ABOUT THE STREET
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR TAYARI JONES
“How can a novel’s social criticism be so unflinching and clear, yet its plot moves like a house on fire? I am tempted to describe Petry as a magician for the many ways that The Street amazes, but this description cheapens her talent . . . Petry is a gifted artist.” — Tayari Jones, from the Introduction
The Street follows the spirited Lutie Johnson, a newly single mother whose efforts to claim a share of the American Dream for herself and her young son meet frustration at every turn in 1940s Harlem. Opening a fresh perspective on the realities and challenges of black, female, working-class life, The Street became the first novel by an African American woman to sell more than a million copies.
ABOUT ANN PETRY
ANN PETRY (1908-1997), a black novelist, short story writer, and writer of books for young people, was one of America's most distinguished authors. She began by studying pharmacy, and upon receiving her PhG in 1931, she worked as a pharmacist in her family's drugstores in Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. During these years she wrote several short stories. When she married George David Petry in 1938, the course of her life changed. They moved to New York, and Ann went to work for Harlem's Amsterdam News. By 1941 she was covering general news stories and editing the women's pages of the People's Voice in Harlem. Her first published story appeared in 1943 in the Crisis, a magazine published monthly by the NAACP. Afterward she began work on her first novel - The Street, published in 1946 - for which she received the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship. She wrote two more novels, The Country Place and The Narrows, and numerous short stories, articles, and children's books. She was also appointed visiting professor of English at the University of Hawaii and lectured widely throughout the United States.
PRODUCT DETAILS
- Paperback: 435 pages
- Publisher: Mariner Books; unknown edition (March 15, 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9780395901496
- ISBN-13: 978-0395901496
- ASIN: 0395901499
- Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches