Bette Greene

Bette Greene

Greene in her Boston home, 2011
Born Bette Jean Evensky
(1934-06-28) June 28, 1934
Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Occupation Novelist, reporter, screenwriter
Nationality American
Genre Children's fiction, young adult fiction
Notable works Summer of My German Soldier
Signature

Bette Greene (born June 28, 1934) is the author of several books for children and young adults, including Summer of My German Soldier, The Drowning of Stephan Jones, and the Newbery Honor book Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe. She currently resides in Florida.

Greene was raised in Parkin, Arkansas, where she stuck out as a Jewish girl in the American South during the Great Depression and World War II. Her books focus on themes of injustice and alienation. Her book, Summer of My German Soldier, is based heavily on her childhood.

Biography

Greene was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Arthur Evensky and Sadie (née Steinberg), but was raised in the small city of Parkin, Arkansas, where her parents ran the general store. Her maternal grandparents were Hyman and Tillie Steinberg who had a successful general store in Wynne, Arkansas.[1][2] As a Jewish girl in a town of Christian fundamentalists, she experienced discrimination and learned what it was like to be an outsider. Since her parents spent a lot of time in their store, Greene was raised mainly by her family's African-American housekeeper, Ruth, who served as the model for the character of the same name in Summer of My German Soldier.

Just before Greene entered high school, her family returned to Memphis. Although she began writing for newspapers during her high school years and even won first prize in a local essay contest, she received poor grades in English because of her difficulties with spelling and punctuation. After graduation, she spent a year studying in Paris, France, an experience that would later serve as the background for Morning Is a Long Time Coming. After a year abroad, she returned to Memphis and became a reporter for United Press International.

After taking classes at several colleges, Greene enrolled at Columbia University in New York City, where she focused on writing and astronomy. After graduation she worked as a part-time journalist and a public information officer before marrying physician Donald Sumner Greene and moving with him to Boston; the couple have two grown children. It was after the birth of her daughter Carla that Greene began to write Summer of My German Soldier. The novel took five years to complete; after two more years spent searching for a publisher and eighteen rejections, the book was published by Dial Press in 1973.

Awards

Summer Of My German Soldier

Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe

Them That Glitter and Them that Don’t

Writings

Other

Adaptations

Summer of My German Soldier was adapted as a television movie starring Kristy McNichol, Bruce Davison, and Esther Rolle and broadcast by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC-TV), 1978; The file was also released as a filmstrip by Miller-Brody Productions in 1979.

A new musical version of the novel with music and lyrics written in collaboration between Bette Greene, David Brush, and Jim Farley, opened in Ohio in August 2003, staged by Encore Theater Company. Summer of My German Soldier has also been released on audio-cassette.

Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe was adapted into a filmstrip by Miller-Brody Productions in 1979. Both books have also been released on audiocassette. The Drowning of Stephan Jones was optioned as a film by Telling Pictures.

References

  1. ↑ "ISJL - Arkansas Wynne Encyclopedia". isjl.org.
  2. ↑ "Cross County, Arkansas Genealogy and History". genealogytrails.com.
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