''The Egg and I'', first published in 1945, is a humorous

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

by American author Betty MacDonald about her adventures and travels as a young wife on a chicken farm on the

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large arm of land in western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a ...

in the US state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. The book is based on the author's experiences as a newlywed trying to acclimate to and operate a small chicken farm near

Chimacum, Washington Chimacum is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, located in the center of the primary agricultural area of the eastern Olympic Peninsula. It was named after the Chimakum (also spelled Chemakum or Chimacum) ...

, with her first husband, Robert Heskett, from 1927 to 1931. On visits with her family in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

, she told stories of their tribulations, which greatly amused them. In the 1940s, MacDonald's older sister, Mary, strongly encouraged her to write a book about these experiences. ''The Egg and I'' was MacDonald's first attempt at writing a book.

Plot

MacDonald begins her book with a summary description of her childhood and family. Her father was a mining engineer, and moved frequently with his family throughout the West. Her mother's theory that a wife must support her husband in his career comes into play when the author marries a friend of her brother (Bob), who soon admits that his dream is to leave his current office job and start a chicken ranch ic Knowing nothing about farming, but eager to support her husband, the author encourages the dream, but is unprepared for the primitive conditions that exist on the farm he purchases. From this "set-up", the book turns to anecdotal stories that rely upon the proverbial "fish out of water" tales that pit MacDonald against her situation and her surroundings, such as the struggle to keep up with the need for water, which needs to be hand carried from a pond to the house until a tank is installed, or keeping a fire going in "Stove", or the constant care that chicks need. At one point, a guest expresses envy of MacDonald and her husband, as she thinks they live a life full of fresh air and beautiful scenery, which is then followed by MacDonald pointing out that while the guest had lounged in bed that morning, her husband and she had been up before sunrise working for several hours, and then again the couple had stayed up long into the night after the guest had gone to bed. MacDonald chronicles the gradual improvements to the primitive farmhouse, such as the arrival of electricity and running water. The neighbors and townspeople are also described in the book. The "Ma and Pa Kettle" characters are near neighbors to the MacDonalds.

Release

First published by the J. B. Lippincott Company on October 3, 1945, ''The Egg and I'' received laudatory reviews and soon appeared on the best-seller list. The book was a blockbuster success, being reprinted on a nearly monthly basis for the next two years. On September 12, 1946, the specially bound one-millionth copy of the book was presented to MacDonald by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Monrad Wallgren at a luncheon in Seattle. ''The Egg and I'' was reprinted in a short-run hardback edition in 1986 as well as reprinted under the Harper Perennial paperback imprint. ''The Egg and I'' has sold more than three million copies, and has been translated into 32 languages.

Adaptations

In April 1946, Universal-International announced the purchase of the film rights for '' The Egg and I'' for $100,000, plus a percentage of profits.

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...

and

Fred MacMurray Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series, in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film le ...

were cast in the lead roles, with

Marjorie Main Mary Tomlinson (February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975), professionally known as Marjorie Main, was an American character actress and singer of the Classical Hollywood period, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the 1940s and 1 ...

and

Percy Kilbride Percy William Kilbride (July 16, 1888 – December 11, 1964) was an American character actor. He made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the ''Ma and Pa Kettle'' series of feature films. Early life Kilbride was b ...

cast in the roles of Ma and Pa Kettle. The film, loosely based on the book, was released in 1947. Main received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and the film inspired nine subsequent ''

Ma and Pa Kettle Ma and Pa Kettle are comic film characters of the successful film series of the same name, produced by Universal Studios, in the late 1940s and 1950s. The hillbilly duo had their hands full with a ramshackle farm and a brood of rambunctious child ...

'' features. A 15-minute daytime TV series based on the book aired on CBS from September 3, 1951, to August 1, 1952. The program starred Bob Craven and Patricia Kirkland.

