Who is the real Laura Ingalls? Is she the smart, strong, and resourceful fictional character of the Little House books? Or is she the more mature and somewhat worldly Laura Ingalls of Pioneer Girl? Or perhaps she’s the character that actress Melissa Gilbert created in the “Little House on the Prairie” television series.
And what about the author who launched the original Laura—Laura Ingalls Wilder? She once told readers that “All I have told is true but it is not the whole truth,”1 blurring the distinction between herself and the character she created. Even her editor was confused: “I had understood when your manuscript was given to me to read, that it was autobiographical… Won’t you send us an autobiographical sketch so that we can see just how this material fits into your own background?”2
Furthermore, generations of readers, television viewers, scholars, and the public at large have projected their own images of Laura Ingalls onto the books, television spin-offs, mini-series, documentaries, musicals, pageants, plays, articles, and recordings that have made Laura Ingalls an iconic American figure and Laura Ingalls Wilder a literary legend.
From the left – Carrie, Mary, and Laura Ingalls
So who is Laura Ingalls? Is there a definitive answer to this question?
Here are a few indisputable facts about the historical Laura: She was born on February 7, 1867, to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. Like her older sister Mary Amelia, Laura Elizabeth spent the first years of her life on a farm in Pepin County, Wisconsin.
The family may have moved briefly to Chariton County, Missouri, in the late 1860s, but by 1870, was living near Independence, Kansas. They were squatters on the Osage Diminished Reserve. As the federal census taker noted, “the Lands belonged to the Osage Indians and Settlers had no title to Said Lands.”3 Laura’s sister, Caroline Celestia (Carrie), was born there on August 3, 1870.
The family returned to Wisconsin in 1871, then moved west to Minnesota, where Laura’s parents bought a farm. A plague of grasshoppers destroyed their wheat crop, sending the family east to Burr Oak, Iowa. Laura’s brother Charles Frederick (Freddie) was born before the family moved east—on November 1, 1875—but died on their journey to Iowa; he was just nine months old.
Charles and Caroline had a hard time making ends meet in Iowa. Their attempt to manage a hotel failed, and Charles found work at a mill. Laura’s sister Grace Pearl was born in Burr Oak on May 23, 1877, but the family didn’t linger there. They returned to Minnesota and lived in the small town of Walnut Grove for about a year.
Laura Ingalls Wilder – De Smet, SD
After a serious illness, Mary lost her sight in 1879. That same year, Charles Ingalls accepted a job as a clerk and bookkeeper with the Chicago & North West Railroad in Dakota Territory, and the family moved west one last time. Charles filed a homestead claim in 1880, and helped found the town of De Smet. Laura came of age in Dakota Territory. She received her teaching certificate, taught schools near De Smet, and was courted by a young homesteader, Almanzo Wilder. They married on August 25, 1885, when Laura was eighteen. Their daughter Rose was born on December 5, 1886.
Laura and Almanzo’s first nine years of marriage were marred by economic hardship and personal loss. Both had diphtheria and Almanzo suffered a subsequent stroke, which left him permanently disabled. As Rose later wrote, her father “limped through the rest of his ninety years and was never as strong as he had been.”4 Laura and Almanzo’s second child—a son—died just a month after his birth in the summer of 1889, and a series of drought, fire, and financial crises forced the couple to move east to Minnesota, south to Florida, back to South Dakota, and ultimately to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894. They bought a piece of land, planted over 400 apple trees, and christened their new home “Rocky Ridge Farm.” The couple lived out the rest of their lives there.
Laura & Almanzo Wilder – Winter 1885-1886
In 1911, Laura launched her writing career with The Missouri Ruralist, the leading agricultural newspaper in the state. Rose also pursued a writing career and by the late 1920s was a well-known author. She encouraged her mother to write for national audiences too. In May 1930, Laura finished writing her first book-length work, entitled Pioneer Girl, an autobiography written for adult readers that focused on her frontier childhood and adolescence. Rose worked as her mother’s editor on Pioneer Girl, and helped market it to editors in New York.
The manuscript didn’t sell, but an abbreviated version of Pioneer Girl, written for young readers, caught the attention of two New York children’s book editors, and became the first book in Wilder’s Little House series, Little House in the Big Woods, published in 1932. Laura and Rose formed an editorial collaboration, and together produced the remaining seven books published during their lifetimes.
Laura died in 1957, at the age of ninety; Rose died in 1968, at the age of 81. Three years later, in 1971, the last Little House novel was published posthumously, The First Four Years. By then Laura was an established literary legend.
Laura Ingalls Wilder – Portrait at 70 years; Courtesy of Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association, Mansfield, Missouri
The “Little House on the Prairie” television series launched in 1974, and with it, Laura’s celebrity reached new audiences. So too did new questions about Laura. And as the decades passed, the questions about Laura’s many identities became more complicated and perplexing.
Yet her influence continued to grow, inspiring new generations of readers and viewers to identify with both the real and fictional Laura Ingalls. Some point to her courage and optimism in the face of adversity; others to what they interpret as the simple, faith-based lifestyle her pioneer family embraced; still others resonate with Wilder’s depiction of women in the American West or the environmental themes they find in her work.
