Bette Howland

Bette Howland, who wrote three well-regarded books in the 1970s and early ’80s, then faded from the literary scene, only to be rediscovered recently, died on Wednesday in Tulsa, Okla. She was 80. Her son Jacob, who confirmed the death, said she had multiple sclerosis and dementia. She had suffered serious injury in 2014 when she was struck by a truck while walking home from the grocery store. Bette Lee Sotonoff was born on Jan. 28, 1937, in Chicago. Her father, Sam, was a machinist, and her mother, the former Jessie Berger, was a homemaker. In 1956 she married Howard Howland, who would become a prominent biologist, but by the early 1960s they had separated. They were later divorced, and Ms. Howland was making her way toward becoming a writer. In 1961 she met Saul Bellow at a writers conference on Staten Island, and the letters her son found in a safe deposit box begin that year. In 1984 Ms. Howland received a MacArthur Foundation award — the so-called genius grant. But her literary output dried up. Jacob Howland sees the two things as related. After that, she wrote some literary criticism, but there were no other books. In addition to her son Jacob, Ms. Howland is survived by another son, Frank; a sister, Rochelle Sotonoff Altman; five grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.