Summer of My German Soldier | Author Biography

Born in Memphis, Tennessee on June 28, 1934, Bette Greene's childhood was very similar to that of Patty Bergman, the protagonist of Summer of My German Soldier. Like Patty, she was a young girl living in a rural Arkansas town at the end of World War II. Her parents also owned a country store, and—just like the Bergmans' situation—theirs was the only Jewish family in a Protestant community.

Bette Greene
Bette Greene

In 1950 Greene worked as a reporter for the Memphis Commercial Appeal. A few years later, she attended the University of Alabama, and then transferred to Memphis State University. During these years she worked for United Press, but left in 1954. She spent the next two years at Columbia University in New York City. In 1965, she attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1973, she published her first book, Summer of My German Soldier. It was an overwhelming success, both critically and commercially. The novel was nominated for the National Book Award, and won the New York Times Outstanding Book Award, the Golden Kite Society's children's book writer's award, and the American Library Association's Notable Book Award.

Greene has published several other juvenile novels as well as nonfiction and adult fiction. A member of both P.E.N. and the Author's Guild, Greene resides in Tennessee with her husband Donald Sumner Greene, a physician.