Starting in May we are going to feature one book a month that is by or about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family. We'll begin with a short booklet by Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer William Anderson.
The Story of the Ingalls is only 43 pages long (including appendices), but it is packed with tons of information, rare photos, and a map of the Ingalls' travels. The book is now in its ninth printing.
It begins with a brief history of the Ingalls and Quiner-Holbrook families, then moves on to the years that the Ingalls family traveled, and speaks of how they came to settle in De Smet, SD. It discusses their lives in De Smet and chronicles the lives of every member of the Ingalls family. In April of 1932, the first book in the now famous Little House series was published, Little House in the Big Woods and this booklet also mentions Carrie's and Grace's writing. Strangely, this book does not end with Laura's death, but with Carrie's passing and Laura's acknowledgement to her readers that, "of all the people I wrote about, I am so far as I know the only one left."
The first Appendix includes excerpts from Grace's diary and the second Appendix has pictures of the Ingalls and Quiner-Holbrook families, along with birth dates, marriage dates, and dates of death.
I can't say I learned a lot new about Laura from this booklet, but I did learn more about the lives of the other Ingalls family members.
Other booklets by William Anderson:
The Story of the Wilders
Laura Wilder of Mansfield
A Wilder in the West (about Eliza Jane Wilder)
Laura's Rose: The Story of Rose Wilder Lane
The Horn Book's Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Iowa Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Walnut Grove Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder
No comments:
Post a Comment