Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn captured the imagination of readers in 1943. Now, over sixty years since its publication, thousands of readers of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn still enter its world and identify with Francie Nolan, growing up in a tenement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Betty Smith admitted that Francie was herself and that her mother, father, grandparents, aunts, and uncles were the inspiration for the book’s characters. Here, in the first published biography of Betty Smith, their real-life stories are told. The heroes in Smith’s novels, all working-class women—Francie in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the office worker Margy in Tomorrow Will Be Better, the housewife Maggie in Maggie-Now, the aspiring writer Annie in Joy in the Morning—become self-directed and confident. These novels present an insider’s view of a blue collar world, of complex characters and psychological dynamics. Smith’s vision in her fiction was an unusual combination of no-holds-barred realism and hope. This tale of three cities—Brooklyn, Ann Arbor, and Chapel Hill—is wise, funny, and also sad, the life of a writer but also of a daughter, lover, mother, and grandmother.
“This is not only a biography of a fascinating person; it’s her place in the history of the time and in the women’s movement, as well as a writer’s guide to the craft, all wrapped into one stunning work. Growing up I read and reread, and loved Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I was Francie Nolan. Valerie Yow’s biography is like being there all over again. Beautifully written, Francie and Betty live in every word.”
—Ruth Moose, poet and short story writer, author of Rules and Secrets and other books, professor, Creative Writing Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“In this engaging, skillfully written biography, Valerie Yow combines painstaking historical research, well-argued psychological insights and interpretations, and good narrative style to tell Betty Smith’s story. With a special sensitivity and perception, Yow describes the struggles Smith faced in both her personal life and her writing career. But, ultimately, this is the triumphant story of a talented, tenacious woman whose important place in American letters is more secure because of Yow’s excellent biography.”
—Robert Anthony, Curator, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
bettysmithbiography.com