Anybody Can Do Anything

Anybody Can Do Anything

Anybody Can Do Anything (1950) is Betty’s third autobiographical memoir and depicts life with her daughters during the Great Depression of the ‘30s. After leaving behind her first husband and the dreaded chicken farm, Betty, accompanied by her two young children, moves back into her family’s house in the city and shares the “helpful companionship of her warm family” during these tough years.[1] At the very beginning, she writes, “The best thing about the depression, was the way it reunited our family and gave my sister Mary a real opportunity to prove that anybody can do anything, especially Betty.”[2] Betty’s sister Mary carried the enthusiasm, confidence, and optimism of the family; her enlightening attitude highlights the moral that “accomplishment is merely a matter of application.”[3]

Filled again with MacDonald’s humor and wit, but also with the pressing realities of hardship in the 1930s, Anybody Can Do Anything tells a tale of two stories. The book is about failure: both “her own and the economy’s.”[4] She bounces from job to job without any proper qualifications with the assistance of her high-spirited sister, Mary. The book is about “persisting in the face of one’s shortcomings,”[5] and the encouraging words of “anybody can do anything” are repeated through the ups and downs of the experiential story. The second element of this book is about the unity and companionship of a family in working together during difficult and trying times.

Anybody Can Do Anything

Published in 1950 by J.B. Lippincott Company (Philadelphia & New York)
Second Impression

 

 

 

“Work and me”

 

Published in 1988 by Shobun-sha Publisher (Tokyo)
Translated into Japanese by Yoko Inokuma

 

 

 

N’importe qui peut faire n’importe quoi (“Anybody Can Do Anything”)

 

Published in 1952 by Robert Laffont (Paris)
Translated into French by Georges Belmont
Illustration by J. Pruvost

 

 

 

Anybody Can Do Anything

 

Published in 1950 by Hammond, Hammond & Company, Ltd. (London)
Cover Design by Stein

 

 

 

Anybody Can Do Anything

Published in 1961 by Penguin Books (Mitcham, Victoria, Australia)
Cover Illustration by Dione Tegner

 

 

 

 

Kdokoli Může Dělat Cokoli (“Anybody Can Do Anything”)

 

Published in 2008 by Argo (Prague)
Translated into Czech by Eva Marxová
Cover Art by Dora Dutková; Cover by Libor Batrla

 

 

 

 

Försöka Duger (“Try to measure up”)

 

Published in 1951 by Ljus (Stockholm)
Translated into Swedish by Sven Forsberg
Cover by Olof ek

 

 

 

 

Hvemsomhelst kan hvadsomhelst (“Anybody Can Do Anything”)

 

Published in 1951 by Chr. Erichsen (Copenhagen)
Translated into Danish by Chresten Fribert

 

 

 

 

Mary a ja (“Mary and I”)

 

Published in 1983 by Mladé Letá (Bratislava)
Translated into Slovak by Bohuslav Kompiš
Illustrations by Veronika Rónaiová

 

 

 

 

 

Iedereen Kan Alles (“Everyone Can Do Everything”)

 

Published [date unknown] by P.N. Van Kampen & Zoon N.V. (Amsterdam)
Translated into Dutch by Lex Gans
Illustrations by Fiep Westendorp

 

 

 

 

Menestys Ja Minä (“Success and I”)

 

Published in 1953 by Gummerus (Jyväskylä, Finland)
Translated into Finnish by S.S. Taula

 

 

 

 

[1] http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=156

[2] Anybody Can Do Anything, pg. 7

[3] Anybody Can Do Anything, pg. 7

[4] http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/betty-macdonald-and-i/

[5] http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/betty-macdonald-and-i/