What is consistent, however, is that most Laura enthusiasts feel a personal connection with her; they believe Wilder’s work speaks directly to them. That voice appears to break through cultural, social, and generational barriers, allowing readers to bring their own unique interpretations of Laura into their lives. This web site will explore the many different faces of Laura Ingalls, and the many ways her work has inspired others, allowing you to draw your own conclusions about her. Because as Laura herself wrote, “There are so many different ways of seeing things, and so many different ways of saying them.”5
See all of our posts about Laura Ingalls Wilder here. To learn more about Laura Ingalls Wilder and how she became a writer, we recommend you check out Dean Butler’s documentary, Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder. To purchase the DVD, click here.
Notes:
1. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Detroit Book Fair Speech, 1937, p. 8, Box 13, Laura Ingalls Wilder Series, Rose Wilder Lane Papers, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, Iowa.
2. Virginia Kirkus to Laura Ingalls Wilder, December 15, 1931, Box 13, Laura Ingalls Wilder Series, Rose Wilder Lane Papers, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, Iowa.
3. U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of the Census, Ninth Census of the United States, 1870, Rutland Township, Montgomery County, KS, at Ancestry.com.
4. Rose Wilder Lane, Introduction to Laura Ingalls Wilder, On The Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota To Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894 (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), p.2
5. Laura Ingalls Wilder, By the Shores of Silver Lake (New York: Harper & Row, 1939), p. 58.
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i love little house i watch it all the time one of my favorite show , love reading bout laura.
My love of the Little House books was passed down to me by my mother. We took a bucket list trip to her Rocky Ridge Farm. It was amazing to be standing in her home and seeing things that I had read about so many times. Her books influenced the person I was and who I was to become. She taught us the values of hard work, determination, and devotion to faith and family. In a world gone mad, it’s so nice to look back at a time when these values were the most important things in life.
LAURA INGALLS WILDER IS TOTALLY AWESOME
Happy Birthday Laura! One of my earliest and favourite authors. I have been reading her since grade 1. I have loved the television series also, but prefer the books for the simplicity. I have always tried to behave as Laura would. I even have some poetry she wrote and the articles from her local newspaper. She had such a talent for describing things that make you able to almost see things. ( Mary would have been able to “see” everything Laura described to her). One day I will get to her museums and especially Rocky Ridge. May she continue to inspire readers everywhere of all races and ages.
WOW! this helped me with my report on her!THX
I am 64 years old. I read the Little House books when I was a child, along with the Bobbsey Twins series and the Cherry Ames “Nurse” series. I’ve been an avid reader for all of my life. The House books left me with great memories of cuddling in bed with a book that took me to the various places Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote of, or slipping out of bed to read by the bathroom light. I’ve always felt that a truly good writer was one whose story drew me in as if I were there. I call it, “falling into the story”. Even now, these many years later, I remember the stories and can feel the happiness of reading by the light of the bathroom while lying on the bedroom floor, getting ready to scoot back in bed if I heard my father’s footsteps.
It doesn’t matter that time marches on. Every child should be introduced to these stories.
I completely agree with you Kathleen. I forget how many times I re-read that series. I could pick up any one of the books in the series and have not be lost because I almost had each story memorized. I also read the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and Hardy boys series. But I think my favorite has always be the Little House stories. As I got older I searched for more information about Laura past where her books ended. I still have this little thrill of excitement when I discover something new or a reminder of what I have read, when I find websites like this.
I guess it’s time to go and read a Laura Ingalls Wilder book again!!
I really like this tv drama.
Hey Where was this article published?
This is an original post that was written just for the Little House on the Prairie website. 🙂 So glad you enjoyed it.
yes real good post
this is a good website
Hey thanks for the amazing post! Just so you know I think that it’s supposed to be “they’re” instead of “there”.
I love the tv mini series and most of all loved the books and learning the history behind the books.
I read all the books in the 3rd grade; I absolutely love them. I have continued to reread her beautiful series. Much love, Laura!
I’ve been reading the books since the third grade; I still read them today. I’m in the seventh grade now and will always and forever love the books that she has written. Seemingly, the books have caused a great impact in my life. We love you, Laura! (My favorite is These Happy Golden Years. Anyone else?)
Eu li Uma Casa na Floresta quando adolescente. Foi um livro que ficou
gravado no meu coração.
Posteriormente li Uma Casa na Campina e o Pequeno Fazendeiro, dos quais gostei muito também. Eu gostaria muito de relê-los. Mas acho que não são mais publicados no Brasil.
I am 54 years old. I read the Little House books when I was a child.I love every things about Laura,the books have caused a great impact in my life.
yay
i cant get enough information about Laura. have read all of the books and because of these articles have found how much i still have to discover about Laura
I am from Srilanka, then it was known as Ceylon. I read Little House books in the sixties when I was In my early teens, and was hooked on to all the books ever since. I have read all the books several times, and I wrote to the publishers in 1968 to get more information about Laura Ingalls Wilder. They kindly replied to my request, and sent me a brochure about her which I still treasure to this day. Now I live in Toronto, Canada and introduced these books to my daughter’s first and now to my grandchildren too. One day I hope to visit the Rocky Ridge Museum in the future. I like to add that I did not enjoy the television series at all, not like reading the books since I found the series did not reflect the true essence of the books.
This is amazing! My family took a whole trip through each place she lived in, starting in Pepin and ending in Mansfield, Missouri. I read all of the books (at least twice) and it was fascinating, yet overwhelming, to see everything she wrote about and how the towns that her houses are in had changed over the course of many, many years.
I’m 52 years old and currently reading the series for the second time in the past ten years. Read as a child also. Currently reading about the literary gatherings on Friday evenings that Laura enjoyed so much in De Smet. It takes me to places and times that would be wonderful to experience. Thankful for Laura sharing her life, and Rose.