Ann Petry Place (Manhattan)
Present name:None
Location:At the southeast corner of East 129th Street and 5th Avenue
Honoree: Ann Petry (1908-1997) was a ground-breaking African-American novelist, journalist, and biographer. She began her career as a journalist, writing for the Amsterdam News from 1938 until 1941 and the Peoples’ Voice of Harlem from 1941 until 1944, and then studied creative writing at Columbia University. Her first novel, The Street became a best-seller and was critically acclaimed for its portrayal of a working-class black woman, Lutie Johnson, who dreams of getting out of Harlem but is inevitably thwarted by the pressures of poverty and racism. It was one of the first novels by an African-American woman to receive widespread acclaim. Country Place depicts the disillusionment and corruption among a group of white people in a small town in Connecticut. Her third novel, The Narrows is the story of Link Williams, a Dartmouth-educated African American who tends bar in the black section of Monmouth, Connecticut, and of his tragic love affair with a rich white woman. Although often criticized for its melodramatic plot, it has been lauded for its supple style and its sympathetic characterizations. Petry’s short stories were collected in Miss Muriel and Other Stories. She also published several historical biographies for children, including Harriet Tubman, Conductor on the Underground Railroad and Tituba of Salem Village. (Perkins)
LL:2022/54