Betty Smith enchanted a generation of readers with 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' even as she groused that she hoped Williamsburg would be flattened

Betty Smith's 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' (2,500,000 copies sold) has become one of the best-loved novels of our time.

Even readers who had never set foot in the borough nonetheless found themselves enchanted by it through Smith's portrayal.

Read at The Conversation