Here we are at perhaps the most challenging stage of finding similarities between Laura Ingalls Wilder's books and the Little House on the Prairie television show.
The First Four Years opens with Laura asking her fiancé, Almanzo, to do something else other than farming because she never wanted to marry a farmer. She didn't want them to work hard while people made money off of them (pg 4). Almanzo explains that farmers are the only ones who are truly independent. He tells her that he will try it for three years, and if he doesn't find success, he will quit and do anything she wants him to do (pg 5). Book Almanzo is more forward-thinking and interested in a full partnership with his wife than TV Almanzo is in those early days. "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" and "Laura Ingalls Wilder" prove he wants to be in charge.
As we already know, after some challenges, TV Laura and Almanzo get married at the blind school in Sleepy Eye, sharing an anniversary with Mary and Adam, before settling into the house Almanzo had previously shared with his sister, Eliza Jane ("Laura Ingalls Wilder").
On the morning of August 25, 1885, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls becomes Laura Ingalls Wilder in the book and in real life. She leaves her parents' home, is married by Reverend Brown, goes back to her parents' house for dinner, and then leaves her family behind as she and Almanzo drive to their new home across town in De Smet. (pgs 9-10).
The first year is filled with Laura learning how to run her household, hosting threshers at harvest time, and Laura worrying over money because Manly mortgaged the house for $500 (pg 57). But there are fun times too, as the young couple continue going on buggy rides, taking their ponies out, and hosting their family on New Year's Day. Laura also discovers she is pregnant (pg 43).
TV Laura has a different set of experiences.
- An old friend of Almanzo's comes to town, and Laura fears they are having an affair ("Divorce, Walnut Grove Style").
- A women's rights activist arrives in Walnut Grove, and the women of town move into Nellie's Restaurant until the men of Walnut Grove sign the petition. Though the newlyweds don't wish to be apart, Laura feels she should support her mother, and she moves into town ("Oleson Versus Oleson").
- Almanzo is eager to have children, but Laura wants to keep teaching. Then, when Almanzo's older brother, Royal, leaves his mischievous boys with the Wilders while he takes a vacation with his wife, Almanzo is certain the experience will deter Laura from wanting kids ("The Nephews").
- Laura resigns as Walnut Grove's school teacher when Mrs. Oleson interferes. Almanzo and she have a disagreement as Laura tries out new recipes to keep her mind off not feeling useful ("Goodbye, Miss Wilder"). As you will recall, in the books Laura only taught school to help her family. She never really liked it.
- Laura gets pregnant in Season 7, and her pregnancy will last three-quarters of the way through Season 8, where a series of life-altering events plague the Wilders, and Laura learns about the $500 mortgage on the house ("Days of Sunshine, Days of Shadow").
TV viewers will see some hint of inspiration from
The First Four Years in Season 7 and into Season 8 of
Little House on the Prairie, though it's hard to say how many years pass in TV Laura and Almanzo's marriage from Season 7 through to the end of Season 9 and the three final movies. Enough time passes for Rose to be born, and for her to be a toddler in the movies.
As we consider the creative license taken with these early episodes of their marriage, we need to remember the difference in ages between Melissa Gilbert (Laura) and Dean Butler (Almanzo) in real life and as their characters on the show. They are allowed to be intimate, but not much. In "Oleson Versus Oleson," when Laura struggles with wanting to support her mother but not wanting to leave her new husband, they have a touching conversation where Manly asks her if she needs to leave that night, and she decides to wait until the morning. Also in this episode, Laura is so eager to get back to Manly after moving into Nellie's that she tries to get her parents talking again. It backfires, but I really feel this is one of those few Season 7 episodes where you are reminded Almanzo and Laura are a young couple in love with each other.
During the first twelve months of The First Four Years, the dry weather of last summer had been hard on the trees and stunted their growth (pg 47), similar to what happens in the episode "Stone Soup," but the spring brings rain, just like it did at the end of the "Stone Soup" episode. The wheat and oats grow nicely. A few days before harvesting the wheat, a hailstorm flattens it to the ground. Now, there will be no money to pay toward the mortgage or the loan for the new harvest machine (pgs 48 - 56). Book Laura and Almanzo get someone to work the tree claim, and the Wilders move to the smaller homestead property by the time they celebrate their first anniversary (pgs 59 -60).
In the second year of The First Four Years, Almanzo and Laura endure new parent anxieties after Rose is born, and their childless friend, Mr. Boast, asks them to give up Rose so that his wife can have a child (76). Even after all these years, this passage is disturbing. It adds to the distress that Mr. Boast assumes Laura and Almanzo could have more children (pg 76) when we know what happens to them later.
As the book Wilders enter the third year of their marriage, Manly continues to buy things on credit, and Laura fears they can't afford it. However, she considers that to be Manly's business (pg 85). Shortly after Almanzo's birthday, Laura gets sick, so Caroline takes Rose home with her (pg 87).
