Bette Howland Explained

Bette Howland
Birth Name:	Bette Lew Sotonoff
Birth Date:	28 January 1937
Birth Place:	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Death Place:	Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Children:	2
Parents:	Sam Sotonoff Jessie Berger

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. She was a protegee, and sometime lover of Saul Bellow.^[4]

Howland died on December 13, 2017, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aged 80, while living near one of her sons, the philosopher Jacob Howland.^[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

• 1978: Guggenheim Fellow^[8]
• 1984: MacArthur Fellows Program^[9]
• 2022: Inductee in the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.^[10]

Works

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

Notes and References

1. News: Genzlinger . Neil . Bette Howland, Author and Protégée of Bellow's, Dies at 80 . 12 May 2019 . New York Times . 17 December 2017.
2. Web site: Braun. Aurel. Search « Commentary Magazine. Commentarymagazine.com. 2013-11-05.
3. News: Blades. John. Home Again. November 5, 2013. Chicago Tribune. March 18, 1993.
4. Web site: Bette Howland: The Tale of a Forgotten Genius - Literary Hub. Devers . A.N. . Lithub.com. 4 December 2015 . 18 December 2017.
5. Web site: Devers . A.N. . An Elegy for Bette Howland, a Writer Who Was Nearly Forgotten . 19 December 2017 . 11 April 2019.
6. Web site: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage . 11 April 2019.
7. News: Shtier . Rachel . More Die of Heartbreak; Bette Howland steps out of the shadow of Saul Bellow . 12 May 2019 . . 7 May 2019.
8. Web site: Bette Howland - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Gf.org. 2013-11-05. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20131105211909/http://www.gf.org/fellows/6902-bette-howland. 2013-11-05.
9. http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5499647/k.3CC8/Browse_Fellows_by_Area_The_Arts.htm
10. Web site: 2022 . Bette Howland: Inductee . 2023-08-11 . Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.
11. News: Kaplan . Joanna . DRY-EYED OBSERVER OF CITY LIVES (book review) . 12 May 2019 . New York Times . 20 March 1983.