Ann Petry Biography

Ann Petry

A pharmacist who wrote newspaper ad copy, Petry came to notice when her book The Street, about life in Harlem, gained critical and popular success in 1946, selling 1.5 million copies. She later wrote additional novels, short stories, and children's books, such as Tituba of Salem Village (1964) and Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railway (1955).