Ann Petry’s success and our failure
Until the author becomes a household name throughout southeastern Connecticut, we will not be doing her or our students justice.
In his recent article, “Groundbreaking 1946 Novel by Old Saybrook’s Ann Petry Back in New Edition,” Rick Koster does his usual, impressive job as he highlights the author’s notable literary accomplishments and provides a portrait of her career which rose meteorically after she published “The Street.” There is no question that Petry, who indeed was the first African-American woman to sell over a million copies of a novel, merits all that attention. But the article should also be a reminder that this region has ignored Petry for far too long and that this recognition is overdue.
I was first introduced to Petry’s novel in a Brown University African-American literature class in the 1990s. I remember having the same reaction that perhaps readers of Koster’s article had. If she is from Old Saybrook, and so famous, why hadn’t I heard of her?
After falling in love with her novel, this question kept nagging me. The fact that I had attended New London High School — where one of the
novel’s themes of an oppressive, trapped desperation would have appealed to so many students — added to my sense of having somehow been cheated. “The Street” became one my favorite novels, and I loved it so much that I would go on to assign it throughout my college teaching career. The student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
What I consider the most telling example of how this region has turned its back, deliberately or not, on Petry’s accomplishments is within Old Saybrook itself. In 2016, I contacted the Old Saybrook Historical Society, inquiring about whether anything in the town commemorates Petry. I mentioned that I hadn’t found any room being named, any statue built, or a scholarship designated, for example, in her honor. They never responded. In 2017, I was invited to present to a group of its high school students. I talked about Latino literature, my primary area of specialty, but couldn’t help myself and wound up talking about Petry and “The Street.” Despite having this discussion in the town where the author grew up, no student had ever heard of her.
I challenged them to leave their own mark by marking her accomplishments and exploring ways that they could be the ones who ensure that her legacy was recognized. That was a tall task for students, and sad to say, it did not come to fruition.
Until Petry becomes a household name throughout southeastern Connecticut, we will not be doing her or our students justice. Cities and towns as well as schools that continue to ignore Petry cannot continue to plead ignorance as a defense.
I get that this is a New England region that once deliberately snubbed Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene O’Neill, but, if anything, we should see the celebration of all things and events bearing his name as an example of the type of economic, educational, and merited benefits that can come when we recognize such local figures.
Koster’s article, I am sure, will pique the interest of readers who will pick up Petry’s novel and may even peruse her other books, including a biography of Harriet Tubman, whose name she helped immortalize.
Whatever the case, the time has come for Petry’s name to be lifted high until those who live inside and outside the area associate this inspirational figure with our region. She deserves that. We deserve that.