Longtime Princeton University faculty member Toni Morrison has died. Morrison was the first African-American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1993). The author of 11 novels, Morrison was also honored with a National Book Critics Circle Award for “Song of Solomon” in 1977 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “Beloved” in 1988.

In addition to her work as a novelist, Morrison wrote the libretto for Richard Danielpour’s opera “Margaret Garner.” Garner was the runaway slave whose life inspired “Beloved.” She also provided the poems for André Previn’s song cycle, “Honey and Rue.” Kathleen Battle, moved by Morrison’s novel, “The Bluest Eye,” coordinated the commission and sang the work’s premiere. It was subsequently recorded by Deutsche Grammophon, together with Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.”

Morrison died yesterday. She was 88 years-old.

Battle sings “Honey and Rue,” on texts by Toni Morrison:

Denyce Graves and Gregg Baker in the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s production of “Margaret Garner:”