Did you know? Ann Petry's The Street was the first novel by an African American to sell more than a million copies.
Ann Petry's first published short story was "On Saturday the Siren Sounds at Noon, which appeared in Crisis. In 1946 Petry's "Like a Winding Sheet" was named Best American short story of 1946. In 1946 Petry was awarded the Houghton Mifflin Literary
Fellowship which allowed her to finish The Street, her first of three
novels. Ann Petry has also authored serveral children's books including Petry told an audience in a speech published in Horn Book Magazine that she felt affected by numerous books as a child, to the extent of acting out scenes from some of her favorite books, a childhood trait which she indicated transcends generations when books and stories inspire childrens' imaginations. She added that her historical books for juveniles have several messages for young readers, including the simple reminder that black men and women have formed an integral part of American history: "Over and over again I have said: These [characters] are people. Look at them, listen to them; watch Harriet Tubman in the nineteenth century, a heroic woman, a rescuer of other slaves. Look at Tituba in the seventeenth century, a slave involved in the witchcraft trials in Salem Village. Look at them and remember them. Remember for what a long, long time black people have been in this country, have been a part of America: a sturdy, indestructible, wonderful part of America, woven into its heart and into its soul." She continued, "These women were slaves. I hoped that I had made them come alive, turned them into real people. I tried to make history speak across the centuries in the voices of people--young, old, good, evil, beautiful, ugly." -- Information provided under copyright by Gale Research.
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 The Miss
Muriel & Other StoriesClick to order via Amazon Format:
Paperback, 304pp. "In Miss Muriel Ann Petry casts all types, but does no type-casting," the Christian Science Monitor wrote of this remarkable collection of thirteen stories, first published in 1971. In the title story, a precocious twelve-year-old describes her aunt's suitors, one white and one African American, and the fallout that ensues in her small town. As one reviewer said, "Reading these realistic short stories is a rare pleasure"
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 Click to order via Amazon Format: Paperback, 436pp. As much a historical document as it is a novel, this 1946 winner of the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship is the poignant and unblinkingly honest story of a young black woman's struggle to live and raise her son by herself amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s.
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 The NarrowsClick to order via Amazon
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Paperback, 464pp. Originally published in 1953, The Narrows spins the
unforgettable tale of a forbidden love affair between Link Williams, a college-educated
twenty-six-year-old black man, and Camilo Sheffield, a wealthy married white woman. Set in
the sleepy New England town of Monmouth, Connecticut, and "filled with dramatic
force, earthy humor, and tragic intensity" (Boston Globe), this classic novel
deftly evokes a divisive era in America's not-so-distant past. |
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 Click to order via Amazon In the Salem Village of 1692, superstition and hysteria peaked with
the Salem witch trials. One of the first three "witches" condemned is Tituba, a
slave from Barbados. "This restrained but dramatic narrative . . . brings to life not
only Tituba but also those around her, and shows how suspicion against her culminated in
her arrest and trial."--Booklist.
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