When was ann petry born

In , she married George D. Petry of Louisiana and moved with him to Harlem, New York , where she began her career as a writer. Petry emerged as a novelist in Her first book, The Street , was her rendition of neighborhood life in Harlem. The Street presented a powerful and painful portrait of the effects of racism and sexism on an African-American mother as she attempts but fails to provide a better life for herself and her son in an urban environment.

The book subverted gender roles to challenge patriarchal domination in the s, suggesting a feminist discourse long before it was popular in literature.

Lane, pharmacist, and Bertha James Lane, licensed chiropodist, barber, and entrepreneur. Ann's family was solidly middle class, including two college educated aunts, and several generations of pharmacists.

The Lanes often told autobiographical and fictional stories while she was growing up, and Ann began writing short stories and plays while she was still in high school. After graduating from Connecticut College of Pharmacy in the early s, Ann worked at the family drugstore for several years. In , she married George D. Ann soon found a job as an advertising salesperson and reporter for the Amsterdam News and The People's Voice , two Harlem newspapers.

By Ann had taken a job at the New York Foundation, where she worked on a sociological study of the effect of segregation on ghetto children. During the next four years, she led an active civic life, including painting, acting, playing the piano, teaching a course at the NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and serving as a recreational specialist at a Harlem elementary school.

According to Petry herself, the content of her early fiction was heavily influenced by the inner city life she witnessed as a reporter, social worker, and involved community member. I try to show why the Negro has a high crime rate, a high death rate, and little or no chance of keeping his [sic] family unit intact in large northern cities.

In , Ann and her husband returned to Connecticut to continue writing and raise their daughter, Elisabeth Ann. At this point Petry began to write about life in the smaller towns of New England, as reflected in her novels Country Place , about white characters afraid of the inevitable changes of life; and The Narrows , about a doomed interracial love affair.

During these years Petry also wrote a children's book, The Drugstore Cat , and two historical novels, Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad and Tituba of Salem Village , in order to increase young adults' knowledge of and pride in black women's achievements.

Over the course of her life, Petry lectured widely throughout the United States, and her contribution to literature was acknowledged by membership in the Author's Guild and other literary societies, and honorary doctorates from several colleges and universities. Ann Petry died April 28, , near her home in Old Saybrook, after a brief illness. Author: Sarah K. Holladay, Hilary: Ann Petry. Heath Anthology of American Literature.

O'Donnell, Heather: Ann Petry. Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color. Barrett, Lindon : Blackness and value. Seeing double. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press Cambridge studies in American literature and culture, [ Historical perspectives in Arthur Miller and Ann Petry. Christian, Barbara : Black feminist criticism. Perspectives on Black women writers.

New York, N. Davis, Arthur Paul : From the dark tower. Afro-American writers, to Washington, DC: Howard Univ. Ervin, Hazel Arnett : Ann Petry. New York: Hall [u. Her mother, Bertha James Lane, was a hairdresser, chiropodist, and entrepreneur. Her family was one of the few Black families in the white, shoreline community. At school Ann Lane had a reputation as a voracious reader. She graduated with a Ph. All the time she was mixing prescriptions, she was observing her customers and writing short stories on the side, which was the basis for her book Country Place.

In , Ann Lane married George Petry, a mystery writer. The couple moved to Harlem and her life changed dramatically. She left the field of pharmacology and began her writing career in earnest. She secured a job writing advertising copy for the influential Black newspaper The Amsterdam News. This work led to her deep immersion in Harlem life. During the period to , Mrs. Good resource for a beginning or general audience.

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