Black Women in History: Writing History-Ann Petry

Photo from lizpetry.com

Ann Petry conquered two feats as a writer, she was the first African American Woman to become a best selling author and to have novel sales topping one million copies sold, for her novel The Street. This accomplishment paved the way for writers like Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde.  


Ann Petry(Lane) was born in either 1908 or 1909 to a well off black family in a small town.  Like most writers her work was filled with her life experiences. Even though Petry's family was considered privileged they still had struggles and faced racism, which is reflected in her writing. Her passion for writing truly developed in High School after receiving praise from a teacher on an essay she wrote.

As a budding writer myself, she is truly an inspiration, earning honorary doctrates from several universities including Suffolk University and the University of Connecticut as well as having her works read by people all across the globe. Petry has several other acclaimed works including Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad and Tituba of Salem Village.


While her writing career flourished Petry found time to finish pharmaceutical school, the family business, be a homemaker, wife, and mother.  It is easy to be so career focused that you forget about taking care of family, but Petry did not and this is evident by the success of her daughter Liz Petry, who is following in her mothers footsteps.


Ann Petry died April 28, 1997 but her legacy lives on in the history that she created.


Hairstory  I was not able to find alot of images of Ann Petry, in fact finding basic information was hard, but judging by the photos that I have seen,  Petry's style was pretty laid back. She adorned natural tresses with a pump in the front, even  in her later years.

Make sure you check out my other posting in this series, "Black Women in History," on Marie Antionette Thomas, Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, Donyale Luna, and Ella Fitzgerald....more to come...


Najeema Iman, I AM Curly Locks
"I believe in Kingdom blogging."


  














Sources:  http://www.lizpetry.com/The_Book_/About_Ann/about_ann.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Petry , and http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_black_diaspora_news/22883

Originally Posted February 2011
 Updated: February 5, 2013