Cheaper by the Dozen at 75

The autobiographical novel Cheaper by the Dozen was published in 1948 and almost immediately became one of America's most popular and best-loved books... still in print, still in libraries and still widely read today. 2023 will be the astonishing 75th anniversary of this wonderful book's publication.

But Cheaper was written just before the 1950s, about events in the 1920s. It uses terms and phrases, and has situations that might not be familiar to today's readers. From understanding the meaning of '20s slang to grasping 1920s social and family issues, the warm and amusing Gilbreth family stories may be a little more remote to today's readers... and that's everyone's loss.

Furthermore, most of the family members in these stories were still alive when the book was published, so siblings Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth artfully fictionalized the stories and events.

This "reader's companion" is a guide to the world of Cheaper by the Dozen and the sprawling Gilbreth family, with notes to explain the meaning and context of terms, events and social settings, and the real story behind many of the family adventures. Written in the same warm, inviting tone as the book itself, these annotations will bring a fading world back to vibrant color for both new and old readers.

Written by an expert biographer and historian of the Gilbreth family (who is currently completing a full-scale history and multi-person biography of the family), the details and and the amusing and sometimes startling 'real story' are presented not as a revision or rewrite, but as... a knowledgeable companion on a literary journey.

(Note: this companion volume does not contain the novel itself. It is meant for co-reading with any edition of the original book, especially any of the hardcover editions for which reference page numbers are provided.)