Ann Lane Petry
Born 1908 · Died 28 Apr 1997
Ann Lane was born on October 12, 1908 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut as the youngest of three daughters to Peter Clark Lane and Bertha James Lane in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Her parents belonged to the black minority of the small town. Her father was a pharmacist and her mother was a shop owner, chiropodist, and hairdresser. Ann and her sister were raised "in the classic New England tradition: a study in efficiency, thrift, and utility (…) They were filled with ambitions that they might not have entertained had they lived in a city along with thousands of poor blacks stuck in demeaning jobs."
On February 22, 1938, she married George D. Petry of New Iberia, Louisiana, which brought Petry to New York. She not only wrote articles for newspapers such as The Amsterdam News, or The People’s Voice, and published short stories in The Crisis, but also worked at an after-school program at P.S. 10 in Harlem. Traversing the streets of Harlem, living for the first time among large numbers of poor black people, seeing neglected children up close – Petry’s early years in New York inevitably made impressions on her. Impacted by her Harlem experiences, Ann Petry used her creative writing skills to bring this experience to paper.
Books by Ann Lane Petry in order
Books by Ann Lane Petry in the order they were published, from The Street (1946) to Ann Petry (2019).
- 1The Street
The Street1946 - 2Country Place
Country Place1947 - 3The Drugstore Cat
The Drugstore Cat1949 - 4The Narrows
The Narrows1953 - 5Harriet Tubman, Conductor on the Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman, Conductor on the Underground Railroad1955 - 6Tituba of Salem Village
Tituba of Salem Village1964 - 7Legends of the Saints
Legends of the Saints1970 - 8Miss Muriel and Other Stories
Miss Muriel and Other Stories1971 - 9Ann Petry
Ann Petry2019