A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
| Author | Betty Smith |
|---|---|
| Published | 1943 |
| Pages | 443 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Betty Smith’s 1943 novel of Francie Nolan growing up poor in pre-First World War Williamsburg, Brooklyn — a library card, a tin-can bank nailed into a closet, a tree that keeps coming up through the pavement. It treats literacy and stubborn thrift as the actual mechanics of getting out, rather than as morals appended to the story. |
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Where I heard about it
- Dissident Teacher — on A Library to Build Great Americans, a 468-title curriculum published on Substack in December 2025, listed under Fiction in the Ages 13-99+ band.
About this edition
Smith (1896-1972) was born to German immigrant parents in the neighbourhood she wrote about; the novel was her first and an immediate best-seller.
Connections
- A Library to Build Great Americans — the 468-title curriculum this card came from; listed in the Ages 13-99+ band under Fiction.
- Betty Smith — the author.
- New York City — the city the book anatomises.
- Poverty — the condition the book refuses to soften.
- Reading — literacy as the escape route in the story.
- Education — the formation the book is about.
- American Dream — the promise the book measures against what actually happened.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.