The 25th Anniversary Edition, Ann Petry a Bio-Bibliography

In The 25th Anniversary Edition, Ann Petry: A Bio-Bibliography, Petry's critics, editors, and researchers, from 1940s to present, not only remember the life of the writer but also acknowledge her labor as novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet, and author of juvenile and children's books. The anniversary edition is more than the classic reporting of birth, death, and dates of publications, reprints, and re-issuances. There are attempts to historicize the evolution of Petry's...
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In The 25th Anniversary Edition, Ann Petry: A Bio-Bibliography, Petry's critics, editors, and researchers, from 1940s to present, not only remember the life of the writer but also acknowledge her labor as novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet, and author of juvenile and children's books. The anniversary edition is more than the classic reporting of birth, death, and dates of publications, reprints, and re-issuances. There are attempts to historicize the evolution of Petry's scholarship, from the 1940s to present, and to document the significant contributions of Petry's critics, editors, and researchers who have developed, corrected, expanded, and enhanced the writer's biography, bibliography, and criticism. No one critic, editor, or researcher is insignificant: In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, a cohort of new critics, future editors, and researchers promote new directions in Petry's scholarship. While relying on "close readings" of how Petry uses language, and while standing on the shoulders of earlier critics, editors, and researchers from the twentieth century, the new cohort reexamines the reviews of the 1940s and 1950s; reevaluates positions taken by editors of collections of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s on black writers such as Petry; and reassesses research series from the 1980s and early 1990s on black women writers at work. The Influential efforts of such critics, editors, and researchers who "look back and go forth" in dissertations, articles, interviews, and books are immense. For example, in the 1993 edition of the bio-bibliography there are 389 annotations. Fewer than 16 of the annotations are dissertations and even fewer are comparative and global studies. Decades later, following new directions in Petry's scholarship, there are 910 annotations. At least 170 of the annotations are theses at the doctorate, Master's and A.B. Honor's levels; over 200 of the annotations are comparative studies; and over 60 of the annotations are global. Reviews are consistent: a treasure trove of bibliographical resources for the versed; an invaluable introduction to Petry for the unfamiliar; an indispensable source in Petry studies; comprehensive in annotations; an invaluable contribution to American literature, African American literature, and gender studies; timeless; and inviting for future research.