Background
Ann Petry was born on October 12, 1908 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, United States. She was the youngest of three daughters to Peter Clark Lane and Bertha James Lane.
(THE STREET tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story ...)
THE STREET tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork, The Street was Ann Petry's first novel, a beloved bestseller with more than a million copies in print. Its haunting tale still resonates today. THE STREET tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork, The Street was Ann Petry's first novel, a beloved bestseller with more than a million copies in print. Its haunting tale still resonates today.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395901499/?tag=2022091-20
(This quintessential middle grade biography of Harriet Tub...)
This quintessential middle grade biography of Harriet Tubman now features a cover by NAACP Image Award winner and Caldecott Honor illustrator Kadir Nelson, a foreword by National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds, and additional new material. Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad was praised by the New Yorker as “an evocative portrait,” and by the Chicago Tribune as “superb.” It is a gripping and accessible portrait of the heroic woman who guided more than 300 slaves to freedom and who is expected to be the face of the new $20 bill. Harriet Tubman was born a slave and dreamed of being free. She was willing to risk everything—including her own life—to see that dream come true. After her daring escape, Harriet became a conductor on the secret Underground Railroad, helping others make the dangerous journey to freedom. This award-winning introduction to the late abolitionist, which was named an ALA Notable Book and a New York Times Outstanding Book, includes additional educational back matter such as a timeline, discussion questions, and extension activities.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062668269/?tag=2022091-20
(Link Williams is a handsome and brilliant Dartmouth gradu...)
Link Williams is a handsome and brilliant Dartmouth graduate who tends bar due to the lack of better opportunities for an African American man in a staid mid-century Connecticut town. The routine of Link’s life is interrupted when he intervenes to save a woman from a late-night attack. Drinking in a bar together after the incident, “Camilo” discovers that her rescuer is African American and he learns that she is white. Unbeknownst to him, “Camilo” (actually Camilla Treadway Sheffield) is a wealthy married woman who has crossed the town’s racial divide to relieve the tedium of her life. Thus brought together by chance, Link and Camilla draw each other into furtive encounters that violate the rigid and uncompromising social codes of their own town and times. As The Narrows sweeps ahead to its shattering denouement, Petry shines a harsh yet richly truthful light on the deforming harm that race and class wreak on human lives. In a fascinating introduction to this new edition, Keith Clark discusses the prescience with which Petry chronicled the ways tabloid journalism, smug elitism, and mob mentality distort and demonize African American men. Link Williams is a handsome and brilliant Dartmouth graduate who tends bar due to the lack of better opportunities for an African American man in a staid mid-century Connecticut town. The routine of Link’s life is interrupted when he intervenes to save a woman from a late-night attack. Drinking in a bar together after the incident, “Camilo” discovers that her rescuer is African American and he learns that she is white. Unbeknownst to him, “Camilo” (actually Camilla Treadway Sheffield) is a wealthy married woman who has crossed the town’s racial divide to relieve the tedium of her life. Thus brought together by chance, Link and Camilla draw each other into furtive encounters that violate the rigid and uncompromising social codes of their own town and times. As The Narrows sweeps ahead to its shattering denouement, Petry shines a harsh yet richly truthful light on the deforming harm that race and class wreak on human lives. In a fascinating introduction to this new edition, Keith Clark discusses the prescience with which Petry chronicled the ways tabloid journalism, smug elitism, and mob mentality distort and demonize African American men.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810135515/?tag=2022091-20
(A young black girl watches as her aunt’s multiple suitors...)
A young black girl watches as her aunt’s multiple suitors disrupt her family’s privacy. The same girl, now on the cusp of adulthood, shares her family’s growing fears that her father has disappeared. Acclaimed author Ann Petry penned these and the other unforgettable narratives in Miss Muriel and Other Stories more than seventy years ago, yet in them contemporary readers recognize characters who exist today and dilemmas that recur again and again: the reluctance of African Americans to seek help from the police, the rage that erupts in a black man worn down by brutality, the tyranny that the young can visit on their elders regardless of race. Originally published between 1945 and 1971, Petry’s stories capture the essence of African American experience since the 1940s. A young black girl watches as her aunt’s multiple suitors disrupt her family’s privacy. The same girl, now on the cusp of adulthood, shares her family’s growing fears that her father has disappeared. Acclaimed author Ann Petry penned these and the other unforgettable narratives in Miss Muriel and Other Stories more than seventy years ago, yet in them contemporary readers recognize characters who exist today and dilemmas that recur again and again: the reluctance of African Americans to seek help from the police, the rage that erupts in a black man worn down by brutality, the tyranny that the young can visit on their elders regardless of race. Originally published between 1945 and 1971, Petry’s stories capture the essence of African American experience since the 1940s.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810135566/?tag=2022091-20
Ann Petry was born on October 12, 1908 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, United States. She was the youngest of three daughters to Peter Clark Lane and Bertha James Lane.
After graduating in 1929 from Old Saybrook High School, Petry went to college and graduated from it with a degree from the University of Connecticut College of Pharmacy in New Haven in 1931. Later she attended Columbia University.
Petry worked at James’ Pharmacy from 1931 to 1938. That year, after a move to New York City, she began writing and selling ads for the Amsterdam News. From 1941 to 1944, she served as a reporter and editor of the People’s Voice women’s page.
In the mid-1970s she taught English at the University of Hawaii. She also worked with New York City’s American Negro Theatre as a teacher and actress.
Her novel The Street was written after she moved with her husband, George Petry, to Harlem. She penned the novel, which became a critical and popular success, while her husband was serving in the military during World War II.
She wrote other novels, such as The Narrows and Country Place.
She also penned stories and biographies for children and young adult readers, including Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad, The Drugstore Cat, The Common Ground, and Tituba of Salem Village.
Petry was a member of the American Negro Theater. She appeared there in productions including On Striver's Row.
She also gave lectures at University of California, Berkeley, Miami University and Suffolk University, and was Visiting Professor of English at the University of Hawaii.
(This quintessential middle grade biography of Harriet Tub...)
(THE STREET tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story ...)
(Link Williams is a handsome and brilliant Dartmouth gradu...)
(A little cat with a short temper tries to learn the diffi...)
1988(A young black girl watches as her aunt’s multiple suitors...)
On February 22, 1938, Petry married George D. Petry of New Iberia, Louisiana. They had only one daughter - Liz.