Were the parents of Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, German immigrants?
My curiosity led me to investigate Betty Smith after noticing on the back cover of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn that she was the daughter of German immigrants. The dissertation of Carol Siri Johnson, relying on information from Betty Smith’s unpublished autobiography, states that Betty Smith’s parents were born in America. I used the Internet to find out the facts and discovered some surprises along the way.
