A Look at Betty Smith

Betty Smith was born December 15th, 1896, the same birthday as the protagonist, Francie, in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Her birth name was Elisabeth Lillian Wehner. She died on January 17, 1972.

Betty’s life mirrors much of Francie’s life. She grew up in the tenements of Brooklyn at the beginning of the 1900s. She and her family moved around until they landed in one on the top floor. Her parents were immigrants, her mom was tough and though not a lot is known about her father, he died of alcoholism when she was in Smith’s late teens. 

Her mom instilled in her a love of storytelling and though she was taken out of school to start working at 14, Betty Smith always looked toward education, taking comfort in the public library and her own writings. 

After meeting her future husband, she moved with him to Ann Arbor, Michigan. There George worked to study and practice law and was gone much of the time, leaving Betty to raise their two children. 

But the drive to educate herself never left. Betty Smith petitioned to attend and finish her education at a local high school, working through all of it.

Though affairs and distance plagued her marriage, she kept working toward her dream of being a writer. She began attending classes at the University of Michigan and at the age of 47, Betty Smith published her first novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It sold 3 million copies in its first year alone. 

Her marriage, the first of three, ended in 1933.

Betty Smith moved around the country and wrote other novels and plays (she was an avid theater gal) throughout her life. They don’t capture the same fame as Brooklyn but all detail the lives of the early 20th century.

Betty Smith died of pneumonia in 1972 at the age of 75.

An article at LitHub stated, “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn was a way for Smith to finally declare herself a particular kind of writer: a novelist. But it wasn’t only that. It was her chance to make something of herself after so many years of feeling she was not fully succeeding.”

Works cited:

https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2023/08/26/from-hopwood-to-hollywood-to-joy-in-the-morning/

https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/author-biography/smith-betty/