Bette Howland
{{infobox writer
|name=Bette Howland
|birth_name=Bette Lew Sotonoff
|birth_date={{birth date|1937|1|28}}
|birth_place=Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|2017|12|13|1937|1|28}}
|death_place=Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
|occupation={{flatlist|
- Writer
- literary critic
}}
|spouse={{marriage|Howard Howland|1956|end=div}}
|children=2
|parents=Sam Sotonoff
Jessie Berger
}}
Bette Howland (January 28, 1937 – December 13, 2017) was an American writer and literary critic.{{cite news |last1=Genzlinger |first1=Neil |title=Bette Howland, Author and Protégée of Bellow's, Dies at 80 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/obituaries/bette-howland-author-and-protege-of-bellows-dies-at-80.html |accessdate=12 May 2019 |work=New York Times |date=17 December 2017}} She wrote for Commentary Magazine.{{cite web|last=Braun|first=Aurel|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/searcharchive.cfm?authorKeywords=Bette%252520%252520Howland|title=Search « Commentary Magazine|publisher=Commentarymagazine.com|accessdate=2013-11-05}}
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.{{cite news|last=Blades|first=John|title=Home Again|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/03/18/home-again-17/|access-date=November 5, 2013|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=March 18, 1993}}
In 1956, she married Howard Howland, a biologist. The couple had two sons but later separated and divorced, though she kept his surname. 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.{{cite web|url=http://lithub.com/bette-howland-the-tale-of-a-forgotten-genius|last=Devers |first=A.N. |title=Bette Howland: The Tale of a Forgotten Genius - Literary Hub|website=Lithub.com|date=4 December 2015 |accessdate=18 December 2017}}
Howland died on December 13, 2017, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aged 80, while living near one of her sons, the philosopher Jacob Howland.
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.{{cite web |last1=Devers |first1=A.N. |title=An Elegy for Bette Howland, a Writer Who Was Nearly Forgotten |date=19 December 2017 |url=https://longreads.com/2017/12/19/an-elegy-for-bette-howland-a-writer-who-was-nearly-forgotten/ |accessdate=11 April 2019}}
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.{{cite web |title=Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage |url=https://apublicspace.org/books/calm_sea_and_prosperous_voyage |accessdate=11 April 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Shtier |first1=Rachel |title=More Die of Heartbreak; Bette Howland steps out of the shadow of Saul Bellow |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/284224/bette-howland |accessdate=12 May 2019 |publisher=Tablet |date=7 May 2019}}
Awards
- 1978: Guggenheim Fellow{{cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/6902-bette-howland|title=Bette Howland - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|publisher=Gf.org|accessdate=2013-11-05|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105211909/http://www.gf.org/fellows/6902-bette-howland|archivedate=2013-11-05}}
- 1984: MacArthur Fellows Program[http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5499647/k.3CC8/Browse_Fellows_by_Area_The_Arts.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202053926/http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5499647/k.3CC8/Browse_Fellows_by_Area_The_Arts.htm|date=February 2, 2010 }}
- 2022: Inductee in the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Bette Howland: Inductee |url=https://chicagoliteraryhof.org/inductees/profile/bette-howland |access-date=2023-08-11 |website=Chicago Literary Hall of Fame}}
Works
=Books=
- 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}}{{cite news |last1=Kaplan |first1=Joanna |title=DRY-EYED OBSERVER OF CITY LIVES (book review) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/20/books/dry-eyed-observer-of-city-lives.html |accessdate=12 May 2019 |work=New York Times |date=20 March 1983}}
- Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Brooklyn, NY : A Public Space Books, 2019, ISBN 978-0-9982675-0-0
=Short stories=
| class="wikitable"
|+ | ||
| Title | Publication | Collected in |
|---|---|---|
| "Julia" | Quarterly Review of Literature 9.4 (1958) | - |
| "Sam Katz" | Epoch 9.2 (Fall 1958) | - |
| "Aronesti" | The Noble Savage 5 (1962) | Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage |
| "Public Facilities" | Commentary (February 1972) | rowspan=6| Blue in Chicago |
| "Blue in Chicago" | Commentary (August 1972) | |
| "To the Country" | Commentary (November 1973) | |
| "Golden Age" | Commentary (April 1975) | |
| "Twenty-Sixth and California" | rowspan=2| Blue in Chicago (1978) | |
| "How We Got the Old Woman to Go" | ||
| "The Life You Gave Me" | Commentary (August 1982) | rowspan=3| Things to Come and Go |
| "Birds of a Feather" | rowspan=2| Things to Come and Go (1983) | |
| "The Old Wheeze" | ||
| "Power Failure" | The American Voice 1 (1985) | rowspan=2|Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage |
| "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" | TriQuarterly 104 (Winter 1999) | |
| "Mengele's Leg" | Confrontation 101 (Spring/Summer 2008) | - |
| "A Visit" | A Public Space 23 (2015) | rowspan=2| Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage |
| "German Lessons" | Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (2019) |
References
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Category:Jewish American short story writers
Category:American women short story writers
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Category:People with multiple sclerosis