Betty Smith

Biography

Betty Smith (1896-1972) was born Elisabeth Wehner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — the neighborhood she wrote about. Her family was German-Irish, not Irish like the Nolans, but the poverty was the same. She left school after eighth grade, worked in factories, and educated herself at the public library. She married at eighteen, had two daughters, and eventually talked her way into college courses at the University of Michigan without a high school diploma — exactly as Francie does. She wrote A Tree Grows in Brooklyn at forty-seven, drawing directly on her childhood. The novel was an immediate bestseller, selling 300,000 copies in its first year. She had been poor her entire life; the book made her famous overnight.

Betty Smith at a glance