{"product_id":"can-anything-beat-white-a-black-familys-letters-9781617033209","title":"Can Anything Beat White?: A Black Family's Letters","description":"A treasure trove of correspondence among novelist Ann Petry's ancestors Ann Petry (1908-1997) achieved prominence during a period in which few black women were published with regularity in America. Her novels Country Place (1947) and The Narrows (1988), along with various short stories and nonfiction, poignantly described the struggles and triumphs of middle-class blacks living in primarily white communities. Petry's ancestors, the James family, served as in-spiration for much of her fiction. This collection of more than four hundred family letters, edited by the daughter of Ann Petry, is an engaging portrait of black family life from the 1890s to the early twentieth century, a period not often documented by African American voices. Ann Petry's maternal grandfather, Willis Samuel James, was a slave taught by his children to read and write. He believed \"the best place for the negro is as near the white man as he can get.\" He followed that \"truth,\" working as coachman for a Connecticut governor and buying a house in a white neighborhood in Hartford. Willis had sixteen children by three wives. The letters in this collection are from him and his second wife, Anna E. Houston James, and five of Anna's children, of whom novelist Ann Petry's mother, Bertha James Lane, was the oldest. History is made and remade by the availability of new documents, sources, and interpretations. Can Anything Beat White? contributes a great deal to this process. The experiences of the James family as documented in their letters challenge both representations of black people at the turn of the century\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/correctionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-3575933\"\u003eElisabeth Petry\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Mississippi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/19\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 230\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.75lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.52d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781617033209\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1617033200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/correctionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/correctionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO002000\"\u003eCultural, Ethnic \u0026amp; Regional | General\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/correctionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-SOC\"\u003eSocial Science\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/correctionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-SOC001000\"\u003eEthnic Studies | American | African American \u0026amp; Black Studies\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/correctionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-LCO\"\u003eLiterary Collections\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/correctionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-LCO011000\"\u003eLetters\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eElisabeth Petry is a freelance writer with a juris doctor from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Middletown, Connecticut, and is the author of At Home Inside: A Daughter's Tribute to Ann Petry, published by University Press of Mississippi.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University Press of Mississippi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45795917234351,"sku":"9781617033209","price":58.33,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/9255\/8767\/files\/img_55a108fb-4b38-4e5d-a429-0105e61a525b.jpg?v=1755619572","url":"https:\/\/www.correctionsbookstore.com\/products\/can-anything-beat-white-a-black-familys-letters-9781617033209","provider":"Corrections Bookstore ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}