New York, August 6: Nobel laureate Toni Morrison is no more. Toni Morrison, who won Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, died at age 88. In a statement, her family and publisher Knopf confirmed the author's death. She breathed her last at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

Born in Ohio, Toni Morrison was the first African-American to win the Nobel prize for literature. She wrote 11 novels, many of them touching on life as a black American, in a glittering literary and award-laden career that lasted over six decades. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for her 1987 novel "Beloved".

Describing her as "our adored mother and grandmother", Morrison’s family said: "Although her passing represents a tremendous loss, we are grateful she had a long, well lived life. While we would like to thank everyone who knew and loved her, personally or through her work, for their support at this difficult time, we ask for privacy as we mourn this loss to our family."

In 2012 then US President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2016 she received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 06, 2019 08:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).