Seattle historian Paula Becker wrote recently for HistoryLink.org about the opportunity she had to walk through the one-time home of author Betty MacDonald just before it was torn down in July. We got a chance to talk with her about it and about the Seattle/Vashon author’s under-documented place in history despite having written four memoirs in her fifty years and having a cult-like following in some places around the world. (It was recently suggested that Seattle name a ferry after her!)
MacDonald is best known for her 1945 memoir/satire The Egg and I, about living on a chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula. Though the book found national acclaim (according to Michael Korda’s Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999, it was the No. 8 seller of 1945, the No. 1 seller of 1946 and the No. 7 seller of 1947), it wasn’t popular with the neighbors, some of whom were unhappy with MacDonald’s portrayal of them (she did change their names). MacDonald later won a libel suit against her by some of the families, including the couple she’d dubbed Ma and Pa Kettle. In addition to her memoirs, MacDonald wrote a series of children’s books called Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, which Becker says stand up pretty well today.
Becker is a staff historian for HistoryLink.org, the free online encyclopedia of Washington state history. Her essays document the dance marathon craze of the 1920s and 1930s, the war-effort knitting on the homefront during World Wars I and II and MacDonald’s career, among many other topics. Becker co-wrote (with Alan J. Stein) the books Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: Washington’s First World’s Fair and The Future Remembered: The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and Its Legacy.
NWBL editor Jamie Passaro interviewed Becker about her fascination with MacDonald, who died in 1958 but left much to talk about.
JP: What sparked your interest in Betty MacDonald and what has held it?
PB: I grew up in El Paso, Texas, and didn’t visit Seattle until I was grown. I have two very early memories of Washington state, though, both of which seem significant to me in retrospect. One is of the “Grown In Washington” stickers I peeled off the apples in my lunches during elementary school. The other is the little bio blurb on the flap of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books I loved to check out of the public library. The flap copy stated that Betty grew up in Seattle. I think it was my first glimmering of an understanding that this place, which has become so important to me since I made it my home in 1992, existed.
I knew the phrase “The Egg And I” from, I guess, just the general culture, and eventually I figured out that my beloved Piggle-Wiggles and a book called The Egg And I were written by the same person. I read Egg— I’m not really sure when, but sometime in my early 20s—and wasn’t wild about it.
Meanwhile, once I’d moved here and starting learning about and then writing about Seattle history, I discovered that Betty MacDonald had another book called The Plague And I that described her fight against tuberculosis, and that the hospital where she was treated still exists. I read Plague and found it very honest and moving, and did some research and found the hospital where Betty was treated and drove around figuring out which buildings were which, according to Betty’s memoir.
I then read Anybody Can Do Anything, which is her memoir of how she and her family got through the grim, lean years of the 1930s with family loyalty, grit and a sense of humor. This book I loved, and love.
I read her fourth memoir, Onions In The Stew, which is set mostly on Vashon. I began researching all of the places Betty, her sister Mary (who wrote three memoirs and three children’s books), her mother, and other family members had lived—mostly using Seattle city directories and King County property records. I loved the houses, loved that Betty and Mary both described their homes so interestingly and fondly, and—especially—that I could visit most of those homes (outside, usually) myself. So, basically, time travel.
JP: Are you working on a book about her?
PB: I’m not working on a book on Betty right now, although I may have a high-end chapbook project coming together soon.
Betty’s work and life are rich sources of material on many important topics—women, nature, the Pacific Northwest region, the 1920s-30s-40s-50s, male-female relations, on and on. I would like to see lots of scholarship on this, as well as personal responses to her work.
I have been able to shepherd a few Betty items (letters) into the archives of the University of Washington, and it is my fervent hope that anyone who holds personal papers, etc, that have significance to Betty’s story will consider placing them in an appropriate archive so that they can be used by scholars.
There has never been a Betty MacDonald biography. I’ve heard several times that her surviving daughter, Anne, is working on a Betty bio. Betty’s dear friend Blanche Caffiere wrote a memoir about Betty and about her own life called Much Laughter, A Few Tears. It offers many insights into the dynamics of Bard family life during Betty’s teen years, and I am very fond of it.
JP: I stumbled onto a Seattle Times column written in celebration of what would have been MacDonald’s 100th birthday in 2008, and in it, the book critic laments that there ought to be a biography. Strange that there isn’t given her national fame and what an interesting, sometimes controversial life she led.
PB: I agree that there should be a Betty MacDonald biography, based both on her great success as a writer and on her interesting life. That said, I think there are several reason why—so far—no one has written a Betty biography. One issue is the scarcity of archival materials currently available—by which I mean letters, diaries, business records, etc. There are a few materials, but if (or as—I am hopeful) more materials come to light, either from family members, from collectors, from publishers archiving their own materials, etc, it will greatly help tease out the details of MacDonald’s actual story, as compared to the account she left in her four memoirs.
