With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Ann Lane Petry
Fiction, Journalism/Non-Fiction
1908 – 1997
African American novelist of the mid-20th century
- Biography/Description of Work
Born in Old Saybrook, Anna Houston Lane attended the Connecticut College of Pharmacy in New Haven, where she made lifelong friends among the daughters of New Haven’s black elite. She then returned home where she worked at the James Pharmacy. She met George David Petry through a family friend, married in 1938 and moved to New York City where she worked in journalism and was involved in progressive political and social causes. In New York, she shortened her name to Ann Petry. After publishing and editing for the Amsterdam News and the People’s Voice in Harlem, she published her first novel, “The Street,” in 1946; she wrote it during the war years while her husband was in military service and she was living by herself. Her life in Harlem exposed her to poor and neglected urban blacks and affected her writing. By 1947 Ann and George decided to move back to Old Saybrook, where they purchased the home at 113 Old Boston Post Road. Ann Petry completed two novels, “Country Place” (1947) and “The Narrows” (1953). She also published short stories and books for children. Their daughter Elisabeth Ann was born in 1949. Ann Petry lived in the house for the rest of her life, writing, caring for family members, lecturing around the country, and working as a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii (1974). She received honorary doctoral degrees from Suffolk University, the University of Connecticut, and Mount Holyoke College, and Trinity College.
- Sources view
- Murphy, Black Authors and Illustrators of books for Children and Young Adults, 1999,
Normen, Elizabeth J., African American Connecticut Explored, Wesleyan U. Press, 2013.
James Pharmacy NR nomination - http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/94000845.pdf .
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame: http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/writers-journalists/ann-petry - Associated Resource(s)