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] S
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]