Ma and Pa Kettle - and Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
we'd like to share the fascinating thoughts of late Betty MacDonald fan club member and beloved author Peter D. Sieruta.
We'll never forget brilliant Peter D. Sieruta who was a very good friend of Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel.
Peter was very fond of the real Dorita Hess story.
Join our current Betty MacDonald fan club contest, please.
What happened to Betty MacDonald on October 30, 1938?
Send your answer, please and perhaps you'll be the lucky winner of several fascinating Betty MacDonald fan club items.
Deadline: October 31, 2015
Don't miss breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Wishing you a very nice Friday,
Yours,
Greta
I am so anxious to get the rest of the Betty's bios.
And yes, I would definitely like to purchase all the CD's and DVD's. Thank you for making them available!
I can't tell you how often I listen to the Betty and Alison CD in my car. Probably at least three or four times a week. It relaxes me when I feel tense. Please extend my greetings to the interviewer Wolfgang Hampel and tell him how much I enjoy the CD.
Does the Betty MacDonald Society still hope to publish their work in book form?
I hope that eventually happens. I think the best publisher for such a book would be a Washington-based university publisher. A mainstream publisher such as Harper Collins or Doubleday of course would be THE best, but I don't think there is enough interest for a big publisher to release such a book. I do think that a university press would be very interested.
As you know, I work in a library and handle hundreds of books a month, so I know who is publishing what kind of material.
Have you ever seen any of Betty's artwork? I would love to see one of her homemade Christmas cards (even the ones she got in trouble for copying at work!)
Also, I remember reading that she once illustrated a pamphlet or booklet for one of the oil or gasoline companies. Has anyone ever been able to track down a copy of that book? I'd love to see it. Can you imagine opening up a box and finding early typescripts of The Egg and I?
Or letters Betty wrote from the sanitorium? Or a handwritten copy of Sandra Surrenders? Wouldn't that be amazing???
I have received the Betty MacDonald CD and like it very much. I feel like I am right there in the house with the interviewer and the two Alisons when I listen.
The CD of Betty and her friends is so interesting. It's so fascinating to hear the different opinions of Betty though, isn't it? Alison talked about how shy she was, but on the second part of the CD we hear that Betty was quite gregarious.
Well, I should let you go. I can't wait to get the rest of the bio.
Hope you are doing well.
Please join me in saying, "Long live Betty MacDonald"
Peter D. Sieruta
Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald fan club
Betty MacDonald forum
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )
Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD
Betty MacDonald fan club items
Betty MacDonald fan club items - comments
Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund
Betty MacDonald Fan Club proudly presents:
The amazing, very witty, charming, intelligent story written by our brilliant Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honor Member - artist and writer Letizia Mancino.
WHEN YOU DREAM, DREAM BIG
Copyright 2011/2015 by Letizia Mancino
All rights reserved
Translated by D. Tsiaprakas
Betty, I love you! Your books „Anybody can do anything“ and „Onions in the Stew“ are really outstanding! I take them into my hand, and at a stone's throw I am right away in America ! Columbus and the egg: The great discovery!
Your bestseller „The Egg and I“ the greatest discovery. And you and I! I know America: It's true what you are writing: That's America: Absolutely right! No, even to the least detail! The landscape and the passion: Do you know the country where pistols blossom? Brava, Betty, you are describing the Americans vividly, genuinely, insufferably, brushed upon paper. If I like to read your works? To read doesn't even express it! I can even hear and see everything: Nature, culture, subculture.
America has almost remained unchanged! O those cool Americans! Calculating, stockmarket, Wall Street, the financial crisis (even back in 1930), the gamblers, the bankruptcy of companies! The swarming of dodgers and cheaters. People left without money. Dispair und hunger! A terrible „Worst Case“ (when I knew but little English I thought it is sausage with cheese).
Still how impressive is the ability to adaptone self of the Americans: They know how to enjoy life, acrobats of survival! In the twinkle of an eye they achieved to adapt themselves and effect the work of pioneers: In the morning you are a cleaningwoman, in the evening a brothel woman! No problem!
„The insufficient, here it's becoming an event; The indescribable, here it's done;“ Mary Bard Jensen, your sister, was the treasure trove of procuring work: My word, what a power woman with unlimited imagination! She has recommended you everywhere: Betty can do everything, also write novels! Go ahead, sister, hurry up! The editor wants to see your manuscripts! Up to that point you had not written a single line! Wow! And if still everything goes wrong? No problem: When you dream, dream big!
Just look, you have become famous.The Egg and I You know that, Betty? I'll slip into „The Egg and I“ and come and be your guest! I want to get to know your chickens. I hate chickens! I'm a chickens slave from North America! O Betty, without these damned animals, no chance of you becoming famous! „The Egg and I“ you would never have written! How many readers you have made happy!
Your book is so amusing! Your witty fine (almost nasty) remarks about your family members and roundabout neighbours made me laugh so much! You have been born into a special family: Comfort was not desired: I can't but be amazed: What did your father say to your mother? After tomorrow I am going to work elsewhere: Thousands of miles away...He sent her a telegram: LEAVING FOR TWO YEARS ON THURSDAY FOR MEXICO CITY STOP GET READY IF YOU WANT TO COME ALONG – That was on Monday. Mother wired back: SHALL BE READY, and so she was.That's America! Improvisation, change, adventure. You show no weakness: Let's go! Your descriptions, Betty, about the tremendous happenings in nature have deeply frightened me.
Continent America, I'm terrified by you! I feel so small and threatened like a tiny fly before an enormous flyswatter! Your novel is very many-sided! The reader may use it even as a cook book! „The Egg and I“ starts straight away with a recipe: „Next to the wisdom that lamb meat doesn't taste good unless it has been roasted with garlic“. Do you enjoy the American food?
O Betty, it's too fatty for me and I hate garlic! (Betty is presently cooking lunch for Bob. She's continually talking to „STOVE“: STOVE is Bob's rival; in the beginning I thought it was being himself). She turns round and says: Well, so no garlic for you. No lamb either, Betty. I don't eat any meat! I'd actually prefer only fried eggs. Betty, let me make them myself. Then you try it!
Blow! „STOVE“ out of order! I don't succeed in turning it on! Damned! It's got more of a mind of its own than „STOVE“ of my friend, Hilde Domin! Bob's coming! He must eat directly! „Men eat anything, the swines! Says your grandmother Gammy“. Is it true? Do you like my chickens? Bob asked me without introducing himself. Yes, Bob (rude) I love them! I'm vegetarian. Do you want to clean the henhouse with me tomorrow? A, you're always getting up so early at four o'clock! Bob, that's not a job for me! He looked at me disdainfully! A Roman cissy! You need a reeducation at once! Help, Bob's attacking me! I rather change the novel immediately and move to the „Island“!
