- unitid
-
{"value"=>"24832", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Sc MG 954", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b22011270", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1920-2012", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1920/2012"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Ann Petry papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"39 boxes, 5 oversize folders", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"19.12 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The Ann Petry papers document the professional, social, and family life of writer Ann Petry (1908-1997). With the publication of her 1946 debut novel titled, <span class=\"title\">The Street</span>, Petry became the first US black woman author to sell over a million copies. The collection consists of personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts, clippings and printed matter, and personal memorabilia."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Petry, Ann, 1908-1997", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Ann Petry (originally Anna Houston Lane) was born on October 12, 1908, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, to Peter Clark Lane and Bertha James Lane. Petry's father was a pharmacist who owned drugstores in Old Saybrook and nearby Old Lyme and her mother was a chiropodist and entrepreneur. Petry was the youngest of two girls. Her older sister's name was Helen Lane (later Bush after marriage). Petry hailed from four generations of African Americans living in the predominantly white, middle class town of Old Saybrook. Stories of her ancestors' hardships in New England planted the creative seeds of inspiration that would eventually become central to her writings. Petry began penning short stories and one-act plays while in high school. However, much of her time was spent working at the family pharmacy. Upon graduating high school, she briefly attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Hampton, VA where she studied Home Economics. This area of study was not to her liking. So, in keeping with family tradition (in addition to her father, Petry's aunt, Anna Louise James, was also a pharmacist), she decided to become a pharmacist. She attended the Connecticut College of Pharmacy and earned a graduate degree in 1931.</p> <p>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. Throughout their time in New York, they lived on Edgecombe Ave., on East 129th St., and eventually in a leftist housing complex in the Bronx, and potentially other locations. While living in New York City, Petry visited a numerologist who told her that she would never be successful unless she dropped the extra \"a\" from her first name. Thus, Anna became Ann.</p> <p>Petry's decade in Harlem was rich, dense, productive, and successful. Upon her arrival in Harlem, she soon found work selling advertising space for the <span class=\"title\">Amsterdam News</span>, a weekly Harlem publication. She then became a reporter for a weekly paper published by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. called, the <span class=\"title\">People's Voice</span>. Petry contributed a women's column called \"The Lighter Side\" which covered social events and news stories. 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, <span class=\"title\">On Striver's Row</span>, written by Abram Hill. She also took drawing classes at the Harlem Art Center and her husband, George, took weaving classes. She was co-founder of Negro Women Incorporated along with Dollie Lowther Robinson. Negro Women Incorporated was a women's advocacy group that sought to \"help women get their money's worth\" and was affiliated with the People's Committee, founded by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.</p> <p>To assist in her literary pursuits, Petry enrolled in Mabel Louise Robinson's writing class at Columbia University. Her first short fiction, a romance-suspense piece titled, \"Marie of the Cabin Club\", was published in 1939 in <span class=\"title\">The Afro American</span> under male pseudonym, Arnold Petri. From 1938 until 1944, Petry wrote numerous short stories for literary journals. The initial chapters of <span class=\"title\">The Street</span> won Petry the 1945 Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, which served as a turning point in her career. <span class=\"title\">The Street</span> tells the story of protagonist, Lutie Johnson, a single mother trying to provide a better life for her son than could realistically be had amidst the poverty of West 116th St. in Harlem. The book was an instant hit, selling a million and a half copies. It received numerous, positive reviews, being favorably compared with Richard Wright's <span class=\"title\">Native Son</span>, and was widely published and translated into French, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese. <span class=\"title\">Country Place</span>, Petry's second novel, was published the following year in 1947.</p> <p>Ultimately, the success of <span class=\"title\">The Street</span> made Petry a much sought-after but reluctant interview subject and speaker, who would inevitably, if futilely, strive for a secluded writing life in Connecticut. In 1948, after becoming an established writer, Petry and her husband moved back to Old Saybrook. Petry gave birth to her only child, Elisabeth (Liz) Ann Petry, on January 28, 1949. As a departure from her novels, Petry's first foray into the world of children's books also occurred in 1949 with the publication of <span class=\"title\">Drugstore Cat</span>. Petry's subsequent publications include her third novel, <span class=\"title\">The Narrows</span>, published in 1953; <span class=\"title\">Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad</span>, published in 1955; <span class=\"title\">Tituba of Salem Village</span>, published in 1964; <span class=\"title\">Legends of the Saints</span>, in 1970; and a book of short stories titled <span class=\"title\">Miss Muriel and Other Stories</span>, published in 1971.