US author Toni Morrison, whose 1987 novel "Beloved" about a runaway slave was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and contributed to a body of work that made her the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, died at the age of 88. The death was announced by Paul Bogaards, a spokesperson for publisher Alfred A. Knopf, but he did not provide an official cause.
During the U.S. Civil War, "Beloved" was set up on the basis of the real tale of a woman who murdered her 2-year-old daughter in order not to become a slave. Before she could kill herself, the girl was caught and the ghost of the child, known as Beloved, visits her mother.
