As a researcher and biographer of Laura Ingalls Wilder, I’ve found the work of other Wilder authors and scholars both essential and illuminating. Listed below are titles that explore different areas of her life and work, often bringing entirely new and unexpected interpretations to a wide range of Wilder topics. The list includes classic titles, as well as newer works. The list will continue to grow as Wilder scholarship deepens. Please click here if my Recommended Reading Guide for Children and Young Adults also interests you.
- Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (in chronological order)
- Compilations/Adaptations of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s and Rose Wilder Lane’s Work
- Books by Rose Wilder Lane (in chronological order)
- Nonfiction about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Her Life & Work
- Literary Fiction
Note: Each recommended reading comes with a free printable checklist you can take to your local bookstore or library and track which books you’ve read. Enjoy!
Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (in chronological order)
- The Complete Little House Box Set (9 books)
- Little House in the Big Woods
- Farmer Boy
- Little House on the Prairie
- On the Banks of Plum Creek
- By the Shores of Silver Lake
- The Long Winter
- Little Town on the Prairie
- These Happy Golden Years
- The First Four Years
- On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894
- West From Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco, 1915
- Little House Treasury
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books, Volumes 1 & 2
- Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography
(Download the printable checklist for this reading list to take to your bookstore or library.)
Compilations and Adaptations of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s and Rose Wilder Lane’s Work
- A Little House Reader: A Collection of Writings by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- A Little House Sampler
- A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Journeys Across America
- Laura’s Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook
- Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings
- Little House Sisters: Collected Stories from the Little House Books
- Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist: Writings from the Ozarks
- Horn Book’s Laura Ingalls Wilder: Articles About and By Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams, and the Little House Books
- The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder – Volume 1: On Wisdom & Virtues
- Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder – Volume 2: On Life as a Pioneer Woman
- Writings to Young Women on Laura Ingalls Wilder – Volume 3: As Told by her Family, Friends, & Neighbors
(Download the printable checklist for this reading list to take to your bookstore or library.)
Books by Rose Wilder Lane (in chronological order)
- The Story of Art Smith
- Henry Ford’s Own Story
- Diverging Roads
- White Shadows on the South Seas (with Frederick O’Brien)
- The Making of Herbert Hoover
- The Dancer of Sahmakha by Armên Ohanian, translated by Rose Wilder Lane
- The Peaks of Shala
- He Was a Man
- Hill-Billy
- Cindy: A Romance of the Ozarks
- Let the Hurricane Roar (aka Young Pioneers)
- Old Home Town
- Give Me Liberty
- Credo
- Free Land
- The Discovery of Freedom: Man’s Struggle Against Authority
- Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework
- Travels with Zenobia: Paris to Albania by Model T Ford
- Dorothy Thompson and Rose Wilder Lane: Forty Years of Friendship, Letters, 1921-1960
- The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane, Literary Journalist
(Download the printable checklist for this reading list to take to your bookstore or library.)
Nonfiction about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Her Life & Work
Biographies:
- American Legends: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend
- Garth Williams: American Illustrator: A Life
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: American Writer on the Prairie
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life
- Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Libertarians on the Prairie
General Nonfiction:
- The Beautiful Snow: The Ingalls Family, The Railroads, and the Hard Winter of 1880-81
- Constructing the Little House: Gender, Culture, and Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Ingalls Wilder Family Songbook
- I Remember Laura
- Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane: Authorship, Place, Time, and Culture
- Laura Ingalls Wilder Country: The People & Places in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Life & Books
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: An Annotated Bibliography of Critical, Biographical, & Teaching Studies
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Iowa Story
- Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little Town: Where History and Literature Meet
- Little House Country: A photo Guide to the Home Sites of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Impact on American Culture
- Little House on the Prairie From A to Z
- Little Lodges on the Prairie: Freemasonry and Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Musical Memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook: Favorite Songs from the Little House Books
- The Little House Guidebook
- Pioneer Girl Perspectives: Exploring Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Story of the Ingalls
- Story of the Wilders: All about Almanzo and his Family
- The Walnut Grove Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Wilder in the West: Eliza Jane’s Story of a Lady Homesteader
- The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Frontier Landscapes that Inspired the Little House Books
Literary Nonfiction
- From Little Houses to Little Women: Revisiting A Literary Childhood
- The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie
(Download the printable checklist for this reading list to take to your bookstore or library.)
Literary Fiction
(Download the printable checklist for this reading list to take to your bookstore or library.)
A Note from the Website Editors
Are there additional books related to Laura Ingalls Wilder that you have enjoyed? Please let us know by leaving a comment below. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for the best Little House on the Prairie fan resources!
Latest posts by Pamela Smith Hill (see all)
- Laura Ingalls Wilder Historical Timeline - December 28, 2018
- In Search of Laura – About Laura Ingalls Wilder - March 20, 2018
- Recommended Reading for Adults - January 18, 2016
Just finished “Caroline-Little House Revisited “ by Sarah Miller. Told from the mom’s perspective. Great writing for mature audiences.