ON EGGS-HIBIT: Case cracked? The Mystery of Ron Powers’ Big Bird Egg Solved!
On display in the Davis Family Library Atrium is an exhibit on Nancy Willard’s Bread Loaf eggs. Nancy Willard (1936 - 2017) was an author, poet, and teacher, best known for her children’s books. During Willard’s time at Bread Loaf during the 1980s and 90s, she asked fellow faculty, attendees, and guests to sign wooden eggs. She would then paint and decorate each egg themed around its signatory and their work. In 2020, Willard’s son, James Lindbloom sent nearly three dozen of these precious to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. For a fuller introduction to the exhibit please read this blog post. I want to use this blog post to address a mystery.
In 2023, I cataloged these eggs as they arrived in Special Collections. In my brief reflection, I mentioned an unsolved mystery … Ron Powers’ big bird egg (read the original post here). I had no idea what it meant … perhaps a silly inside joke between Willard and Powers?
The update is that I have solved the mystery! Cracked the case! In 1993, Ron Powers completed a biography of Sesame Street puppet creator, Jim Henson. Following complaints from the Henson family, the book was not published. In a New York Times article published in September 1994, Sarah Lyall explains “A Henson Hullabaloo.”
The Henson family hand-selected author and television critic Ron Powers to write Jim Henson’s authorized biography. Conflicts quickly arose between the Henson family, Ron Powers, and Random House Publishing. The publishers were pleased with Powers’ initial manuscript, but the Henson family were really displeased with Powers’ psychological presentation of their father. Powers refused to revise his work, and Random House ultimately pulled the book. Powers accused them of bowing to family pressure and the fight turned legal: the contract stated that if the book were rejected, all of Powers’ material (including notes and interviews) would become the Hensons’ property. Powers refused, arguing the family had breached the contract. Powers began the process of looking for another publisher, but the book was never published.
In 2013, Brian Jay Jones published Jim Henson: The Biography, authorized by and with the cooperation of the Henson family. In a NYT review, John Swansburg notices that Jones forefronts Henson’s career and less of the man “crouched just below the frame … too often falling back on rose-colored remembrances from his friends and family.”
Looking at Ron Powers’ colorful wooden egg Nancy Willard decorated with colors and clippings of Sesame Street characters and a smiling portrait of Ron Powers, it is hard to imagine that such a joyful egg could hold such a dramatic and complicated story about publishing contracts and representations of beloved historical figures. The egg was signed by Powers: “To Nancy, My eggs-istential Friend!”
Come see this egg in person! On eggs-hibit now in the Davis Family Library Atrium. Read more about the exhibit and follow Special Collections on Instagram!
Liefe Temple is a joint English and Dance major from the class of 2025.5. In her 4 years at Middlebury, she has worked in the library departments of Special Collections, Interlibrary Loan, Circulation, and Collections Management at Davis Family Library and Davison Library at Bread Loaf.