Betty Smith, the well-known author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, had an early play produced in New York City this season. I was surprised to learn that she had actually been a playwright for most of her career, and had no real success until her novel was published when she was 47 years old.
A Sagittarius, Smith was born on December 15, 1896 at 6:00 p.m. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, according to her biographer (though no source is given for the time). She had many trines in her birth chart, but her life often wasn’t easy. With Cancer rising, her Moon in Taurus in the 11th house is exalted, suggesting popularity and a good income from her career. A grand trine with Jupiter in Virgo in the 3rd house and Mercury in Capricorn in the 6th house shows her facility for writing. With Cancer rising and a prominent Moon, her best work drew on her memories.
Betty’s mother was practical and down-to-earth (shown by the Moon in Taurus and 10th ruler Jupiter in Virgo). But her father, well described by the Sun in Sagittarius opposite Mars and Neptune in the 12th house, was a dreamer who couldn’t support his family and died of alcoholism when his daughter was just 19. The Moon also squares Venus on the cusp of the 8th house, showing other family issues and their modest circumstances.
Betty was forced to work at around age 15, and she worked diligently for most of her life, often struggling to get by. She returned to school twice but never completed her high school degree. And while she later attended college and then completed a master’s program in playwriting at Yale University, she never received those degrees because she lacked the prerequisites.
There are no angular planets in this chart, and aside from the Moon, there’s a lack of essential dignity. The 7th, 8th and 9th houses are all traditionally ruled by Saturn, but its near-exact conjunction with Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, covers these houses either way. Placed in Scorpio in Smith’s 5th house, we can see her relentless pursuit of education and creative work, and her focus on her two daughters throughout her life. But there was often an element of both responsibility and unexpected change in each of these areas. Saturn may delay things, but with a close trine to the Midheaven, the author always found opportunities and had great success after middle age.
Smith’s sometimes rocky marriages also come under the rulership of Saturn and Uranus. After splitting with her first husband following his infidelity and some separations, she essentially raised her girls alone. She became bored with her younger second husband when their relationship stabilized, and her third husband, also younger and reflecting the Neptunian pattern in her chart, was a drinker who secretly cashed large checks and pawned household items before he died of a sudden heart attack when his wife was 63.
Smith worked in North Carolina for the depression-era Federal Theater Project and stayed there the rest of her life. She wrote many plays, mostly with others, and earned some money through publication. She drew on her personal experience for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and writing about urban poverty from a female point of view was innovative at the time. The novel also resonated with many during the war years, as it reflected a simpler time and depicted women struggling to hold their families together and survive.
Many astrological events combined at the book’s publication on August 18, 1943 which radically changed Betty’s life as it quickly became a best-seller. Smith neared a progressed Solar Eclipse in her 8th house (she had been in debt before immediately receiving a large royalty check). Her progressed Midheaven at 13 Taurus in her 11th house of career earnings trined her 3rd house Jupiter and sextiled her Ascendant. The progressed Ascendant at 21 Leo trined and sextiled her Sun-Mars-Neptune oppositions from her 2nd house of money. The progressed Moon and Mercury in Capricorn through her 7th house kept her focused on her goals and added the help of her publisher and the public as both planets sextiled her MC and natal Saturn-Uranus conjunction. And transiting Pluto also squared her ruler, the Moon, from the 2nd house.
Smith continued writing; her fourth novel Joy in the Morning (1953) took a nostalgic look at her first marriage and was also a best-seller. In early 2023, when her early play was first produced in New York, transiting Uranus in Taurus was near the progressed MC of her break-out novel, and squared her Nodes from the 11th house.
Like her mother, Betty Smith tragically suffered from dementia as she aged, and she began having trouble with words. Jupiter in the 3rd house square Pluto in Gemini in her 12th contributed to her writing abilities, but ironically also suggests the possibility of mental challenges. In her early 70s, Betty began forgetting names and her daughters eventually institutionalized her. She died less than a year later at 75.
Perhaps due to her strong Moon in Taurus and its grand trine with Midheaven ruler Jupiter and IC ruler Mercury, we still share in Betty Smith’s memories of her family and the old neighborhood from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. No wonder, since the image of a tree growing in a harsh environment is so aptly symbolized by her Moon-Jupiter-Mercury grand trine in earth signs.
More on Betty Smith on Wikipedia.
About the 2023 NYC production of her early play.
Valerie Raleigh Yow’s biography of Smith.