Exclusive Essay: “Why Toni Morrison Now?”

Why Toni Morrison now?

By Luke Pontifell

Words inspire people, they move us, they motivate us, they inspire us in happy times, in challenging times, in times of continuity, and in times of change. Today, we are in a time of change. We find ourselves turning to our past, examining it, reevaluating it, questioning the actions of our ancestors, reconsidering our heroes and challenging our fears. Together, we unite around common stories that define our individual and collective identities. It is important that we preserve and celebrate stories that matter to us today, that shape our identities, and preserve our memory. Therefore, we believe that now is the time to make the first fine press edition of a book by Toni Morrison to celebrate her work and preserve her legacy.

Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is folklore for today. The main character travels into his past to discover his identity. The story resonates with our time and triggers a collective subconscious that unites and defines who we are and where we want to go.

I first read Toni Morrison when I was in high school and college back in the 1980s. Her books were new and they knocked me over. She came to a publication party for one of Thornwillow’s earliest books (Remembering the Moon by Walter Cronkite) and I remember being introduced to her. “How do you choose what you print?” she asked. I responded with my usual response (and the one I still answer that question with today): One book has nothing to do with another. I print what I like and what comes organically and hope that, in the fullness of time, the collection adds up to more than the sum of its parts and will carry in a beautiful form some ideas that are worth preserving into the hands of future readers. “Well, what you print matters,” she told me. In retrospect, I regret not dropping to the floor and begging her to let me print anything she would condescend to give me. At the time, though, the Thornwillow Press was a Vandercook hand press in my parents’ barn in Massachusetts. Printing a long, full-length novel was not in my wheelhouse. But I hoped that I would one day be in a position to print and publish a long, full length novel.

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Over the intervening decades, Thornwillow grew from a labor of love operating out of that barn and my college dorm room to what it has become today… a paradise for books. Today, we are in a position to typeset, print, and bind larger, full-length novels. Thornwillow is a repository for the crafts that make beautiful books possible. This is a project that we are now ready for.

In the fullness of time, good things happen. Today we are able to do what I was not able to do in the late 1980’s — to print long books, big juicy books. Today, we are able to print Toni Morrison’s iconic novel Song of Solomon. Today, Thornwillow is excited to make a book that will celebrate Toni Morrison’s life and work, an edition to honor her legacy.

“Well, What you print matters,” she told me. It gives all of us at the press great happiness to be printing this important work by this iconic writer for the first time in a fine press edition.

“What you print matters.” All of us at Thornwillow couldn’t agree more.

Support the Kickstarter Campaign:

Visit the pre-launch page to be notified when the campaign goes live. This is the best way to ensure you reserve your preferred copy and take advantage of early-bird discounts.

The Thornwillow Edition of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon are all handmade books, letterpress printed and handbound, with limited-edition, deluxe versions worthy of Morrison’s legacy. Support this Kickstarter campaign here.

Read my featured article “Thornwillow Launches a Kickstarter Campaign for Song of Solomon!” for more information about the levels and details on the special editions here.

About Thornwillow Press

In this digital age, we remain committed to teaching and perpetuating the related arts and crafts of the written word. By subscribing to a Thornwillow publication, you will not only add a beautiful and important book to your collection, you will also support the

The work of the press funds, in part, The Thornwillow Institute, a 501(c)3 nonprofit committed to teaching and perpetuating the arts and crafts of the written word, to supporting writers, artists, and artisans, and to revitalizing the distressed historic neighborhood of Newburgh, NY, that is home to Thornwillow, both by restoring buildings that are part of our campus and supporting artists in residence and by training local members of the community to work in the pressroom and bindery. For more information about Thornwillow Press please visit www.thornwillow.com, and for more information about the Thornwillow Institute and our commitment to teaching and perpetuating the related arts and crafts of the written word, please visit www.thornwillowinstitute.org.

About Toni Morrison:

The first African American to receive the Nobel Prize, Morrison was also awarded the Pulitzer Prize (for Beloved in 1987) and numerous national other and international cultural honors, was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, who has often said that Song of Solomon is his favorite book: “I remember reading Song of Solomon when I was a kid and not just trying to figure out how to write, but also how to be and how to think.”

Morrison, who holds degrees from Howard University and Cornell University, died in 2019. She left behind not just a shelf of honors and an enduring legacy of beautiful and important work: As the first African American woman in a senior editorial position at Random House, she championed the cultural history and contributions of other Black artists, especially through her work on Contemporary African Literature (1972) and her development and execution of The Black Book (1974).

“Toni Morrison is a literary artist of the first rank. She delves into the language itself, a language she wants to liberate from the fetters of race. And she addresses us with the luster of poetry,” the Nobel Prize committee wrote.

“Toni Morrison was a towering intellect, a brilliant scribe of our nation’s complex stories, a heartbreaking journalist of our deepest desires, and a groundbreaking author who destroyed precepts, walls, and those who dared underestimate her capacity.” —Stacey Abrams