An unlikely success

Posted on December 10, 2023 by John Mark Ockerbloom

A novel about a Gullah single mother by the white wife of a plantation owner was a controversial choice for the 1929 Pulitzer Prize. But Scarlet Sister Mary was praised by many white and Black reviewers. W. E. B. Du Bois said author Julia Peterkin “has the eye and the ear to see beauty and know truth”. And when a South Carolina library refused to carry what it called an “obscene” book, a local newspaper published it as a serial. It joins the public domain in 22 days.

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About John Mark Ockerbloom

I'm a digital library strategist at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
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1 Response to An unlikely success

  1. Unknown's avatar John Mark Ockerbloom says:
    December 10, 2023 at 2:11 pm

    @everybodyslibraries.com I'm never sure how embeds are going to come out in Mastodon for my WordPress-based posts. This one's embed came out somewhat garbled there, but the links are worth following. The first, at the Pulitzer site, has more about the novel and its controversial reception. The second goes to the post I'd made earlier in the countdown about WEB Dubois and his 1928 novel. The third goes to an interesting profile and portrait of Julia Peterkin and her work.

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