</p> <p>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. Petry passed away on April 28, 1997.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Ann Petry papers (1920 - 2012) are arranged in five series: Journals and Diaries, Correspondence, Manuscripts, Clippings and Printed Matter, and Artifacts and Memorabilia. Journals and Diaries are arranged chronologically. The Correspondence series is organized into three sub-series: Family; Friends, Colleagues, and Notables; and Professional and arranged by name of correspondent, as well as chronologically. Professional correspondence is arranged chronologically by sender. Clippings and Printed matter are arranged alphabetically by subject.</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Purchased in 2017.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Photographs have been transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Barrye Brown, 2019.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1920
- keydate
-
1920
- date_end
-
2012
- date_inclusive_start
-
1920
- date_inclusive_end
-
2012
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"[Item], Ann Petry papers, Sc MG 954, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Ann Petry papers are arranged in five series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/24832#c1566963'>Journals and Diaries</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1920 - 1997 [bulk 1950s - 1980s]</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series includes two folders of biographical information by and about Ann Petry, as well as two of Petry's childhood diaries, and numerous journals. Petry used her journals as a proving ground for story ideas, to record anecdotes, overheard dialogue, and character notes. But even in her honest reportage of daily activities, of the management of her family, her intellectual and physical life, her social and community obligations, she shows vividly the source material for her published work. Petry managed to destroy much of the documentation related to her time in New York City. However, the earliest journal in this series includes some entries about her time in Harlem.</p> <p>Increasingly, Petry created a version of a memoir through her journals, addressing key moments as far back as her childhood through the lens of years. Her Harlem decade, from 1938-1947, seemingly lost (Petry succeeded in destroying most of those journals), is in fact recorded throughout the '70s, '80s, and '90s. It is also documented in hundreds of her letters to her family from the 1940s. Petry's autobiographical details in these journals can be found nowhere else.</p> <p>Not all of the journals are equally easy to read through. In one example, she tore pages from earlier journals and added them into a later one; often she would date an entry, but just as often, would not. Earlier journals, especially ones containing notes towards writing, bear nearly no dates. At times she blacked out names with a marker. Journals often include inserts, following the contents of the journals by date or theme or both.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/24832#c1567046'>Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1920 - 2006</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Correspondence series is arranged into three sub-series: Family; Friends, Colleagues, and Notables; and Professional. The Family Correspondence sub-series is arranged chronologically by correspondent. The Friends, Collaeagues, and Notables sub-series is arranged alphabetically, as well as chronologically by correspondent. The Professional Correspondence sub-series consists of four sub-groups of letters related to Petry's writing, teaching career, awards and honors, and requests for interviews and speaking engagements.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/24832#c1567185'>Manuscripts</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1939 - 1987</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series features published and unpublished works by Petry and consists primarily of typed drafts, full and partial, handwritten notes, notecards, drafts, and related correspondence. There are two incomplete drafts of unpublished work that are of particular interest, <span class=\"title\">Checkup</span> and <span class=\"title\">The Wayfarer</span>. There is also a folder of poetry by Petry, but it is unclear if these titles have been published. <span class=\"title\">The Wayfarer</span> was the last project Petry was working on before her passing in 1997.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/24832#c1567213'>Clippings and Printed Matter</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1922 - 2012</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Clippings and Printed Matter are arranged alphabetically by subject. This series contains material collected by Ann Petry but also others, such as her mother, Bertha James Lane as well as her daughter, Elisabeth Petry.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/24832#c1567328'>Artifacts and Memorabilia</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>circa 1980s, 1990s</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Contains honorary degree regalia from Suffolk University (1983) and a medal for the 1992 Arts Award, issued by the Connecticut Commission of the Arts. This series also contains calendars kept by Petry.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}