By Kelly Lucas
Campus Editor

A Nobel Prize winner will visit Purdue in celebration of the 125th anniversary of Purdue libraries.

Toni Morrison, winner of a Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, will speak at 7 p.m. on Sept. 28 in the Elliott Hall of Music as the guest of Emily Mobley, dean of libraries. The lecture will be funded by an anonymous donation to the Purdue libraries.

"I am bubbling over with joy that a literary light of the stature of Toni Morrison is coming to Purdue and that a very generous anonymous donor shared my vision for this program," said Mobley. "We were looking for a contemporary writer who was a big name, who would be of interest not only to the University but the community at large."

Morrison will lecture and answer questions from the audience at "An Evening with Toni Morrison," which will be free and open to the general public. Seating will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Mobley said she expects Elliott to fill up quickly; however, there will be some standing room space available.

"There has been a lot of pent-up demand in the area to get a speaker of her level," said Mobley. "I was aware, in talking to various faculty members and others, that there has been an interest and attempts to get her to come to campus."

Mobley said Morrison does a limited number of engagements, and contacts with speakers of this caliber often have a lot of restrictions. One restriction is that Morrison will not conduct any dealings with the media.

Morrison has received critical acclaim for her seven major novels — "The Bluest Eye," "Sula," "Song of Solomon," "Tar Baby," "Beloved," "Jazz" and "Paradise." Morrison has also won the 1977 National Book Critics Award for "Song of Solomon" and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for "Beloved," which was made into a major motion picture.

"She's well traveled and very articulate, and I think she definitely has her finger on the pulse of race and gender issues in this country," said Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, director of the African American Studies and Research Center, in a statement.

Mobley said many of Morrison's books are taught here on campus, and she is of great interest to a wide variety of people.

"We wanted someone who was an intellectual writer … who has appeared on the list of 100 top books of the past century," said Mobley.

Morrison serves as a trustee of the New York Public Library. She is also a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a strong advocate of libraries.

"We felt that in today's world she is the quintessential author that embodies the roots of the library," said Mobley. She said the history of the library is from clay tablets to papyrus to paper, and she believes Morrison is an author whose work is affixed in a medium that is also affixed in the traditions of the library.

The Purdue libraries started as a mere room of a men's dormitory in 1875 and have grown to encompass 15 libraries that hold more than 2 million volumes, 16,000 current periodicals and 2,100 electronic data files.