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November 13, 2006 |
You, who have always treasured your personal thoughts about Betty MacDonald.
You, who are about to rush to your keyboard and write them down.
You, who will soon send them - after a suitable period of reflection, correction of spelling and grammar, and appropriate second thoughts about the hyperbole you may have introduced in your first draft - to the editor.
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1908 - 1958
Born 1908 Colorado Boulder, Colorado, USADied 1958 Washington Seattle, Washington, USA
After Wikipedia...
Betty MacDonald (1908–1958), born Anne Elizabeth Campbell Bard, was an American author known for her humorous autobiographical stories, but who is now perhaps best known for the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series of children's books. She is associated with the Pacific Northwest, especially Washington state.
MacDonald was born Elizabeth Anne Campbell Bard in Boulder, Colorado, in 1908. Her father was a mining engineer, and the family moved frequently. In 1918, the Bards moved from Butte, Montana, to the north slope of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, then to the Laurelhurst neighborhood a year later. Sadly, Darsie Bard died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1920; his wife was four months pregnant with their youngest child, Alison. Mrs. Bard and the five children moved shortly thereafter to the Roosevelt neighborhood, where Betty graduated from Roosevelt High School.
Betty Bard married insurance salesman Robert Heskett in 1927, and the couple moved to a farm in the Olympic Peninsula's Chimacum Valley, near the towns of Port Hadlock and Port Townsend, Washington. They had two daughters, Anne and Joan, raised chickens and lived the experiences later described in MacDonald's best seller, The Egg and I.
Betty left Bob Heskett in 1931 and returned to Seattle. In 1942, she married Donald C. MacDonald and moved to Vashon Island, where she wrote most of her books. Anne and Joan were adopted by Don MacDonald. The MacDonalds and Betty's mother, Sydney, moved to California's Carmel Valley in 1956. Sadly, Betty never finished another book, and died in Seattle of cancer in 1958.
MacDonald's first book, The Egg and I, was published in 1945, just after the end of World War II. It became an instant bestseller. Depicting her life on the Chimacum Valley chicken farm, it also introduced the characters of Maw and Paw Kettle, who were featured in the movie version of The Egg and I. In the movie versions, the "w" was dropped from their names, and Ma & Pa Kettle (portrayed by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride) were so popular that a series of eight more films were later made featuring them.
MacDonald wrote three more autobiographical books: The Plague and I, about her stay in a sanitarium for tuberculosis; Anybody Can Do Anything, about her efforts to find work during the Depression years; and Onions in The Stew, about her life on Vashon Island with second husband Don MacDonald and her two teenaged daughters.
Further works include Nancy and Plum, a delightful young person's book, and a series of children's books featuring "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle," who is still popular today. Betty MacDonald's works have been published in numerous languages and countries.
