<P class=MsoNormal>When Betty Smith wrote her autobiographic novel, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the working class and the issues confronting women of this class were not considered to be appropriate subjects by the literary establishment-men. Over sixty years later, this novel, which was an immediate bestseller when published in 1942, is still selling.</P> <P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>The child of German American parents, Betty Smith was born and raised in the immigrant slums of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on">Williamsburg</st1:City>, <st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place>. Forced to go to work at the age of fourteen, she never graduated from high school, but she achieved success as a playwright and novelist, writing four bestsellers over the course of her career. She married three times, was divorced twice, lived for many years with her lover, attended and taught graduate-level courses, raised two daughters, and supported her family during the Depression. While her writing focused on Brooklyn, she lived and worked for most of her adult life in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Chapel Hill</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">North Carolina</st1:State></st1:place>. This is the first published biography of Betty Smith.</P> <P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Valerie Raleigh Yow has a PhD in history from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>. She has published two previous academic books and a biography of <st1:State w:st="on">North Carolina</st1:State> novelist Bernice Kelly Harris (Louisiana State University Press, 1999) and is a psychotherapist in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Chapel Hill</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">North Carolina</st1:State></st1:place>.</P>