I first glimpsed Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books as a second grader.
Our new school building opened that year and the library was filled with new books, new tables, new chairs and new students.
I sat facing the W section of fiction and there at eye level waited a row of books will matching covers.
Intrigued, I yearned for permission to pick up the light blue covers and find out what was inside.
Perhaps my age played a part–seven–or my skill level: newly reading and ready to try chapter books.
I wanted to read them all, from first to last.
I quickly learned the Little House Books have a definite order. On that first day, someone already had checked out the first book.
I’m an orderly person, and it killed me to do so, but I was so intrigued by this series, I checked out book #2: Little House on the Prairie.
I loved it.
The pages felt soft to my hands, the font friendly to my eyes, and Garth Williams’ whimsical drawings charmed me.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read Laura Ingalls Wilder books
Indeed, I’ve read all eight books out loud to my four children on five different occasions. One memorable snowy day in Connecticut, I read aloud The Long Winter from start to finish! Click to Tweet
My boys took to the stories with wide eyes and curiosity. Late into childhood, if they complained about Christmas presents, I’d say, “What did Laura and Mary get for Christmas?”
They didn’t complain after that question.
These books became my introduction to the prairie life of the United States.
In a curious way, they linked me to my own grandmother. Her ancestors (and mine!) walked or rode wagons across the country about the same time as the Ingalls family.
One day my grandmother (born in 1905) handed me a small pitcher.
“When I was a little girl, I’d take this pitcher and one egg to the mercantile where the owner would fill it with kerosene.”
The Ingalls Family (Wikimedia Commons )
That little pitcher holds a place of honor at my house today.
My grandmother also hated Indians, just like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s dog Jack.
I always use the full name: Laura Ingalls Wilder, when I talk about her books. It seems more respectful.
From Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books I learned about American pioneer life. Click to Tweet
As an adult, I discovered much of Laura’s story is revisionist and not always accurate.
Her journalist daughter Rose most likely edited, if not wrote the books.
But from these stories of pioneer life, I took lessons into my ownlife.
I know how to make a lamp with a button and thread, for example.
Dogs always turn around three times on their beds before going to sleep.
Blackbirds can ruin a cornfield. Grasshoppers can be a terror when they travel in a cloud.
References to her stories have turned up in all sorts of places in my life–and also in my writing.
Influencing my own books
I thought of The Long Winter when I wrote the snow scene in The Yuletide Bride.
The screaming panther in The Dogtrot Christmas remembers Little House in the Big Woods.
I originally planned to use a grasshopper plague, as in On the Banks of Plum Creek, when I wrote The Sunbonnet Bride.
Upon further research realized it was too harsh a story for a 15,000 word novella. (They get hit with a more limited tornado, instead). I nodded to the leeches, however, found in Plum Creek, when I wrote my novella.
I learned more about the Ingalls family as I grew to adulthood and read countless books about them.
Carrie, Mary and Laura Ingalls (Wikipedia)
Even now I stare at the photos and try to overlay the girls so alive in the books on the black and white photos that survive. Click to Tweet
Reading their histories and studying the websites, helped me appreciate my least favorite story, Farmer Boy.
It’s all about food, one gigantic meal after another (but hey, who wouldn’t like to eat apple pie for breakfast?)
I learned Laura loved hearing about Almanzo’s childhood stuffed with food because of her childhood starvation. The Long Winter made more sense and added poignancy after that.
(But who didn’t prefer Cap Garland?)
For the present
Someday my family hopes to visit De Smet, South Dakota— a pilgrimage.
Until then, I’ll turn the now-browned pages of our paperback edition with fondness (we have two complete editions).
I look forward to the day I can open the second book and read to my adorable grandchildren.
“Long time ago when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and girls or very small babies, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and baby Carrie left their little house in the big woods of Wisconsin.
“They drove away and left it lonely and empty in the clearing among the big trees, and they never saw that little house again.”
I can hardly wait.
Everyone has a favorite Little House Book. What’s yours? Click to Tweet
Mine? Little Town on the Prairie.
Loved those books, I had the whole set. Read them over and over.
I recently read the Little House books for the first time, & loved them.
Now, I am reading Ghost in the Little House, a biography of Laura’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. Rose was a successful author in her time, & one of the “founding mothers” of American Libertarianism (along with Ayn Rand & Isabel Paterson). According to this book, she did edit & re-write much of her mother’s work, but Laura did the initial writing.
What has made me pretty sad is the portrayal of the grown-up Laura. Sounds like she grew up to be a manipulative mother, & once had Rose’s dog shot while Rose was away. She did reach a place of being very grateful for all Rose did for her & Almanzo, but, to Rose, that didn’t make up for the love that Rose felt was missing from her childhood.
A toddler Rose was supposedly responsible for that fire in The First Four Years, & she felt that her mother always secretly blamed her, although Laura kept the secret.
On the other hand, Rose seems to have had a discontented spirit from childhood, so it is possible that she mistakenly perceived a lack of love & acceptance because it wasn’t given in the exact way she wanted it.
Growing up in Minnesota, I was always reading something by Laura Ingalls WIlder. Last year I was able to take my daughter and granddaughter to one of her homes in northern Iowa, while visiting my old home in Minnesota. It was one of her “lesser known about” residences and they still had one of her original manuscripts that had not been published. At that time they said they hoped to be able to get it done soon.