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PORTSIDE CULTURE

THE WRITER AS EDITOR IN “TONI AT RANDOM”  
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Gianni Washington
June 19, 2025
Chicago Review of Books
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_ "This book is not about Toni Morrison, Nobel and Pulitzer
Prize-winning author," writes reviewer Washington, "but about Toni
Morrison, boundary-pushing senior editor at Random House." _

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_Toni at Random
The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship_
Dana A. Williams
Amistad
ISBN: 9780063011977

The specificity of Dana A. Williams’s _TONI AT RANDOM
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of yet another biographical work about a world-renowned writer. This
book is not about Toni Morrison, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning
author, but about Toni Morrison, boundary-pushing senior editor at
Random House. Morrison’s editorial career is discussed less often
than her authorial accomplishments. However, Williams paints a picture
of someone who, not only as a writer but as an editor, is fastidious
and determined to shine a light on topics she deems critical to human
understanding. Not only that, but Morrison’s editorial practices
were clearly executed with the intention of only publishing books that
both she and her authors could be proud of for their capacity to
educate, and to preserve the Black cultures of the world.  

Williams begins by firmly placing Morrison in the role of editor in
our minds, leading with an anecdotal chapter on the final panel
discussion of the Second National Conference of Afro-American Writers
at Howard University. What comes across clearly, despite simmering
tensions hinted at by Williams and her status as the only woman on the
panel, is Morrison’s confidence in her own abilities, experience,
and point of view. In each excerpt of communication, whether spoken or
written, Morrison’s voice rings out as a bold and unfaltering thing.
She is depicted as unwavering in her beliefs and forthright in all
things—even admissions of wrongdoing. Most of all, she was firm in
her conviction that there was power in the Black book-buying public
that publishers consistently overlooked. Williams quotes her as
imploring the panel’s audience that day to use the power they might
not realize they have to support Black literature—that doing so
takes commitment. “Go in the bookstore if he doesn’t have it. Ask
him why he doesn’t have it. Why doesn’t he have two shelves
devoted only to the books that are of interest to you?” People must
know and feel that they have the power of influence in order to wield
it properly, and Morrison’s editorial career, as portrayed by
Williams, seemed, with every decision made along the way, to be a call
to action to Black readers, writers, researchers, and to the world
that so frequently discounted them.

Morrison’s list of publication credits is impressive as a who’s
who of important cultural figures as well as in its range of subjects
and genres tackled. She published autobiographical books by political
activist Angela Davis, and the boxing champion Muhammad Ali. She
published experimental fiction by Gayl Jones, Leon Forrest, and Toni
Cade Bambara, not to mention posthumous works by Henry Dumas. She
published poetry by sculptor Barbara Chase-Riboud, Lucille Clifton,
and June Jordan. She also published Black historical compendiums like
_The Black Book_ and _The Cotton Club_, a documentary text about
trains and railroads as related to Black history and culture, and a
cookbook called _Creole Feast,_ which included recipes and firsthand
career accounts from fifteen Louisiana chefs. The breadth of her
editorial work is made all the more admirable by Morrison’s
consistency as an editor. She is never shown to be more attentive to
one text over another; she invested herself fully in the success of
every book on her list.

Williams takes care to highlight how important it was to Morrison that
her authors trusted her publishing expertise, otherwise the two could
not successfully work together. For example, Morrison and George
Ainsworth-Land butted heads while working together on _Grow or Die:
The Unifying Principle of Transformation_. Hurt by her evaluation of
his prose, as well as impatient for more progress, Land “arrived
unannounced in Morrison’s office” one day and “expressed
feelings of distrust of her and Random House.” In response, Morrison
laid bare in a letter to Land what she saw to be the root of the
issue. “None of this has to do with anything other than human
frailty and the structures of vanity—mine and yours.” Morrison
apparently had no qualms about being emotionally transparent, even if
she would sometimes obfuscate business decisions made by those in
charge at Random House for the sake of preserving an author’s
optimism. 

This speaks to what emerges as Morrison’s chief priority as an
editor: her authors’ success with readers. By closely scrutinizing
their work, questioning any and everything that could hinder the
reader’s understanding (or the author’s) of what the work conveys,
ensuring that every element of a book—content, formatting, cover
design, font, etc.—is unified, writing fact sheets that were radiant
with praise she felt was truly deserved, and promoting her author’s
books at the same time as promoting her own, Morrison demonstrated the
exact commitment she solicited from Black readers: a commitment to
making sure these books had a real opportunity to flourish.

Williams does not deify Morrison, and in fact seems to keep a more or
less healthy distance between herself and her subject. Williams does
interject opinion by means of her interpretations of events or pieces
of correspondence (e.g. “She balanced her remarks with directness
and immodestly veiled condescension”). But she never leans too far
in one direction, always allowing Morrison’s expressed beliefs and
opinions to lead her to a particular understanding. 

Williams does not discuss Morrison’s editorial credits linearly,
sometimes jumping forwards or backwards in time. The reasons for this
are not altogether clear, aside from wanting to link certain authors
to others with regard to their literary genres, concerns, or cultural
impact, but even those associations feel somewhat loose. Perhaps
it’s that Morrison’s experience with each author feels contained
unto itself which makes the leaps in time and theme more noticeable
and the logic behind the chosen order of featured works less clear.
There is also an expectation that we will see evidence of Morrison
transforming in some significant way over the course of her editorial
career. Instead, what Williams reveals is how steadfast Morrison was
in her philosophies and practices, something that is perhaps more
extraordinary than a charted evolution.

_Toni at Random_ is an edifying look at a beloved creator’s work as
not only a writer, but a champion of writers. What it reveals is not
meant to overturn, but to sharpen the picture of Toni Morrison we
carry in our minds. Ultimately, it confirms that she did indeed love
what she, in all her words and works, professed to.

Gianni Washington has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from The University
of Surrey. Her writing can be found in L'Esprit Literary Review, West
Trade Review, on Litromagazine.com, and in the horror anthology Brief
Grislys, among other places. Her debut collection of short fiction,
Flowers from the Void, is out now with Serpent's Tail (UK) and CLASH
Books (US).

* Toni Morrison
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* African American literature
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* Publishing Industry
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* Editor
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