This brings up another issue, which is the complexity of writing biographically about someone whose written record is personal memoir/autobiography. Memoir is an interesting and slippery genre, I feel, and I think that the so-called “contract” between the reader and the writer as to what parts of memoir are factual has shifted over time, and since Betty’s time. The challenge would be to take her wonderful, sparkling memoirs, bump them up against her actual life details as can be discovered through deep historical research, note where they match and where they diverge, and hopefully explore why Betty chose to include and to exclude certain aspects of her life. This is do-able, and would be a fantastic challenging project, but it would be a much different task than writing a biography of someone whose books were marketed as fiction.
JP: MacDonald’s memoir The Egg and I has been in print continuously since 1945. What makes it so enduring?
PB: People around the world recognize the power that comes from a family using its collective strength to endure. Egg is humorous in surprising, often self-deprecating ways, and Betty’s picture of the foibles of her rural neighbors resonates in some way for almost anyone who didn’t grow up in total isolation. Once Egg was published, people constantly told Betty that their own neighbor/father-in-law/mother-in-law etc etc must have been her inspiration for various characters. Also, even a casual reading of the book lets you know that Betty was desperately lonely, that life was terribly difficult at many times, but, because she is a really fiendishly good writer, she finds a funny half-a-beat-off way of pulling you into the story.
JP: I just read your piece about the recent demolishing of the house MacDonald lived in in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle during the 1930’s. You were one of the last people to set foot in the house before the backhoe came in, and I love these lines of yours from that experience:
The fireplace was intact, more whole than anything else in the entire house, and I wanted it, wanted it all, to salvage all of it, or even just a brick, but it was so, so solid. I snapped a picture (my flash briefly illuminating the dark), then another, like an underwater camera snaking through Titanic, documenting a time long lost. I took the moment, imagining the Bards, their fires in that hearth, their closeness, gathered round.
You ended up taking some doorknobs and a window. What were you hoping to find? What would have been the ultimate Betty MacDonald treasure?
PB: Thank you. That was exactly how it felt. Doorknobs were the thing I was pretty sure I’d find, since they are rarely replaced or updated (especially in a house that is being let run to ruin). I figured they’d probably be there, and that I’d be able to take them off and carry them easily. I had to leave a bunch of doors—they were lying around, and also still hanging in some doorways—because they were solid wood and each weighed about 80 pounds.
It was difficult enough to navigate in the dark behind goggles and face mask—I’d probably have fallen through one of the holes in the floorboards if I’d tried to drag out doors. I was very happy to be able to rescue the windows—metaphors, of course, and also something practical that was certainly there when the Bards owned the house.
I really hoped the mirrored door to the medicine cabinet would be there, because when I went through the house once before I’d noticed it and thought of the family’s faces reflected back. It was gone, however. I didn’t mention it in my essay, but I took one more thing: a heavy brass heating vent cover. It was very heavy, but I managed to get it out. It was already pried off the wall, so maybe someone had tried to get it earlier. It was in the room with the fireplace and covered with many layers of paint. I’ve cleaned those off, and it is my surprise treasure from that expedition.
JP: You were really fascinated by that house—as you put it, you ‘lurked’ past it many times—and as you walk through it for the last time, you have all of these vivid memories of what Betty and her characters were doing in the rooms you visited. It reminds me a little of the pilgrimage so many people make every summer to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home. As a historian, why do you think we’re so drawn to these places?
PB: Yes, I agree with the Laura Ingalls Wilder comparison— I enjoyed Wendy McClure’s A Wilder Life about her fascination with those sites, and also Gabrielle Burton’s Searching For Tamsen Donner. I think that many historians and, of course, biographers have a very personal relationship with the physical places where their subjects lived.
My knowledge about Betty grew alongside my understanding of the history of the homes, schools, streetcar lines, shops, etc., where she (and other Seattlites, of course) moved through their days, which receded (as do all of our days) into history. I, and all of Betty’s readers, are very lucky that she has left us the breadcrumbs to follow back to that time, those places—to get home.
JP: For those of us who are new to MacDonald’s books, why should we read her today? Where would you start?
PB: I recommend starting with Anybody Can Do Anything. Even better, start with Egg, but stop when she gets married. Then jump back and read Anybody, then Plague. You will really know Betty and her family by now. Then pick up and finish Egg—you will now have a highly tidied up view of her first marriage. Then read Onions In The Stew, and you’ll know a little about her second marriage. Remember that these books are autobiographical to greatly varying degrees—not accounts she’d probably swear to in a court of law.
Don’t forget the four Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books! They stand up very well, and give such a good demonstration of how well Betty could just toss off these wonderful little gems of tales—I imagine her shaking off like a dog coming in out of the rain, and all the Piggle Wiggle stories flying off every way—they feel that easy.
