State Of The Qusan: Toni Morrison Is Praised As She Retires

It's hard to believe that she taught as she wrote masterpieces.

Former President Bill Clinton last night praised acclaimed Princeton University professor Toni Morrison for her humanity and exquisite touch with the written word.

"I thank you, my friend, for your great big heart and for using that and your mind to help us to see the grace we must all imagine," Clinton said at the end of his three-minute tribute to Morrison as she prepares to retire from the university.

He then walked over to the Nobel laureate author, seated in the front row, and embraced her.

An invitation-only crowd of about 345 people turned out for the Morrison tribute in the Allen Room of Jazz at Lincoln Center in the Time Warner Center in midtown Manhattan.

The event -- "Toni Morrison: Her Triumphs, Her Contributions, Our Future" -- was in the making for about a year and co-hosted by Princeton University and its program in African-American studies.

In 1993, Morrison became the first black American to win the Nobel Prize in literature, an accomplishment reached after the publication of her first six novels.

The Nobel awarded to Morrison was the first to go to an American-born writer since 1962, when John Steinbeck was the literature laureate.

Morrison is one of 10 retiring Princeton faculty members expected to get the honorary status as professors emeriti early next month, pending approval by Princeton's trustees.

Last night Clinton said reading her books can be all sorts of things, depending on the reader's perspective, "breezy or laboriously difficult," inspiring laughter or tears, anger or joy.

"You can be full of pride or covered in shame . . . but one thing you can't do is retire. You have to engage" when reading one of her books, the former president said.

Other celebrities offering tributes to Morrison were Oscar winning actor Morgan Freeman and Tony Award winning actress Phylicia Rashad.

Rashad thanked Morrison for "your intuitive understanding and feeling for the power of the word to reawaken in us the knowledge of who we really are."

Known for her lyrical portrayals of blacks who endure poverty and disaster, Morrison has written eight novels -- from "The Bluest Eye" in 1970 through "Love" in 2003.