{"value"=>"<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>"}