Here is a solution for large trees. It is a modification of Joel's recursive approach that evenly spaces nodes at each level.

def hierarchy_pos(G, root, levels=None, width=1., height=1.):
    '''If there is a cycle that is reachable from root, then this will see infinite recursion.
       G: the graph
       root: the root node
       levels: a dictionary
               key: level number (starting from 0)
               value: number of nodes in this level
       width: horizontal space allocated for drawing
       height: vertical space allocated for drawing'''
    TOTAL = "total"
    CURRENT = "current"
    def make_levels(levels, node=root, currentLevel=0, parent=None):
        """Compute the number of nodes for each level
        """
        if not currentLevel in levels:
            levels[currentLevel] = {TOTAL : 0, CURRENT : 0}
        levels[currentLevel][TOTAL] += 1
        neighbors = G.neighbors(node)
        for neighbor in neighbors:
            if not neighbor == parent:
                levels =  make_levels(levels, neighbor, currentLevel + 1, node)
        return levels

    def make_pos(pos, node=root, currentLevel=0, parent=None, vert_loc=0):
        dx = 1/levels[currentLevel][TOTAL]
        left = dx/2
        pos[node] = ((left + dx*levels[currentLevel][CURRENT])*width, vert_loc)
        levels[currentLevel][CURRENT] += 1
        neighbors = G.neighbors(node)
        for neighbor in neighbors:
            if not neighbor == parent:
                pos = make_pos(pos, neighbor, currentLevel + 1, node, vert_loc-vert_gap)
        return pos
    if levels is None:
        levels = make_levels({})
    else:
        levels = {l:{TOTAL: levels[l], CURRENT:0} for l in levels}
    vert_gap = height / (max([l for l in levels])+1)
    return make_pos({})

Joel's example will look like this: 

And this is a more complex graph (rendered using plotly):

I modified slightly so that it would not infinitely recurse.

def hierarchy_pos(G, root, width=1., vert_gap = 0.2, vert_loc = 0, xcenter = 0.5 ):
    '''If there is a cycle that is reachable from root, then result will not be a hierarchy.

       G: the graph
       root: the root node of current branch
       width: horizontal space allocated for this branch - avoids overlap with other branches
       vert_gap: gap between levels of hierarchy
       vert_loc: vertical location of root
       xcenter: horizontal location of root
    '''

    def h_recur(G, root, width=1., vert_gap = 0.2, vert_loc = 0, xcenter = 0.5, 
                  pos = None, parent = None, parsed = [] ):
        if(root not in parsed):
            parsed.append(root)
            if pos == None:
                pos = {root:(xcenter,vert_loc)}
            else:
                pos[root] = (xcenter, vert_loc)
            neighbors = G.neighbors(root)
            if parent != None:
                neighbors.remove(parent)
            if len(neighbors)!=0:
                dx = width/len(neighbors) 
                nextx = xcenter - width/2 - dx/2
                for neighbor in neighbors:
                    nextx += dx
                    pos = h_recur(G,neighbor, width = dx, vert_gap = vert_gap, 
                                        vert_loc = vert_loc-vert_gap, xcenter=nextx, pos=pos, 
                                        parent = root, parsed = parsed)
        return pos

    return h_recur(G, root, width=1., vert_gap = 0.2, vert_loc = 0, xcenter = 0.5)