Toni Morrisons fourth novel Tar Baby was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1981. When it was released her picture appeared on the cover of Newsweek, which also featured an article describing her as “an editor at Random House, a teacher (formerly at Yale, currently at Bard College), a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, an active member of the National Council on the Arts and a prize-winning novelist” (Strouse, “Tony Morrison’s Black Magic”, Newsweek, March 30th, 1981). Tar Baby was preceded by the successful Song of Solomon (1977), which had earned Morrison the National Book Critics Circle Award and the American Academy and Institute of Arts a…

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Citation: Treby, Marion. "Tar Baby". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 September 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1703, accessed 29 March 2024.]

1703 Tar Baby 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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