Betty MacDonald (1907 – 1958) was an American author of humorous memoirs and children’s books. The Egg and I, her bestselling 1945 memoir of running a chicken farm in rural Washington State in the late 1920s, catapulted her to international fame.

Her Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books for children were also hugely successful. Exerpted by permission from Paula Becker’s biography Looking for Betty MacDonald: The Egg, the Plague, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and I (University of Washington Press, 2016), here’s the story of how Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle came to the page and became a series. Read More→