The late Ann Petry holds the distinction of being the first Black woman writer to sell over 1 million copies of a book. Her 1946 bestseller, The Street, focused on a single mother living on 116th Street in Harlem and was inspired by her time living in the famed New York borough.
Petry was born Anna Lane on October 12, 1908 in the town of Old Saybrook in Connecticut. Her father worked as a pharmacist, and her mother worked in several fields, including hairdressing and owning a store. Peter and Bertha Lane sheltered their children from discrimination as much as they could. While they experienced less hardships than most, they were still the Black minority in their middle-class neighborhood.