Scarlet Sister Mary
ByPublisher Description
Winner of the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Scarlet Sister Mary is a haunting portrait of love, faith, and resilience in the post-Civil War South. Set among the Gullah people of South Carolina’s Lowcountry, the novel follows Mary, a proud and passionate young woman whose defiance of tradition sets her at odds with her community. When she chooses a path of independence—embracing love, motherhood, and desire on her own terms—Mary is both condemned and admired, a figure of scandal and strength. Through Mary’s story, Julia Peterkin captures the rhythms of rural Black life with lyricism and intensity, weaving themes of freedom, spirituality, and survival into a deeply human tale. Both celebrated and controversial, Scarlet Sister Mary endures as a striking work of Southern Gothic fiction that confronts the costs of independence in a world bound by judgment and tradition.
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About Julia Peterkin
Julia Peterkin (1880–1961) was an American author best known for her vivid depictions of African American life in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. Born and raised on a plantation, she developed close ties with the Gullah community, whose traditions and dialect deeply influenced her writing. In 1929, she became the first Southern woman — and one of the first white writers — to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for Scarlet Sister Mary. Over the course of her career, she published several novels and short story collections, including Black April and Green Thursday, praised for their lyrical prose and attention to the lives of rural Black Southerners. Peterkin’s work remains both celebrated and debated: admired for its artistry and historical importance, yet critiqued for its outsider’s perspective on the community she sought to portray. Today, she is remembered as a groundbreaking literary figure who captured the complexities of Southern life during a time of profound cultural change.
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