelist Toni Morrison passed away on Monday night, according to a source at her publisher, Knopf.

American site Vulture reported the news this afternoon, before it was confirmed by Bloomberg.

Born Chloe Ardella Wofford, Morrison was renowned for her best-selling novel Beloved, which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Set after the American Civil War, the novel was inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in Kentucky late January 1856 by fleeing to Ohio, a free state. Beloved was critically acclaimed upon its release and is widely regarded as one of the best novels of the 20th century.

Among Toni Morrison's other memorable and influential novels were Jazz, released in 1992 and Paradise (1997). These books, along with Beloved, comprise a loose trilogy. In 1993, Morrison was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first black woman of any nationality to do so.