Betty MacDonald (born Anne Elizabeth Campbell Bard; March 26, 1907[1] – February 7, 1958) was an American author who specialized in humorous autobiographical tales, and is best known for her book The Egg and I.

[2][3][4] Her parents were Harvard-educated mining engineer Darsie Bard and his wife Elsie Sanderson, called Sydney.

MacDonald attended the University of Washington for one year[7] before she married Robert Eugene Heskett (1895–1951) at age 20 in July 1927;[8] they lived on a chicken farm in the Olympic Peninsula's Chimacum Valley, near Center and a few miles south of Port Townsend.

Heskett died in 1951 after being “stabbed in a fight.”[10] She spent nine months at Firland Sanatorium near Seattle in 1937–1938 for treatment of tuberculosis.

[11] The book, published on October 3, 1945, was number one on The New York Times non-fiction bestseller list for 43 weeks[9] International Pictures bought the movie rights for $100,000 in 1946.

The books introduced the characters Ma and Pa Kettle, who also were featured in the movie version of The Egg and I.

On March 13, 2008, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a tribute program, commemorating the 100th anniversary of McDonald's birth.

[22] In September 2016, Annie Parnell, MacDonald's great-granddaughter, published a follow-up to the series, Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Whatever Cure in conjunction with Ann M. Martin, with illustrations by Ben Hatke.