“A Tree Grows
In Brooklyn”
Fop many years Mrs. Belly
Smith, who now lives in Chapel
Hill, drc»nnit of writing a book.
Her dream has been fulfilled and
she is the* author of wliat prc»m-
ises to be* a best seller.
By II. C. CRAWFORD
ONE of the most universal of all
ambition? is the desire to write
a novel.
This is the story of a Chapel Hill
housewife who. not content to simply
dream about writing a novel, stuck
to an idea until she had developed it
into a book and saw it published.
A few weeks ago Mrs. Hetty Smith
was cooking breakfast in her modest
apartment when a neighbor called
her to the telephone to accept a long¬
distance call.
“My telephone was out of order,’'
says Mrs. Smith as she recalls the in¬
cident. "1 had an idea of what the call
was and 1 was so excited I did not
bother to change clothes. I slipped on
raincoat over the nightgown I was
«earing and rushed out to take the
call.”
It Was Good News
The call, as had been expected, was
from a representative of Harpers
Publishing Company in New York.
And it was to inform Mrs. Smith that
her first novel. “A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn,” had been selected as the
September choice of tho Literary
Guild and would bo published August
20 by Harpers.
Which, it was explained, meant the
automatic sale of 150,000 copies of
the book to Guild subscribers and, at
12 cents a copy, an initial return of
«18,000
for Mrs. Smith.
Sinco the announcement of the
Guild’s choice of her novel, a lot of
mail has been coming to .Mrs. Smith.
At least half a dozen moving pic¬
ture studios have indicated interest in
the novel and she has received an
offer to sign a five-year contract at
«500
a week to go to Hollywood and
do scenario work for the movies.
The offer, incidentally, is from a
studio which six months ago made
Mrs. Smith an offer of $50 a week to
do identical work.
Also, in addition to the film offers,
a number of producers have asked to
make the novel into a Broadway play.
And newspapers and magazines have
kept the wires to Chapel Hill hot
with offers.
But to all offers, tho good and the
bad alike, Mrs. Smith has turned a
deaf ear — at least for the time being.
All that is definite, she says, is
that “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”
will be published by Harpers August
20 and is the Literary Guild choice for
«September.
Not in Any Hurry
The rest — the movies, newspapers,
radio, etc. — will be considered in due
time, the brunette mother of two
college* ago daughters says. But first
she intends to wait and “see how it
(the book) does”
If early reviews can be accepted
as a fair criterion, the book will not
only do well — it will be a smash best¬
seller.
There is a story behind the story
of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." And
it is a story of determination and am¬
bition- -Betty Smith’s own story.
Fragile, modest Mrs. Smith knows
the Brooklyn she writes of in her book.
It Is the Brooklyn in which she was
born, the Brooklyn she was raised in,
the Brooklyn she went to school in,
tho Brooklyn that she loved as a girl
and the Brooklyn that she still loves
today.
Married at the age of 17 to a young
law student, Mrs. Smith was the
mother of two girls by the time she
was 19 and settled down at that age to
look after a household.
When the children wore old enough
to go to grade school, the young
mother entered the I'niversfty of
A
Mrs. Betty Smith, playwright and
author.
Michigan as a fresh m an, and in the
face of great odds, soon became a well-
known figure on the campus. She was
the first woman ever to win the Avery
Hopwood Award in dramatics.
Finishing at Michigan she enrolled
as a student in drama at Yale and
spent two years as an actress in stock
and summer theatres as director and
scene and costume designer.
Studied at Chapel Hill
Mrs. Smith came to Chapel Hill to
write a newspaper script called “King
Cotton” and liked the village so well
she decided to stay. She has done work
under Professors Paul Green and
F rederich Koch of the Carolina Play-
makers, and holds a Rockefeller Fel¬
lowship in Playwriting.
Although “A Tree Grows in Brook¬
lyn" is her first novel, it is not Mrs.
Smith's first effort as a professional
writer. She ha> «lone considerable
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