THE STREET

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1946. First printing. Very good plus in very good plus jacket.. First edition of this major mid-century work about a Black single mother in Harlem by "one of the essential American novelists of the twentieth century" (Library of America). THE STREET is a powerful realist novel of social protest, exploring the oppressions at the intersection of race, gender, and class. In it, a Black single mother in Harlem seeking to live the American Dream fights against the seeming inevitability of her downfall. A tremendous success at the time, making Petry the first African-American woman to sell over 1 million copies, it has since fallen bafflingly into obscurity. As Tayari Jones remarked in the NEW YORK TIMES: "I recently reread The Street and I just can't figure out why this work is not more widely read and celebrated. After such a stunning reception in the 1940s, why hasn't this novel become a college staple? [...] Maybe a better question is what can be done to ignite an Ann Petry revival?" First edition copies in intact original dust jackets are quite scarce on the marketplace; this is a lovely copy. 8'' x 5.25''. Original full grey cloth, illustration of a Harlem street stamped across boards, spine lettered in grey. Original unclipped ($2.50) color pictorial dust jacket, photographic portrait of the author by Edna Guy on rear panel. [8], 436 pages. Book with light toning at edges, offsetting shadow to front endpapers. Shallow chipping to jacket spine ends with small tape repairs to verso, a few closed tears and edgewear. Nevertheless, a stellar example with entirely unfaded spine. (Inventory #: 53529)