Like a Winding Sheet

by Ann Petry

Genres: Short Stories, African American Literature, Classics

8 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Ann Petry (October 12, 1908 – April 28, 1997) was an American author who became the first black woman writer with book sales topping a million copies for her novel The Street.

The wish to become a professional writer was raised in Ann for the first time in high school when her English teacher read her essay to the class commenting on it with the words: “I honestly believe that you could be a writer if you wanted to.” The decision to become a pharmacist was her family’s. She turned up in college and graduated with a Ph.G. degree from Connecticut College of Pharmacy in New Haven in 1931 and worked in the family business for several years. She also began to write short stories while she was working at the pharmacy.

On February 22, 1938, she married George D. Petry of New Iberia, Louisiana, which brought Petry to New York. She not only wrote articles for newspapers such as The Amsterdam News, or The People's Voice, and published short stories in The Crisis, but also worked at an after-school program at P.S. 10 in Harlem. It was during this period of her life that she had realized and personally experienced what the majority of the black population of the United States had to go through in their everyday life.

Traversing the streets of Harlem, living for the first time among large numbers of poor black people, seeing neglected children up close – Petry's early years in New York inevitably made impressions on her. Impacted by her Harlem experiences, Ann Petry used her creative writing skills to bring this experience to paper. Her daughter Liz explained to the Washington Post that “her way of dealing with the problem was to write this book, which maybe was something that people who had grown up in Harlem couldn’t do.”

Petry's most popular novel The Street was published in 1946 and won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship with book sales topping a million copies.

Back in Old Saybrook in 1947, the writer worked on Country Place (1947), The Narrows (1953), other stories, and books for children, but they have never achieved the same success as her first book. Until her death Petry lived in an 18th-century house in her hometown, Old Saybrook. She drew on her personal experiences of the hurricane in Old Saybrook in her 1947 novel, Country Place. Although the novel is set in the immediate aftermath of World War II, Petry identified the 1938 New England huricane as the source for the storm that is at the center of her narrative. Ann Lane Petry died at the age of 88 on April 28, 1997. She was outlived by her husband, George Petry, who died in 2000, and her only daughter, Liz Petry.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Laysee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like A Winding Sheet is a finely crafted story published in 1945. It brought Ann Petry national attention and landed her the Houghton Mifflin Literary Scholarship that funded her writing of The Street.

Its protagonist is Johnson, a Black man who has a graveyard shift job that requires him to push a cart for ten hours a day on his feet. He hates it. His sweet wife, Mae, has an evening job too but she takes it in better spirits. Johnson is late for work practically every day.

At the start, there is a dark foreshadowing of how this story will unfold. Johnson is an angry man. With some knowledge of how Black men are being treated, it is not hard to see that his anger is deep seated, a monster just waiting to pounce when provoked. The cover of this story is a perfect depiction of Johnson's balled up tension. In the course of a day, Johnson's ability to rein in his anger is sorely tested. You have to read the ending for yourself.

Readers who have enjoyed The Street may find this short story totally engrossing.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Petry, an African-American writer of the early 1900s, would seem to be an important figure of whom I had never heard. This short-story took my breath, because I could feel the building tension that casts your mind back repeatedly to the gentle banter of the morning and the reference to the winding sheet.

For those who like happily ever after in their stories, avoid this one. It is about reality, which is often harsh.

https://www.westga.edu/~sboyd/Boyd%20...

I will be seeking out Ann Petry’s novel, The Street, which was the first novel by an African-American woman to sell over a million copies.

My thanks to Kathleen for the link to this story.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ann Petry!! She is absolutely fearless. This is a tough read, but so well told.

It is a timely story of the impacts of relentless racism, but at the same time, it expresses a broader feeling of frustration that allows all of us to relate.

As she proved in The Street, she is amazingly capable of putting you in the shoes of her characters to the extent that you are forced to understand them, no matter what they do.

[You can read the short story, along with a bit about Ann Petry and the beginning of The Street here: https://www.westga.edu/~sboyd/Boyd%20...]

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A painful and powerful short story that explores themes that include gender, racism and abuse. It begins as a young, happily married Black couple are getting ready for work, with the wife noticing that her husband, tangled up in the bed sheets, looks like he’s caught in a winding sheet, or shroud. We accompany the husband through a series of charged events that make up his day, and witness what he carries back home with him, and what results as things reach their tipping point. Shocking, difficult, powerful.

[Billie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fantastic story, but with an emotionally painful ending. The characters are beautifully portrayed and the story captivates the readers in an emotional way.

[◦•●◉✿ яeм ✿◉●•◦ · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I can't say I liked the story it definitely had a stunning effect especially at the end.. The emotion and build up of the story incredible and well written for a short story and while I only give it 3 stars, I still recommend it and can't wait for the discussion about it in my English class

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good symbolism. An English class read.

[Sadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

...

[kimby · Rating 4 out of 5]

and this is why we shouldn’t use the n word!
anyway ugh. she knows how to make you mad. racism sucks. I think that’s the theme of this week

[Cassie Fleurs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so intense, so smartly crafted. Urging us to see how structure permates the intimate. And the rippling effects of violence.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

umm ok just beat your wife i guess