Cheaper by the Dozen

Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. was born in 1911 in Plainfield, New Jersey, and graduated from the University of Michigan. He became a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II and received a Bronze Star and Air Medal. In 1947, he joined the staff of what is now the Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina. A columnist and reporter, he authored and coauthored several books, including Belles on Their Toes (with Ernestine Gilbreth Carey), How to Be a Father, and Time Out for Happiness. In 1950, he was corecipient (with his sister) of the French International Humor Award for Cheaper by the Dozen. He died in 2001.

Ernestine Gilbreth Carey was born in 1908 in New York City and graduated as an English major from Smith College. In 1930, soon after graduation, she began fourteen years of New York City department store buying and management. Meanwhile, she married and had two children. A writer and lecturer, she has authored and coauthored seven books, including Belles on Their Toes (with Frank Gilbreth Jr.), Jumping jupiter, Rings Around Us, and Giddy Moment. In 1950 she was corecipient (with her brother) of the French International Humor Award for Cheaper by the Dozen. She died in 2006.

“Gay and lighthearted...One of the most amusing books.” — Chicago Sun-Times

“Always entertaining, occasionally hilarious, occasionally touching.... Sound Americana.” — Saturday Review of Literature

“Instructive, funny, and very readable.” — School Library Journal

“A touching family portrait that also happens to be very, very funny...its appeal is timeless.” — Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

"There's fun and sentiment, appreciation and appraisal, and a good time is had by all." — Kirkus Reviews

"The book is the greatest possible tribute by children to parents, and a living proof that the Gilbreths, at any rate, had so many children they knew just what to do--to the immense enjoyment and pleasure of all their readers."  — The Christian Science Monitor

"One hilarious chapter follows another. . . . Cheaper by the Dozen is such an entertaining account of the growing Gilbreths that you wish it could have been written before 1924. The father of the Dozen would have enjoyed it." — New York Herald Tribune