Criticism

Although the book was a critical and popular success at publication, it has been criticized for its stereotypical treatment of Native Americans. In 2005, a literary critic examining MacDonald's body of work wrote, “Without overcoming or correcting the racism in ''Egg'', her stories in her subsequent books describe and implicitly advocate the benefits of a multicultural society (especially those available in an urban space like Seattle). ''The Egg and I'' has also been claimed to have "spawned a perception of Washington as a land of eccentric country bumpkins like Ma and Pa Kettle." MacDonald's defenders point out that in the context of the 1940s, such stereotyping was far more acceptable. MacDonald faced two lawsuits over the book’s content (see below); plaintiffs did not prevail, although the judge indicated he felt they had shown that some of the claims of defamation had merit.

Post-publication lawsuits

Following the success of the book and film, lawsuits were filed by members of the Chimacum community. They claimed that characters in ''The Egg and I'' had been based on them, and that they had been identified in their community as the real-life versions of those characters, subjecting them to ridicule and humiliation. The family of Albert and Susanna Bishop claimed they had been negatively portrayed as the Kettles. Their oldest son Edward and his wife Ilah Bishop filed the first lawsuit, which was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. The second lawsuit was filed against MacDonald, publisher J. B. Lippincott Company, and

The Bon Marché The Bon Marché, whose French name translates to "the good market" or "the good deal", was a department store chain launched in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name was influenced by Le Bon Marché, the note ...

(a Seattle department store which had promoted and distributed the book) for total damages of $975,000, as sought by nine other members of the Bishop family ($100,000 each) and Raymond H. Johnson ($75,000), who claimed he had been portrayed as the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

"Crowbar". The case was heard before a jury in Judge William J. Willkins' (who was also one of the presiding judges at the

Nuremberg Trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945 ...

) courtroom in

King County Superior Court The Superior Court of Washington for King County (more commonly, the King County Superior Court) is the largest trial court in Washington state. It is based at the King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue, in downtown Seattle, Washington. It als ...

beginning February 6, 1951. MacDonald testified that the characters in her book were composite sketches of various people she had met. The defense produced evidence that the Bishop family had actually been trying to profit from the fame the book and movie had brought them, including testimony that son Walter Bishop had had his father Albert appear onstage at his

Belfair, Washington Belfair is a census-designated place in Mason County, Washington, United States. Located at the mouth of the Union River at Hood Canal, it serves as the commercial center of North Mason County. The population of the surrounding area grows in t ...

, dance hall with chickens under his arm, introducing him as "Pa Kettle". On February 10, 1951, the jury decided in favor of the defendants.

In popular culture

Recordings of the theme song from the film were made by

Sammy Kaye Sammy Kaye (born Samuel Zarnocay Jr.; March 13, 1910 – June 2, 1987) was an American bandleader and songwriter, whose tag line, "Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye", became one of the most famous of the Big Band Era. The expression springs fr ...

for Victor, and

Dinah Shore Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during ...

for Columbia. The road leading west from Beaver Valley Road ( State Route 19) to the former site of MacDonald's farm is now named "Egg and I Road". "The Egg and I" is the title of a song performed by The Seatbelts for the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

'' Cowboy Bebop''. "Egg and I" was guessed during the ''Match Game/Hollywood Squares'' hour by Charles Nelson Reilly to the clue Egg (blank). "Egg and I" was not one of the main selections, and instead, the top choice was "Egg Nog". The Egg and I is the name of a breakfast restaurant with around 100 locations nationwide. The owners were inspired by the book. "The Egg and I" makes a brief appearance in Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon series in season 1950, episode 13: "An Egg Scramble". Prissy the hen pulls her privacy shade and retrieves a book with this title out from her nest to read, after being chided by Porky Pig to start producing eggs.

References

External links

*
"Betty MacDonald and Mary Bard: A Slide Show Tour of their King County Homes"
''HistoryLink.org: The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History''. Slide Show No. 7035. *https://archive.org/details/TheEggAndITrailer Trailer to film. {{DEFAULTSORT:Egg And I, The 1945 non-fiction books American memoirs Memoirs adapted into films Comedy books J. B. Lippincott & Co. books Ma and Pa Kettle American television soap operas