Ann Petry

 

Ann Petry, not Alice Walker or Toni Morrison, was the first Black woman author who had sales of over one million copies for her book. That book was The Street, published in 1946. I have not read The Street, but I recently completed her novel, The Narrows, published in 1953 and came away impressed with both the storyline and the characters. Set in a fictional small city in Connecticut in the early 1950s, The Narrows relates the doomed interracial love affair between Linc Wilson, a young Dartmouth-educated Black man and Camilla Sheffield, the daughter of the richest woman in town. Petry does a terrific job depicting the insidious racism of the local press in fanning the flames of racism that led to the tragic ending of the story. I highly recommend it.

In Conversation with Scott Turow

I hope that you will be able to join us on Tuesday evening October 27 at 7:00 for a special Zoom event hosted by the Cliff Dwellers. I will be in conversation with Honorary Cliff Dwellers member Scott Turow, author of twelve bestselling works of fiction, including most recently, The Last Trial, published earlier this year. Mr. Turow’s books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. If you are interested in joining our audience for this free event, please email me at richardreeder34@gmail.com for Zoom access information.   

Stanley Crouch: In Memoriam

The American arts and cultural world lost one of its most brilliant commentators when Stanley Crouch died on September 16 at age 74. In a brilliant and affectionate tribute yesterday in the Chicago Tribune, music critic Howard Reich wrote that Crouch “proclaimed out loud what others dared not whisper. He confronted his uncounted critics with sober truths they did not wish to hear. He yielded not an inch to the intellectual fashions of the day.”

Crouch was America’s foremost jazz critic. He believed that jazz is “the highest American musical form because it is the most comprehensive, possessing an epic frame of emotional and intellectual reference, sensual clarity and spiritual radiance.” Crouch was one of the movers and shakers behind the founding of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He was Ken Burns senior creative consultant on his documentary series “Jazz.”