Arguably the most
celebrated and revered writer of our time now gives us a new
nonfiction collection--a rich gathering of her essays, speeches, and
meditations on society, culture, and art, spanning four decades.
The Source of
Self-Regard is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the
literary prowess and moral compass that are Toni Morrison's
inimitable hallmark. It is divided into three parts: the first is
introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11; the second by a
searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and the last by a
heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. In the writings and
speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested social issues:
the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, "black
matter(s)," and human rights. She looks at enduring matters of
culture: the role of the artist in society, the literary imagination,
the Afro-American presence in American literature, and in her Nobel
lecture, the power of language itself. And here too is piercing
commentary on her own work (including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby,
Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise) and that of others, among them, painter
and collagist Romare Bearden, author Toni Cade Bambara, and theater
director Peter Sellars. In all, The Source of Self-Regard is a
luminous and essential addition to Toni Morrison's oeuvre.