Ann Petry
Ann Petry (October 12, 1908–April 28, 1997) born Anna Houston Lane in Old Saybrook, Connecticut was an American writer who became the first U.S. Black woman author to sell over a million copies with her debut novel The Street in 1946. Upon graduating high school, she briefly attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Hampton, VA before completing study at the Connecticut College of Pharmacy. For the next few years, she worked as a pharmacist at the family drugstore while continuing to write short stories in her spare time. In 1938, Ann married George David Petry and moved to New York City to pursue her literary ambitions of becoming a writer. Upon her arrival in Harlem, she soon found work selling advertising space for the Amsterdam News and became a reporter for Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.’s weekly newspaper People's Voice. She taught for the NAACP and at PS 101. Petry was also involved in the arts as an actress. Her debut performance was at the American Negro Theater in a comedy called, On Striver's Row. She was co-founder of Negro Women Incorporated, a women's advocacy group affiliated with the People's Committee, founded by Powell. Petry wrote under the male pseudonym Arnold Petri prior to publishing her debut novel in 1946. Petry's subsequent publications include her second novel, Country Place (1947), Drugstore Cat (1949), The Narrows (1953), Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad (1955), Tituba of Salem Village (1964), Legends of the Saints (1970), and a book of short stories titled Miss Muriel and Other Stories, published in 1971. From 1973-1975, Petry briefly moved to Hawaii to serve as a Visiting Professor in the English Department at the University of Hawaii. When she returned to Old Saybrook, much of her time was divided between writing, parenting, and providing care and assistance to other ailing family members.
Text Source: New York Public Library.
Archives
Ann Petry Papers, New York Public Library (Schomburg) →
Ann Petry Collection, Boston University →
Papers of Ann Petry, 1938-2013, Harvard University (Schlesinger)→
Digital Resources
Voices from the Gaps, University of Minnesota →
Ann Petry’s The Street and The Narrows, The Yale Review →
Updated 10/17/2024