In this Nov. 25, 2005 file photo, author Toni Morrison listens to Mexico's Carlos Monsivais during the Julio Cortazar professorship conference at the Guadalajara's University in Guadalajara City, Mexico. AP PHOTO
NEW YORK: Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in "Beloved," ''Sula" and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom within the boundaries of race, has died at age 88.