Bette Howland (January 28, 1937 – December 13, 2017) was an American writer and literary critic.[1] She wrote for Commentary Magazine.[2]

Biography

Born Bette Lee Sotonoff to Sam Sotonoff, a machinist, and Jessie Berger, a homemaker, she focused much of her work on her native Chicago, though she left the city in 1975.[3]

In 1956, she married Howard Howland, a biologist. The couple had two sons but later separated and divorced, though she kept his surname.[1] She worked as a librarian and did editorial work for the University of Chicago Press.[4]

Howland died on December 13, 2017, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aged 80, while living near one of her sons.[1]

Critical reappraisal

In 2013 editor Brigid Hughes found Howland's book W-3 and decided to include some of Howland's work in an issue of the literary journal A Public Space dedicated to obscure and forgotten women writers.[5]

A Public Space eventually decided to publish some of Howland's stories through their imprint in 2019, under the title Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.[6][7]

Awards

Works

  • The iron year, University of Iowa, 1967
  • W-3, Viking Press, 1974; ISBN 978-0-670-74863-1
  • Blue in Chicago, Harper & Row, 1978; ISBN 978-0-06-011957-7
  • Things to Come and Go: Three Stories, Knopf, 1983; ISBN 978-0-394-53032-1[11]
  • Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Brooklyn, NY : A Public Space Books, 2019, ISBN 978-0-9982675-0-0

References

  1. 1 2 3 Genzlinger, Neil (17 December 2017). "Bette Howland, Author and Protégée of Bellow's, Dies at 80". New York Times. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  2. Braun, Aurel. "Search « Commentary Magazine". Commentarymagazine.com. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
  3. Blades, John (March 18, 1993). "Home Again". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  4. Devers, A.N. (4 December 2015). "Bette Howland: The Tale of a Forgotten Genius - Literary Hub". Lithub.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  5. Devers, A.N. (19 December 2017). "An Elegy for Bette Howland, a Writer Who Was Nearly Forgotten". Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  6. "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage". Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  7. Shtier, Rachel (7 May 2019). "More Die of Heartbreak; Bette Howland steps out of the shadow of Saul Bellow". Tablet. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  8. "Bette Howland - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". Gf.org. Archived from the original on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
  9. Archived February 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Bette Howland: Inductee". Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. 2022. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  11. Kaplan, Joanna (20 March 1983). "DRY-EYED OBSERVER OF CITY LIVES (book review)". New York Times. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
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