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Below is Noble Prize Winner and Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Toni Morrison's letter to Barack Obama.

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Dear Senator Obama,

This
letter represents a first for me--a public endorsement of a
Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing
it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that
this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their
peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one
thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even
revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the
person to capture it.  May I describe to you my thoughts? I
have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to
me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more
compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a
candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration,
and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman
has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are
allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I
would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it
might make me "proud." In thinking carefully about the strengths
of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following
conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare
authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age,
experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other
candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with
brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with
gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we
believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures
tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the
poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you
can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the
workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not
wisdom. When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided
by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone
with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his
country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it
will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself,
what it desperately needs to become in the world? Our future is
ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory
of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so
frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for
the womb. There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.

Good luck to you and to us.

Toni Morrison
http://www.observer.com/2008/toni-morrisons-letter-barack-obama