As a child who’d practically memorized the Little House book series, I was entranced by the idea of Laura Ingalls Wilder as an “untutored housewife,” whose fiction suddenly sprang to life fully formed when she was in her sixties. As an adult, I learned that the widespread notion that Wilder was a self-taught genius with…
Searching for Charles Ingalls in Cuba, New York
Today we are intrigued to hear from Nancy McCabe about her experience exploring Cuba, New York, the birthplace of Charles Ingalls. Hear her interesting stories and tid bits of information about Pa’s first home below. In Cuba, New York, the birthplace of Charles Ingalls, my daughter and I read excerpts from Little House in the…
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Artistic Development
As a child, I loved many children’s book characters—Louisa May Alcott’s Jo, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne, and Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy—because, like me, they wanted to be writers.1 But it never occurred to me that the Little House series also tells a story of artistic development. Especially in the later books, Wilder focuses on the…