Ellen Tarry
Ellen Tarry | |
---|---|
Born | New York, New York, United States | September 26, 1906
Occupation | Author |
Nationality | American |
Period | 1940–2008 |
Ellen Tarry (September 26, 1906 – September 23, 2008) was an
Biography
Tarry was born in
She thereafter attended
In 1929, she moved to New York City in hope of becoming a writer. There she befriended such Harlem Renaissance literary figures as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay and Countee Cullen. She was the first "Negro Scholarship" recipient at the Bank Street College of Education in New York City, where she met and became friends with Margaret Wise Brown and was influenced by the "here and now" theory of picture book composition.[2]
Tarry published four picture books: Janie Belle (1940), illustrated by
Tarry's The Third Door: The Autobiography of an American Negro Woman (from 1955) tells of her life in the South (including her time at the SBS school in Virginia), her migration to New York City, her friendship with McKay, and her deep commitment to Catholicism. In 1942, Tarry was one of the first two co-directors along with
Tarry's biographies include Katherine Drexel: Friend of the Neglected, Pierre Toussaint: Apostle of Old New York, The Other Toussaint: A Post-Revolutionary Black, and Martin de Porres, Saint of the New World.
Tarry died on September 23, 2008, three days before her 102nd birthday.
Personal life
She had one daughter, Elizabeth Tarry Patton, from a brief marriage.
See also
References
- ^ "Ellen Tarry papers", The New York Public Library, Archives & Manuscripts.
- ^ Smith, Katharine Capshaw, "From Bank Street to Harlem: A Conversation with Ellen Tarry", The Lion and the Unicorn 23.2 (April 1999): 271–285.
- ^ Schorsch, Albert J. III (1990). ""Uncommon Women and Others": memoirs and lessons from radical Catholics at Friendship House". U.S. Catholic Historian. 9 (4): 371–386.
- ^ Sharum, Elizabeth Louise (1977). A strange fire burning: a history of the Friendship House Movement (Thesis / Dissertation). Texas Tech University: University Microfilms. p. 145.