Betty Smith

Betty Smith

Betty Smith (1896–1972), born Elisabeth Lillian Wehner, was an American novelist and playwright best known for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Drawing on her Williamsburg childhood, she wrote about working-class family life, aspiration, hardship, and the sustaining force of reading and education.

Photo: Editta Sherman—New-York Historical Society; Gift of Melisande Sherman · Source: TIME: Editta Sherman celebrity portraits ↗

Titles1
Editions21
Years covered1943

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Cover of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1943 · Historical Fiction

Print — AmazonAudiobook — AmazoneBook — Amazon

21 editions: Print · 1947 | Print · 1971 | Print · 1981 | Print · 1989 | Print · 1992 | Print · 1993 | Print · 1998 | Print · 2001 | Print · 2005 | Print · 2006 | Print · 2009 | Print · 2013 | Print · 2014 | Print · 2025 | Audiobook · 2000 | Audiobook · 2007 | eBook · 2005

About this work & edition details

The beloved perennial classic—named as one of the books of the twentieth century by the New York Public Library. Orville Prescott has called this American classic “one of the most dearly beloved and one of the finest books of our day.” Indeed, when A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was first published in 1943, four printing plants were required to keep up with the demand. Seventy years later, readers are still fascinated by Betty Smith’s moving portrayal of the Nolans, a poor family living in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn. A poignant tale of childhood and the ties of family, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn will transport the reader to the early 1900s where a little girl named Francie dreamily looks out her window at a tree struggling to reach the sky.

Print · Harper & Row · 1947 · English
ISBN 9780060801267

Print · Tandem · 1971 · English
ISBN 9780426053620

Print · Buccaneer Books · 1981-12-01 · English
ISBN 9780899663036

Print · Trumpet Club · 1989 · English
ISBN 9780440841166

Print · Reader's Digest Association · 1989 · English
ISBN 9780895773289

Print · Arrow Books · 1992-09 · English
ISBN 9780099427575

Print · G.K. Hall · 1993 · English
ISBN 9780816158133

Print · Perennial Classics · 1998 · English
ISBN 9780060929886

Print · Harpercollins · 1998-07-01 · English
ISBN 9780060995287

Print · Harper Collins · 2001-11-13 · English
ISBN 9780060001940

Print · Harper Collins · 2005-01-18 · English
ISBN 9780060736262

Print · Turtleback · 2005-01-18 · English
ISBN 9781417681419

Print · Harper Collins · 2006-05-30 · English
ISBN 9780061120077

Print · Everbind · 2009-07-01 · English
ISBN 9780784811634

Print · HarpPerenM · 2013-06-04 · English
ISBN 9780061652769

Print · Harper Perennial · 2014-09-16 · English
ISBN 9780062096951

Print · Independently published · 2025-09-29 · English
ISBN 9798267716345

Audiobook · Books on Tape, Inc. · 2000 · English
ISBN 9780736650670

Audiobook · Blackstone Audio, Inc. · 2007-09-03 · English
ISBN 9781433203138

Audiobook · Blackstone Audio, Inc. · 2007-09-03 · English
ISBN 9781433203145

eBook · HarperCollins · 2005 · English
ISBN 9780060767068

More About Betty Smith

Betty Smith (1896–1972), born Elisabeth Lillian Wehner, was an American novelist and playwright best known for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Drawing on her Williamsburg childhood, she wrote about working-class family life, aspiration, hardship, and the sustaining force of reading and education.

Betty Smith was born Elisabeth Lillian Wehner in Brooklyn in 1896 and died in 1972.

Her best-known novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, drew on her Williamsburg childhood and appeared in 1943.

A surviving 1960 WUNC-TV interview records Smith discussing her early life and the experience behind the novel.

The retained bibliography connects this profile to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. These title relationships remain candidate editorial evidence and do not create or alter canonical Works.

Coverage retained for the profile includes Seven Books You'll Never Outgrow: The Atlantic revisited the novel as an enduring, unsentimental portrait of a family and neighborhood in transition.; North Carolina Books and Authors: Betty Smith: A 1960 WUNC-TV interview in which Smith discusses her early life and the experiences behind A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.; A Writer Grows in Brooklyn: Brooklyn Public Library episode includes a story about the novel and Smith's daughter Nancy Pfeiffer.; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Book Club for Kids: Readers discuss the novel; Nancy Smith Pfeiffer contributes family context. Smith herself does not appear..

Adaptation evidence retained in this candidate package includes A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Historical status is preserved without implying current production.

Genres

Historical Fiction

Links

North Carolina Books and Authors: Betty Smith ↗

Sources

  1. Betty Smith — biographical overview ↗
  2. North Carolina Books and Authors: Betty Smith ↗
  3. North Carolina Books and Authors: Betty Smith — Internet Archive ↗
  4. A Writer Grows in Brooklyn ↗
  5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Book Club for Kids ↗
  6. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith ↗
  7. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn resources ↗
  8. TIME: Editta Sherman celebrity portraits ↗
  9. Betty Smith portrait by Editta Sherman ↗
  10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — OverDrive ↗
  11. Seven Books You'll Never Outgrow ↗
  12. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — novel overview ↗
  13. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — 1945 film ↗
  14. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — musical ↗
  15. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — IBDB ↗
  16. Betty Smith on fame and money — WorldCat ↗