The Egg and I, first published in 1945, is a humorous memoir by American author Betty MacDonald about her adventures and travails as a young wife on a chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. The book is based on the author's experiences as a newlywed in trying to acclimate and operate a small chicken farm with her first husband Robert Heskett from 1927 to 1931 near Chimacum, Washington. On visits with her family in Seattle, she told stories of their tribulations, which greatly amused them.

In the 1940s, MacDonald's sisters strongly encouraged her to write a book about these experiences. The Egg and I was MacDonald's first attempt at writing a book. MacDonald begins her book by reviewing childhood, her parents and siblings.

The Bard's (her maiden name) are portrayed as middle class family that moves frequently to support Darcy Bard's job as an engineer in the mining industry. Along the way, young Betty Bard is taught by her mother that to have a happy home life, a wife must support her husband in his chosen career. This philosophy comes into play when the author marries a friend of her brother ("Bob") who soon admits that it is his dream is to leave his current office job and start a chicken ranch.

Knowing nothing about ranching, but eager to support her husband, the author encourages the dream. She is, however, unprepared for the primitive, and remote conditions that exist at the farm that he purchases. From this "set up" the book turns to anecdotal stories that rely upon the proverbial "fish out of water" tales that pit MacDonald against her situation and her surroundings.

Chapters rely upon an overall theme: the gray weather of November and the onset of winter serves a metaphor for her shrinking contact with the outside world. In another chapter the author details her struggle to keep up with the need for water, which needs to be hand carried from a pond to the house until a tank is installed. Another theme that runs throughout the book is that the author's needs frequently take a back seat to those of the chicks and chickens that are the couples livelihood.

At one point a generic guest eating breakfest at their home opines that the author and her husband have an enviable life full of fresh air and beautiful scenery, which is then followed by MacDonald pointing out that while the guest had lounged in bed that morning, she and her husband had been up before sunrise working for several hours, and then again the couple had stayed up long into the night after the guest had gone to bed.

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