| Critical Appreciating Ann Petry | | | Shantanu Kulesh, 14B133 | |

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A Brief Biography
Ann Petry’s birth date is not certain: earlier biographers place her birth on October 12, 1911, while later it has been stated as October 12, 1908. In any case, she was born in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and a predominantly white, rural community. Ann was the second daughter of Peter C. Lane, pharmacist, and Bertha James Lane, licensed chiropodist, barber, and entrepreneur. Ann’s family was solidly middle class, including two college educated aunts, and several generations of pharmacists. The Lanes often told autobiographical and fictional stories while she was growing up, and Ann began writing short stories and plays while she was still in high school.
Following family patterns, Petry graduated from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut, but she was unhappy “counting pills,” she later said, because she had aims to be a writer. She married George David Petry and moved to New York to fulfill her aim to be a writer.
According to Petry herself, the content of her early fiction was heavily influenced by the inner city life she witnessed as a reporter, social worker, and involved community member.
She quickly found work as a journalist. Her early years in Harlem were fueled by involvement in progressive political causes and membership in a community of activists, labor leaders, visual artists, actors, and writers. Despite working closely with self-identified Communists, Petry never affiliated with the party and resisted efforts to enlist her as a fellow traveler. She maintained her distance, and managed to be quite a loner in the midst of the city’s crowd.
Harlem inspired Petry. The legendary black neighborhood provided the imagery, drama, incidents, and language for a body of work that included journalism, essays, and short stories, as