Novel
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith · 1943
Synopsis
Brooklyn, 1912. Francie Nolan, eleven years old, sits on the fire escape and reads one book a day, in the alphabetical order of the shelves of the neighbourhood library. Her mother, Katie, cleans three buildings; her father, Johnny, a singing waiter at banquets when he is hired, drinks the rest of the time. With her brother Neeley, Francie sells rags, paper and scrap metal for a few cents, and the money goes into the tin piggy bank. The mother lets the children pour their coffee down the sink, so that they have one thing to waste. In the yard grows a tree that is born even in cement.
Context
The manuscript, first conceived as a non-fiction narrative and rejected several times, was submitted in 1942 to a Harper contest; the publisher took it as a novel and had a text of about a thousand pages cut to four hundred. Published by Harper & Brothers in 1943, it was chosen for the paperback editions distributed to soldiers, like Gatsby, and letters from soldiers poured in to the author. Elia Kazan made a film from it in 1945, followed by a Broadway musical in 1951.
Who it is for
A long novel, made up of neighbourhood scenes. Translated into French by Maurice Beerblock as early as 1946, and reissued in 2014.
Prizes and reception
About six million copies; a film, a musical and a television film; selected by the Library of Congress among the books that shaped America.
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