The Egg and I
In her world renowned debut book, The Egg and I (1945), Betty MacDonald weaves together stories of her hardships living on a chicken farm in the Chimacum Valley with first husband, Robert E. Heskett. Living without electricity or plumbing and surviving on meager earnings, Betty funnels her frustrations into this beloved story. [1] In The Egg and I, Betty humors the audience with her witty prose as she mocks the lure of wilderness living and articulates her hatred for raising and feeding chickens. “Who(ever) said that wild animals won’t bother you if you don’t bother them … must have lived in an apartment house and just finished reading Bambi.”[2] She also rants about pouring the family money into the chickens only to have them die. “From the time of their contemplation, our baby chickens were given the utmost in care and consideration and their idea of appreciation was to see how many of them could turn out to be cockerels and how high they could get the percentage of deaths.”[3] All this work, time, money, and energy was in hopes of celebrating one small item: eggs.
Controversial about the book is her perceived ill-tasted depiction of her Chimacum neighbors. She describes them as “squat, bowlegged, swarthy, flat-faced, broad-nosed, dirty, diseased, ignorant and tricky”[4] and as having to “[scrub] the whole house from top to bottom with Lysol” after a visit.[5] Chapter 16, “With Bow and Arrow,” highlights stories of unfavorable encounters with “little red brothers” and her hopes of “[taking] that beautiful country away from them.”[6] Ten plaintiffs, including those claiming to be depicted under false names in the book, brought libel charges against MacDonald, her second husband, and the publishers in 1951 but MacDonald was found to be “not guilty.”[7]
Click on the captions to view the full dust jackets!
The Egg and I
Published in 1946 by J.B. Lippincott Company
Philadelphia & New York
First Edition; Original Book jacket
The Egg and I
Published in 1965 by Mayflower Books Ltd
London
L’Œuf et Moi
(“The Egg and Me”)
Published in 1947 by Robert Laffonte
Paris, France
Translation into French by Georges Belmont
Io el’Vovo (“The Egg and Me”)
Published in 1948 by Garzanti
Translation into Italian by Ada Salvatore
The Egg and I
Published in 1946 by J.B. Lippincott Company (Philadelphia & New York)
Fourteenth Impression
The Egg and I
Published in 1956 by Penguin Books Ltd
Cover Illustration by Peter Probyn
Vejce A Já (“Egg and I”)
Published in 2008 by Argo
Translation into Czech by Eva Marxová; Cover Art by Dora Dutková; Cover Design by Libor Batrla
Het ei en ik (“The Egg and I”)
Published in 1947 by De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam)
Translation into Dutch by E.H. Van Meeteren-Verhagen; Book jacket by I. Spreekmeester
L’Œuf et Moi (“The Egg and Me”)
Published in 1957 by Le Hachette (Paris)
Translation into French by Georges Belmont; Illustrations by Jacques Poirier
The Egg and I
Published in 1945 by J.B. Lippincott Company (Philadelphia & New York)
Twenty-sixth printing
The Egg and I (Armed Services Edition)
Published in 1945 by Editions for the Armed Services, Inc. (New York)
Muna ja Minä (“Egg and I”)
Published in 1947 by K.J. Gummerus Osakeyhtio (Jyväskylä, Finland)
Translation into Finnish by Eeva-Liisa Manner
Ägget och jag (“Egg and I”)
Published in 1960 by B. Wahlströms Bokförlag (Stockholm)
Translation into Swedish by Av Sten Söderberg
Das Ei und Ich (“The Egg and I”)
Published in 1951 by Rowohlt (Hamburg)
Translation into German by Renate Hertenstein; Cover by Karl Gröning jr. & Gisela Pferdmenges
The Egg and I
Published in 1987 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.
Cover Illustration by Christina Schlesinger; Cover Design by Diana Cook
The Egg and I (Drama)
Published in 1958 by The Dramatic Publishing Company (Chicago)
Dramatized by Anne Coulter Martens
Vejce A Já (“Egg and I”)
Published in 2000 by Vyšehrad (Prague)
Translation into Czech by Eva Marxová
Het ei en ik (“The Egg and I”)
Published in [1948] by White Raven Goliath Serie (Hoorn, Netherlands)
Translation into Dutch by E.H. van Meeteren-Verhagen; Cover illustration by W. Lap
Vajce A Ja (“Egg and I”)
Published in 1989 by Mladé letá (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Translation into Slovak by Ing. Bohuslav Kompiš; Illustrations by Veronika Rónaiová
L’Œuf et Moi (“The Egg and Me”)
Published in 1967 by Le Livre de Poche (Paris)
Translation into French by Georges Belmont
Das Ei und Ich (“The Egg and I”)
Published in 1967 by Alpha Verlag (Bern, Switzerland)
Translation into German by Renate, Hertenstein
The Egg and I
Published in 1974 by Mayflower Books Ltd.
Io el’Vovo (“The Egg and Me”)
Published in 1948 by Bompiani (Milan)
Translation into Italian by Ada Salvatore
Vajce A Ja (“Egg and I”)
Published in 1971 by Mladé letá (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Translation into Slovak by Ing. Bohuslav Kompiš; Illustrations by Jozef Cesnak
Egget og Jeg (“Egg and I”)
Published in 1947 by Ekko Forlag (Oslo)
Translation into Norwegian by Lill Herlofson Bauer
El Huevo y Yo (“The Egg and I”)
Published in 1946 by Ediciones Peuser (Buenos Aires)
Translation into Spanish by Lidia Yadlli
Vejce a já (Egg and I)
Published in 1946 by Odeon (Prague)
Translated into Czech by Leopold Havlík
Ägget och jag (“Egg and I”)
Published in 1947 by Ljus (Stockholm)
Translation into Swedish by Av Sten Söderberg
Ægget Og Jeg (“Egg and I”)
Published in 2000 by Stjernebøgerne: Ti Danske Forlœggeres Bogklub (Copenhagen)
Translation into Danish by Christen Fribert
[1] http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=156
[2] The Egg and I, p. 169.
[3] The Egg and I, pg. 139.
[4] The Egg and I, pg. 210.
[5] The Egg and I, pg. 220.
[6] The Egg and I, pg. 220.
[7] http://www.washingtonhistory.org/files/library/betty-bishops.pdf
The Books and I 