Betty Smith Papers Inventory (#3837)

Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Processed by:

Suzanne Ruffing

Date Completed:

June 1996

Encoded by:

Jackie Dean

Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title

Betty Smith Papers (#3837) 1909-1971

Creator

Smith, Betty, 1896-1972.

Extent

About 8,000 items (23.5 linear feet).

Repository

Southern Historical Collection

Abstract

Betty Smith (1896-1972), novelist and playwright of Brooklyn, N.Y., Ann Arbor, Mich., and Chapel Hill, N.C.; author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943); Tomorrow will be Better (1948), Maggie-now (1958), and Joy in the Morning (1963). She was married successively to George H. E. Smith, Joseph P. Jones, and Robert V. Finch. The collection is largely professional and personal correspondence and writings by Betty Smith, Robert V. Finch (1909-1959), and others. Items are mainly incoming mail that relates to Smith's daily life, her family, and the publication of her works. Included are letters, 1943-1945, from Joe Jones, her second husband, then stationed at Fort Monroe, Va., and letters, 1937-1959, from her third husband, Robert V. Finch, both before and after their marriage, reflecting their personal and professional relationship. Writings are principally typescripts of plays, articles, short stories, novels, and an unfinished autobiography. Also included are scrapbooks, photographs, clippings, and posters.

Administrative Information

Access

RESTRICTED:

For Series 2.2, from 2 May 2004 to 1 January 2019, the three versions of an autobiography by Betty Smith Finch, along with related material, are closed to research use except with the written permission of Candace Carroll and Elizabeth Aivano, granddaughters of Betty Smith Finch.

For Series 5, no photocopying of materials is permitted without permission from a trust officer of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company.

Usage Restrictions

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Provenance

Received from Nancy Smith Pfeiffer and Mary Smith MacCaulty in April 1973; Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., of New York, N.Y., in January 1974; Paul Green of Chapel Hill, N.C., in March 1975; Wachovia Bank and Trust Company (on loan) in February 1985; the Chapel Hill Museum in December 1998 (Acc. 98246); and Nancy Smith Pfeiffer in April 1999 (Acc. 98353).

Processing Note

Integration of materials in this collection has been deferred pending additions and changes in ownership and restrictions. Researchers are, therefore, cautioned to review the entire inventory to locate materials that may of be interest.

Online Catalog Terms

Authors, American--Correspondence

Authors and publishers--United States--History--20th century.

Finch, Robert Voris, 1909-1959.

Fort Monroe (Va.)--History--World War, 1939-1945.

Jones, Joseph Piper, 1906- .

Novelists, American.

Smith, Betty, 1896-1972.

Soldiers--United States--History--World War, 1939-1945.

United States. Army--Military life--History--World War, 1939-1945.

Women--North Carolina--Social life and customs--20th century.

Women authors, American--History--20th century.

Women authors--Relations with men.

Biographical Note

Elisabeth Wehner, professionally known as Betty Smith, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on 15 December 1896, to the children of German immigrants. She never completed high school and moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., when she married George H. E. Smith of Brooklyn, a senior law student at the University of Michigan. While in Ann Arbor, she was permitted to attend the University as a special student without being a candidate for a degree; she took classes in journalism, drama, writing, and literature. Smith won the Avery Hopw00d Award for work in drama and continued her studies at the Yale Drama School with Professor Baker as one of "Baker's Dozen, "thirteen students chosen to study play writing. Smith completed the three-year course, but was not awarded an M.F.A. since she held no other degrees.

Smith moved to New York with her two daughters, Nancy and Mary, in 1934 and worked for the Federal Theater, set up during the Depression by the W.P.A., which relocated her to Chapel Hill in 1936.

Smith and her first husband divorced in 1938. She was married to Joe Jones, a writer, journalist, and associate editor of the Chapel Hill Weekly, from 1943 to 1951. Smith was active in the theatrical community of Chapel Hill for many years, writing and helping with stage productions. She received both the Rockefeller Fellowship and the Dramatist Guild Fellowship for writing and wrote numerous plays before publishing her first novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in 1943. Smith's other novels include Tomorrow Will be Better (1947), Maggie-Now (1958), and Joy in the Morning (1963).

Collection Overview

Integration of materials in this collection has been deferred pending additions and changes in ownership and restrictions. Researchers are, therefore, cautioned to review the entire inventory to locate materials that may of be interest.

Organization of Collection

1. General Materials
1.1. Scrapbooks, Albums, and Index Cards
1.2. Correspondence and Other Papers
1.3. Robert V. Finch
1.4. Harper and Brothers Series
2. Writings
2.1. Articles, Plays, and Short Stories
2.1.1. Michigan Years
2.1.2. Yale Years
2.1.3. New York Years
2.1.4. Chapel Hill Years
2.2. Autobiography
2.3. Novels
2.4. Robert V. Finch Writings
2.5. Writings of Others
2.6. Unidentified Writings and Fragments
3. Writings Transferred from the North Carolina Collection
4. Printed Material, Clippings, and Other Items
4.1. Loose Material
4.2. Oversized Volumes of Clippings
5. Wachovia Bank and Trust Addition
6. Other Additions
7. Pictures

Series Descriptions

Related Collection

Joseph Piper Jones Papers (#3985)