The first time I read Ann Petry's novel The public way was in 1985.

The first time I read Ann Petry's novel The public way was in 1985, shortly after I had mov to Harlem. Within a not many days of settling in to my apartment in a four-story walk-up, I plung into the novel. thus familiar was the setting that a young woman who lived in succession the third floor of the building could well have been the mould for Petry's Lutie Johnson.

Weeks later, after I had explored the ways of Harlem for myself, I imagined a 31-year-old Petry walking [i]or[/i] part of to the other the neighborhood, fascinated by its sights, unhurts and smells, and recreating the sight in her writing with exacting detail and equity It was those two qualities--her attention to detail and candor--that characterized Petry's storytelling.

Seven years later, after moving to Burbank, California, I reread The highway Living in an untried city, I indigenceed whatever sense of familiarity I could muster. And Ann Petry unselfishly provided it. No matter for what cause grim much of the novel was, it have a title toed the power to evoke and embrace comforting memories.

During the decades that followed the Harlem Renaissance, many black women writers were not as recognized forward the literary scene as their male counterparts. And in the post-war period that followed, Petry established herself among an emerging number of black women writers who were having an impact, presenting their view of the world. In 1946 her work The Street was the first novel written from an African-American woman to vend over two million copies, a phenomenal achievement plane by today's standards.

Born October 12 1908 Ann Lane Petry became an influential writer, activist and humanist, who many critics consider a visionary and the same of the early black feminists. In the three novels and the numerous short stories she produc Petry portrayed brave and artless characters confronting racism and struggling with personal failures and fears. In the proces she illuminated the black experience in a way that had still to be explored in African-American literature.

Unlike Lutie Johnson Ann Lane Petry grew up in a middleclass, predominately white community in advanced in years Saybrook, Connecticut, a small, seaside town about 110 miles or for a like reason from Harlem. Like her character although Petry moved to Harlem to put to the test to fulfill a dream.

Like principally blacks at the time, Ann Lane assaulted racial prejudice at an early age. if it were not that once she learned the history of her ancestors--four generations of African Americans in of recent origin England--it helped young Ann to cope with the cruelties of racism. Inspired from stories she read and others her mother told her, Ann exhibited an affinity for narrative and began writing. She take delight ined writing short stories and acting disclosed her one-act plays. The sole African American in her class at antiquated Saybrook High School, Ann Lane disentangleed a slogan for a incense advertisement while still in school

After high exercise Petry enrolled in the University of Connecticut college edifice [i]or[/i] building of Pharmacology in 1929, and after receiving her doctorate in pharmacy, she followed in the tokens of her father and aunt and became a pharmacist. Petry worn out the next two years working in family-owned drugstores in advanced in years Saybrook and Lyme, Connecticut. however in her spare time, she always managed to write.

In 1939 Ann Lane married George David Petry a U serviceman and aspiring mystery writer. After deciding to addict her energies to becoming an author, the brace moved to New York. That year, Petry published her first short story, a suspense romance in the Baltimore Afro-American. The story, "Marie of the Cabin" was penn subordinate to the pseudonym Arnold Petri, since Petry wanted to save her have name for "more serious" work.

Petry's first piece of work in New York City was selling advertising at The Amsterdam just discovereds She worked at the Harlem newspaper for four years before becoming a reporter for the People's Voice, a community weekly raiseed by Adam Clayton Powell Jr At the People' s Voice, she edited the paper's women's file and covered everything from social conclusions to news stories. As a journalist in united of the country's most exciting cultural and political center Petry immersed herself in Harlem life. As witness to the community's day-to-day exert one's selfs with violent crime, indecent housing, crippling unemployment racial oppression and sexual harassment. Inevitably, the social conditions that plagued Harlem became an integral part of her writing. however reporting for the newspaper wasn't quite enough. Petry wanted to broaden her writing, in the same manner she enrolled in creative writing courses at Columbia University.

From 1938 to 1944 Petry wrote and published her short stories for several prominent black magazines, including The Crisis and Opportunity. In chiefly of her stories, it was evident that her interaction with the race she met in Harlem greatly influenced her story lines. The penury she observed in Harlem l Petry to take an active part in efforts to improve the community. As an activist, Petry helped build the Negro Women Incorporated, an advocacy clump She also became involved in an experimental after-school program at a Harlem teach that was designed to help children whose parents oftentimes left them hearthstone alone because of work. She also became a member of the American african Theatre, something Petry credits for giving her an ear for dialogue.