My garden is as crowded as my bookshelves, and Laura Ingalls Wilder is a good part of the reason why. I sit down to read, come across a plant, and then want to grow it. Here’s how it happens. Start, let’s say, with On the Banks of Plum Creek. By Chapter 2, the family is…
Laura Ingalls Wilder and Me: A Prairie Girl’s Faith
“As a child, I learned my Bible lessons by heart, in the good old-fashioned way, and once won the prize for repeating correctly . . . verses from the Bible.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder I would never have written A Prairie Girl’s Faith: The Spiritual Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder if Spring Ridge School hadn’t…
You Need a Farm! Laura Ingalls Wilder and American Farming
“A farmer depends on himself, and the land and the weather. If you’re a farmer, you raise what you eat, you raise what you wear, and you keep warm with wood out of your own timber. You work hard, but you work as you please, and no man can tell you to go or come….
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Naturalist
“Rabbits stood up with paws dangling, long ears twitching, and their round eyes staring at Mary and Laura.” On the Banks of Plum Creek I’d like to suggest a thought experiment. Instead of categorizing Laura Ingalls Wilder as an American children’s author, think of her as a nature writer as well. Take her titles. The…
The House on Rocky Ridge Farm: Preserved, not Restored
Laura Ingalls Wilder was a teacher, seamstress, farmer’s wife, journalist, farm loan administrator, and an author. It was her role as writer of the Little House books that brought her lasting fame. And another job. She was the first, but unofficial, tour guide at her home on Rocky Ridge Farm near Mansfield, Missouri. Readers of…
From “Unlearned Poet” to “Untutored Housewife”: Samuel Worthen Ingalls and Laura Ingalls Wilder
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…