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...
In 1942, literary agent George Bye received the final manuscript from a client he had reluctantly decided to represent twelve years earlier, an author whose first work, a memoir for adults, had left him uninspired. But she had found her voice as a children’s book writer, and Bye felt deeply moved and stirred by her eighth and final...
In the history of literature, there’s nothing quite like the relationship between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, the journalist Rose Wilder Lane. One of the most remarkable things about the Little House books is how the series grew out of their profoundly close and often contentious relationship. From the beginning, the books...
“Mother” was indeed a magic word to Laura Ingalls Wilder for, though Pa Ingalls occupies front-and-center attention in the Little House books, Ma is right there too, as the one who trained her daughters in domestic matters and educated them. It is a wonder that she lived to a ripe old age of 84, outliving Pa by twenty years. As his...