Survey Results

Not surprisingly, the majority of our readers would like to see Dean Butler play a part in Little House on the Prairie: The Musical. Twenty percent, however, only wanted him to be part of the production if his performance would be close enough for them to see the show. But when 7% of our readers responded "Dean who?" I really began to get worried. Out of all the cast members I talk about Dean the most, so where have these people been hiding all this time. LOL!

I've been away for a couple of weeks, but Dean, the actor who portrayed Almanzo Wilder on Little House on the Prairie for those 7% who don't know, was in Green Bay recently, along with Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer William Anderson to celebrate Laura Ingalls Wilder Day at Heritage Hill State Historical Park. Beth Ingalls-Leisses, one of Charles Ingalls's relatives, and a friend of mine, met Dean and Bill while they were there.

I want to thank my friend Lorrie for thinking of me while she spent time rubbing elbows with Dean and Bill. This week's mail brought me an autographed copy of William Anderson's The Story of the Ingalls and autographed greettings from Dean. I am extremely happy!

Look for a new survey coming soon!

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life (South Dakota Biography)

I heard about this book through Google Alerts and I was wondering if anyone owns it and can tell me more about it. The title is Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life by Pamela Smith Hill.

It has three 5-star reviews on Amazon, but some of the comments have left me on the fence about whether I should buy it.

Featured Book of the Month

There are new titles coming out about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family all the time. It makes it hard for a writer with an interest in sharing Laura's story to come up with a unique idea that will be attractive to publishers. But that's exactly what Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer, John E. Miller did with Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town: Where History & Literature Meet.

As a review by Library Journal says, "Taking concepts such as place and community, freedom and control, and love and affection, Miller considers how they operate in Wilder's novels of prairie life..."

The amount of research Miller put into this book is evident and there are almost twenty pictures, maps, and diagrams--some of which I had never seen before.

Focusing on Wilder's By the Shores of Silver Lake and Little Town on the Prairie, Miller proves how Laura's novels are just as historically valid as nonfiction accounts of the time period because these are Wilder's experiences as a young pioneer girl growing up on the prairie--living history.

Other interesting portions of this book include:

* Miller's discussion on the controversy over Rose Wilder Lane's involvement in writing the first eight novels of the series

* The similiar historical contributions of Harvey Dunn and Laura Ingalls Wilder, though Dunn was a painter and Wilder a novelist

* And fact and interpretation in Wilder's novels

All this and more makes this one of the most interesting Laura Ingalls Wilder biographies I have ever read.

Featured Book of the Month

I'm posting August's book of the month early because we're heading off to Cape Cod on August 8th. Donald Zochert's, Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder is the first biography I ever read about Laura and her family.

While dry from a writing perspective, it remains, to me, one of the best non-fiction accounts of Wilder's life from The Big Woods of Wisconsin to the years she shares with Almanzo and culminating with her death.

What I truly enjoy about Zochert's Laura is that it opens with a mention of Laura and The Big Woods, but then moves back in time to provide a history of the Ingalls and Quiner families. Zochert also gives the reader a brief glimpse into Almanzo's childhood; but since he is a man and Laura a young woman by the time Almanzo is introduced, not much of Almanzo's life before living in De Smet, SD is written about.

Laura Ingalls Wilder enthusiasts will recognize many of the names mentioned in this book: Reverend Edwin Alden, LaFayette Bedal, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Boast, Ida Brown, Mr. Edwards, Edward (Cap) Garland, Mr. Hanson, Genevieve Masters, Nellie Owens, and many Ingalls and Quiner relatives. You read of the "years of sunshine and shadow" as Laura and Almanzo almost die of diphtheria and then Almanzo suffers a stroke--which forever takes away his strength; the loss of their baby boy in 1889, who lives only twelve days and is buried without a name; and the kitchen fire that burns their house to the ground.

But there will be happy times at Rocky Ridge Farm: Laura writing articles for the Missouri Ruralist, the prosperity of the farm, the success of their daughter Rose, and the popularity of the Little House books--which have forever emblazoned the names of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family on many hearts. Readers will also find several appendices with important dates, information on all the Little Houses, and a discussion on the truth of the Little House books.

To end this feature of Donald Zochert's Laura, I will share Zochert's final words from this biography of a woman who changed the face of children's literature forever, and who continues to gain new fans all over the world every day:

"Laura closed her eyes. Now is now. She wished they could go on and on, forever."

Partial List of Books

The list below are some of the titles by and about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family that I own. I haven't updated this in a while so I'm sure I have more by now. Amazingly, new titles continue to be released, which attests to the impact that Laura Ingalls Wilder had on the literary world.



Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
Farmer Boy
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake
Little Town on the Prairie
These Happy Golden Years
The First Four Years
On The Way Home
West From Home









The Martha Years by Melissa Willey

Little House in the Highlands
On the Far Side of the Loch
Down To The Bonny Glen
Beyond the Heather Hills









The Charlotte Years by Melissa Wiley

Little House by Boston Bay
On Tide Mill Lane
The Road from Roxbury
Across the Puddingstone Dam



The Caroline Years by Maria D. Wilkes

Little House in Brookfield
Little Town in the Crossroads
Little Clearing in the Woods
On Top Of Concord Hill
Across the Rolling River
Little City by the Lake
A Little House of Their Own




The Rose Years by Roger Lea MacBride

Little House On Rocky Ridge
Little Farm in the Ozarks
In the Land of the Big Red Apple
On the Other Side of the Hill
Little Town in the Ozarks
New Dawn on Rocky Ridge
On the Banks of the Bayou
Bachelor Girl




Books and booklets by William Anderson

The Horn's Book Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Iowa Story
The Story of the Wilders
The Story of the Ingalls
The Walnut Grove Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Little House Guidebook
Laura Ingalls Wilder Country
A Little House Reader
Laura Ingalls Wilder-A Biography
Laura's Album



Stephen W. Hines

Saving Graces
I Remember Laura
Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder Volume 1
Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder Volume 2
Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder Volume 3






Others

Days of Laura Ingalls Wilder by T. L. Tedrow (entire series)
A Little House Sampler
Laura Ingalls Wilder An Author’s Story by Sarah Glasscock
Laura Ingalls Wilder Growing up in the Little House by Patricia Reilly Giff
The World of Little House by Carolyn Strom Collins
A Little House Christmas-Vol 1
A Little House Christmas-Vol 2
Laura--The Life of LIW by Donald Zochert
Old Town in the Green Groves by Cynthia Rylant
Little House Sisters
A Little House Christmas Treasury
A Little House Traveler Writings from LIW’s Journeys across America (includes On the Way Home, West From Home and the never before released The Road Back (Laura’s journey to De Smet, SD in 1931)



John E. Miller

Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Town Where History and Literature Met



Related Items

Ghost in the Little House by William Holtz (bio of Rose Wilder Lane)