Almanzo also takes sick (pg 88), just like TV Almanzo will in "Days of Sunshine, Days of Shadow." They both have diphtheria in The First Four Years, but Almanzo will be the only one ill in the show, and a pregnant Laura takes care of him at their house in Walnut Grove, though Doctor Baker advises otherwise. When the book Manly goes back to work too soon and works too hard after his bout with diphtheria, he suffers a stroke that impacts the strength in his legs (pg 89).
In"Days of Sunshine, Days of Shadow," Almanzo, who is still recovering from diphtheria, attempts to run out and save his wheat from a hailstorm, leading to a stroke that paralyzes his entire left side and leaves him wheelchair-bound. While Manly is struggling to recover from his stroke, Laura gives birth to Rose.
As the book Wilders approach their third anniversary, they are drowning in medical expenses, and their renter at the tree claim is leaving. So, they find a buyer for the homestead, and then they move back to the tree claim (pg 90). Laura must help Almanzo around the farm because the aftereffects of the stroke left his hands clumsy (pgs 90 - 91).
Cousin Peter visits the Wilders. He has been working for a neighbor who wants to sell 100 purebred sheep. So, Peter and the Wilders pitch in to buy the sheep (pgs 93 - 95). Little do the Wilders know, that their wheat crop will once again be ruined by the weather within days of harvesting it (pg 96).
Entering the fourth year of their marriage, Almanzo's hands improve, and he tells Laura he wants to buy a new team to clear the whole 160 acres. Laura quickly objects, saying their three years are up. Manly reasons that though the crops have been failures, they are all set for farming and don't have money to start anything else. Knowing he is right and continuing to worry over the mortgage and other payments they have to make, she agrees they might have good luck that year, which would make all the difference (pgs 100 - 101).
In the last of The First Four Years, Laura again feels the familiar sickness of being pregnant (pgs 106 - 107). She struggles to keep up with Rose, who is toddling around, and to help Manly around the farm (pgs 115 - 116). A dust storm blows all the seed wheat and oats away (pgs 109 & 115), and a prairie fire threatens them (pg 113).
With so much to do, Laura admits she hates the farm and all the debts that had to be paid whether she could work or not. Even if the weather didn't cooperate, they would still need to pay interest on their loans and taxes (pg 119).
And the weather did not cooperate. They had no rain. The wheat and oats, along with the trees, died. [If you recall in "Stone Soup," Laura was trying to keep the trees from dying during a drought in Walnut Grove while Manly was away, and she was very pregnant.]
Almanzo couldn't prove up on the land given to him as a result of the Homestead Act. So, he had to file a preemptive claim, where in six months they would pay the United States government $1.25 per acre, but they would no longer need to waste time on growing trees (pg 122).
As if this isn't enough, there is more. A tornado (pg 124); Laura giving birth to their son, who dies soon after she starts feeling good enough to help out on the farm again (pg 127); and they lose their home in a fire (pgs 128 - 131). So, they move in with Caroline and Charles while Almanzo and Peter build a new shanty (pg 131). Is any of this inspiration feeling familiar to TV viewers yet?
In all the chaos, their fourth anniversary passes by without anyone noticing. Manly takes stock of all they have, and Laura feels her spirit rising to the challenge of always being a farmer (pgs 132-134).
With "Days of Sunshine, Days of Shadow," Landon and his team reimagined what the Wilders went through over the first four years of their marriage, and hit them with it all at once, doing what writers do best--saying "What if..." and pushing them to their limits.
Once the Ingalls family left TV's Walnut Grove and relocated to Burr Oak, Iowa, the show writers appear to have used what material was available from the books and relied on their own imaginations to create the last season and final three movies. The only episode that could be related to Wilder history is, "A Child with No Name," which finds Laura and Almanzo welcoming their son, who dies one night without having been given a name. The rest of the episode focuses on Laura and the town turning on Doctor Baker because of the baby's death. Then the Wilders must depend on Doc Baker to save Rose when she comes down with smallpox.
The only book we didn't touch upon in this series of posts is By the Shores of Silver Lake because this book covers the Ingalls family traveling from their little house on the banks of Plum Creek to Dakota Territory and the building of a new town, which will become De Smet. Therefore, it didn't really apply to the show in a significant way. Mary becoming blind, which viewers experience in the two-part episode, "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away," happened in between On the Banks of Plum Creek and By the Shores of Silver Lake. Readers find out on pages 1 and 2 of By the Shores of Silver Lake that the family had previously been stricken with scarlet fever, which made Mary blind.
Did it surprise you how much of the books inspired the writers of Little House on the Prairie? Do you feel differently about how the show brought the Ingalls family's story to life? Looking back, would you still have preferred the writers stuck more closely to the books?