JP: What’s your favorite book of hers?
PB: My favorite book of Betty’s is Anybody Can Do Anything, by far. My favorite chapter is Chapter 9. I can almost smell her 1930s Seattle autumn twilight, and she certainly helps me picture it.
JP: Betty was known for her wry, self-deprecating humor. To close, will you share a favorite line or two of hers?
PB: Well, I love this description of how difficult it was for her to cope with gloomy Northwest weather:
“It rained and rained and rained and rained and rained. It drizzled—misted—drooled—spat—poured—and just plain rained . . . Along about November I began to forget when it hadn’t been raining and became as one with all the characters in all of the novels about rainy seasons, who rush around banging their heads against the walls, drinking water glasses of straight whiskey and moaning, ‘The rain! The rain! My God, the rain!’ ” (The Egg And I, p. 67).
I also like this description in The Plague And I, which conveys instantly the love and pain and terror Betty’s family must have felt when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Betty’s sister Mary has taken her to the doctor, and Betty has just received the bad news, which was (and sometimes still is) akin to a death sentence for many people:
“Mary came in then and in five minutes told me so many big lies about tuberculosis, who had it, and so forth, that I was immediately cheered up. She said that practically everyone on the street had tuberculosis, that she couldn’t go to a party without seeing at least four far-gone cases, that actually it had gotten to the point where she was ashamed to admit she hadn’t t.b. because everyone who was anyone—look at Robert Louis Stevenson and Chopin—had t.b. Anyway with or without t.b. she wished someone would order her to go on complete bedrest—she hadn’t had any sleep for so long that the muscles in her eyelids had atrophied. She thought a slight case of t.b. should be the aftermath of every pregnancy so that the poor mother could get some sleep. She thought a lot of things and she thought them out loud, which was soothing and made it unnecessary for me to talk and so I didn’t cough all the way home.” (p. 35).
A friend recently insisted I read The Plague and I! So happy to see this article. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle was one of my favorite characters as a kid.
Like Betty, I too wish someone would order me “to go complete bedrest.” Meanwhile, thanks for this.
I am ashamed that I have not read most of Betty M’s books, but I am definitely going to read them in the order Paula recommended. I keep trying to avoid driving past where her home was, I’m afraid I’ll cry.
I grew up on Puget Sound in South Colby and Southworth across the bay from Vashon…Loved Onions in the Stew and The Egg and I — When ever my husband and I travel (we live on a farm with chickens) I compare us to Ma & Pa Kettle. Someday I want to go to Vashon with my sisters to Betty’s place and drink martinis and smoke cigarettes! Love her books. She feels like family.
I had heard about The Egg and I in a story I read in the Stranger about Olympic Peninsula-based books. I’d forgotten about it until reading this and promptly when out and got a dog-eared copy. It was fantastic, and I loved having the extra bits of history from this story. I too have always been fascinated with the “place” in regard to history of individuals. I should also mention my interest was piqued when The Wilder Life was mentioned – that was next on my list and wow, also a great read. Who knew there were so many of us “Laura obsessed” folk out there?
Betty MacDonald is very popular all over the world.
Betty MacDonald fan club has members in 40 countries.
Wolfgang Hampel wrote a Betty MacDonald biography and interviewed Betty MacDonald’s family and friends.
We also have a huge Betty MacDonald letter collection donated by Betty MacDonald fans from all over the world.
It’s really sad that Betty MacDonald’s house has been recently demolished.
There is a special DVD with Betty MacDonald’s sister Alison Bard Burnett and Wolfgang Hampel visiting the house.
Betty MacDonald memorial award winner Wolfgang Hampel is going to write a new Betty MacDonald biography.
A new Betty MacDonald documentary will be published soon.
It’s really fascinating to read Betty MacDonald’s letters.
Betty MacDonald fan club letter collection is outstanding.
You can read many other Betty MacDonald letters soon.
Several Betty MacDonald fan from all over the world donated some outstanding Betty MacDonald items.
Dear Betty MacDonald fans,
the Folks who run the Water Taxis are looking to Name some of their new vessels.
How about writing in and getting one of These fine ships named after our beloved author Betty MacDonald?
http://westseattleblog.com/2014/06/youre-invited-to-help-name-the-new-west-seattle-and-vashon-water-taxi-vessels/
Betty MacDonald fan club is celebrating the international Betty MacDonald fan club friendship day with Betty MacDonald fan club fans from 5 continents.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Monica Sone would celebrate her 95 th birthday today.
