After completing an eighth-grade education and working at a series of factory and retail jobs, Smith moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1921 with George H. E. Smith, her first husband, who was then a law student at the University of Michigan. Two children, Nancy and Mary, soon followed. Although her educational background precluded her studying for a degree, she was permitted to take classes as a special student in drama, writing and literature, from 1927-30. She excelled as a playwright, working with Professor Kenneth T. Rowe, and was awarded the Avery Hopwood Award during her time at Michigan. In her first year under his tutelage, she submitted several plays for the annual publication of student works; rather than the usual one per student, she was permitted to publish two. She moved to Yale Drama School in 1931, where she was one of Professor George Baker's 'Baker's Dozen,' 'thirteen students chosen to study play writing.'2 One of the plays she wrote in this period, 'You Promised Me' was to become the foundation of 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'. Also during this time, she met and began to write with Robert Finch, who was to become her third husband. The completion of her course in 1934 did not see her awarded an MFA, however, as she held no undergraduate degree.
Betty Smith was born Sophina1 Elisabeth Wehner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, on December 15, 1896. Her parents, Katie Hummel Wehner and John Wehner, were both the children of German immigrants; her father died during her childhood and her mother married an Irishman, John Keogh. Although best known as the author of novel 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,' she wrote more than 70 plays and four novels, in addition to stints as an editor, actress and journalist. Perhaps not unusually, her two most highly autobiographical novels are still her most popular works today: 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' and 'Joy in the Morning.'
1934 also saw Smith take a new career direction - working with the WPA in the Federal Theatre project in New York. She read, wrote and edited plays in addition to appearing onstage and on the radio, both professionally and in amateur productions. The WPA relocated Smith to Chapel Hill, NC in 1936, where she continued her theatrical and writing career with the Carolina Playmakers. She divorced George Smith in 1938. Her writings during this period garnered her a Rockefeller Fellowship and a Dramatist Guild Fellowship. A letter to the editor of the local paper, the Chapel Hill Weekly, brought her into contact with Joseph P. Jones; they married in 1943.
The publication of her first novel, 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' in 1943 brought further dramatic changes; suddenly Smith could afford to move out of her $45 per month one-room house (although she preferred not to do so) and bought her first home (the 'Mickle-Mangum-Smith-Manning House,' a 19th Century Greek Revival on East Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill) 3. The immediate and overwhelming public response to 'Tree' brought a seemingly endless round of interviews, tours and correspondence, especially after the 1945 film version was released. To many the book seemed as if it must be a direct autobiography, yet Smith always denied that it was drawn directly from her life or that the characters were based on real people. This is slightly disingenuous, however, as many names and places from her childhood are fictionalized in the book, including her parents John and Katie and the Williamsburg setting. Perhaps as a reaction against such views, her next novel, 'Tomorrow Will Be Better' (1948) seemed less intensely personal. While not as well-known today, it was indeed successful, although not on the same level as 'Tree'. In the ten years before her next novel, 'Maggie-Now' was published, Smith worked on many 'Tree'-related projects, including a radio drama and the 1951 musical.