If you are interested in joining our International Betty MacDonald fan club meeting 2015 let us know, please. Betty MacDonald fan club got members from 40 countries.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel and the Betty MacDonald fan club research teams are working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography. Betty MacDonald fan club letter collection includes many very important documents by Betty MacDonald and many other family members. We are very glad to hear from you. Love, Linde
Betty MacDonald – and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fans club fans from 5 continents are goingt to celebrate a huge birthday party on March 26. Come on and join us, please.
The new updated Betty MacDonald biography by Betty MacDonald Memorial Award Winner Wolfgang Hampel is available very soon.
Happy Birthday dearest Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle!
We love you soooo much.
Betty MacDonald – and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan club fans from 5 continents enjoy this very special day with delightful cinnamon rolls from the Burbanks’ kitchen.
Betty MacDonald fan club is celebrating 70th anniversary of Betty MacDonald’s The Egg and I.
Join us please.
Betty MacDonald fan club fans from 5 continents have lots of fun.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel is working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography – and documentary with many new interviews never published before.
Wolfgang Hampel’s new literary project is ‘ Vita Magica ‘.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2015/10/betty-macdonald-wolfgang-hampel-and.html
Don’t miss the current Betty MacDonald fan club Christmas fan club contests, please.
You can win the most interesting Betty MacDonald fan club items.
Betty MacDonald fan club Newsletter December includes a whole collection of Betty MacDonald’s homemade unique Christmas cards.
There will be a new DVD ‘Christmas with Betty MacDonald’ by Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel with new interviews with Betty MacDonald, family members and friends never published before.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2015/12/merry-christmas-with-betty-macdonald.html
Happy Birthday dearest Wolfgang Hampel, author of Betty MacDonald biography, Betty MacDonald fan club founder and Betty MacDonald fan club Memorial Award Winner
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2016/02/happy-birthday-dearest-wolfgang-hampel.html
Happy Birthday dearest Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle!
We have lots of fun today with Betty MacDonald – and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan club fans from 5 continents.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2016/03/lets-celebrate-betty-macdonald-and.html
There will be an International Betty MacDonald fan club event with Betty MacDonald fan club fans from 5 continents in Stockholm.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2016/04/betty-macdonald-dorita-hess-and-new-esc.html
Many Betty MacDonald fans joined Betty MacDonald fan club because of several International Betty MacDonald fan club events.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2016/07/betty-macdonald-vashon-island-and-vita.html
We’ll have our next International Betty MacDonald fan club Olympic 2016 event in Rio. We’ll have lots of fun and joy there. Don’t miss our new Betty MacDonald fan club contest, please.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2016/08/betty-macdonald-and-magical-vashon.html
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel will honor life and work of Betty MacDonald in Vita Magica 2017
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel will honor life and work of Betty MacDonald in Vita Magica January 2017.
We are going to publish an updated Betty MacDonald biography and documentary with many interviews of Betty MacDonald, her family and friends.
http://www.wolfvitamagica.blogspot.com/
Happy New Year!
Betty MacDonald fan club fans from all over the world met each other in London to see the famous fireworks.
It was a fascinating event because we could see that so many readers from 5 continents adore Betty MacDonald and her unique books.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2017/01/betty-macdonald-betty-macdonald-dvd-and.html
A new Betty MacDonald biography including all the research results since 1983 will be published.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2017/01/betty-macdonald-wolfgang-hampel-start.html
You can join Betty MacDonlad fan club on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/249569962147478/
Do you have any idea what happened a year ago?
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2017/11/betty-macdonald-very-special-politician.html
Betty MacDonald fan club – and Vita Magica founder Wolfgang Hampel is working on a new magical book.
The title will be ‘ Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ‘ or in English ‘ Satire is my favourite animal ‘.
Don’t miss it, please.
It’s very witty.
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2018/05/wolfgang-hampel-satire-ist-mein.html
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.de/2018/05/wolfgang-hampel-satire-ist-mein.html
Betty MacDonald fan club – and Vita Magica founder Wolfgang Hampel published his new very witty book ‘ Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ‘ or in English ‘ Satire is my favourite pet ‘. The reviews are excellent. Please don’t miss this treaure.
Wolfgang Hampel is now working on a new Betty MacDonald biography with fascinating stories of Betty MacDonald and her unique family. Wolfgang Hampel interviewed Betty MacDonald’s family and friends. Betty MacDonald fan club letter collection includes the most interesting letters and documents.
more info on Wolfgang Hampel’s new book and Betty MacDonald biography
http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.com/2018/09/betty-macdonald-wolfgang-hampel-new.html
I am a guy and loved Betty’s four books. My late mother even loved her more. But I have never read her children’s books. I was already an adult when we discovered Betty’s books.
Dear Johan you can read them now. I did it and enjoyed them very much especially Nancy and Plum. Betty MacDonald fan club got members in 40 countries. We have very interesting items about Betty MacDonald including CD’s with her wonderful voice and laugh.