| Little Town on the Prairie | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Laura Ingalls Wilder |
| Original title | Little Town on the Prairie |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Little House |
| Genre(s) | Historical fiction, Junior fiction |
| Publication date | 1941 |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | The Long Winter |
| Followed by | These Happy Golden Years |
Little Town on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was first published in 1941 and is the seventh of nine books written in her Little House series, also known as "The Laura Years." The book is set in De Smet, South Dakota. It opens in the spring after the Long Winter, and ends as Laura becomes a schoolteacher so she can help her sister, Mary, stay at a school for the blind in Vinton, Iowa. It tells the story of 15 year-old Laura’s first paid job outside the home and her last terms of schooling. At the end of the book, Laura receives a teacher's certificate, and is employed to teach at the Brewster settlement, 12 miles (19 km) away.
Contents |
The story begins one day at supper, with Pa asking Laura whether she will accept a sewing position in town. Laura accepts the offer. This is Laura’s first real job, and she leaves with Pa to go to town. Her job is to baste shirt-waists and sew buttonholes. She hates the work but never complains, and earns $1.50 per week for a total of $9.00 before the spring rush ends. The family that she works for runs a dry goods store, but they fight a lot, which makes Laura uncomfortable. However, she completes the job because she wants to earn money so that Mary can go to a college for the blind in Iowa. Laura works through the month of June, but is let go at the end of the spring rush.
On the Fourth of July, Laura, Carrie and Pa attend the celebration. They see the buggy racing, and Laura's future husband, Almanzo Wilder is the winner. Meanwhile, the family is planning to raise cash crops of corn and oats to sell for Mary's college. Blackbirds destroy both crops, but Mary goes to college after Pa sells a calf to earn the final amount needed. When Ma and Pa escort Mary to the college, Laura, Carrie, and Grace are left alone for a week. In order to stave off the loneliness stemming from Mary's departure, Laura, Carrie, and Grace do the fall cleaning. They have several problems, but the house is sparkling when they are done. Ma and Pa come home, and are truly surprised.
In the fall, the Ingalls quickly prepare for a move to town for the winter. Laura and Carrie attend school in town and Laura is reunited with her friends Minnie Johnson and Mary Power and meets a new girl, Ida Brown. There is a new schoolteacher for the winter term: Eliza Jane Wilder, Almanzo’s sister. Nellie Oleson, Laura's nemesis from Plum Creek, has moved to De Smet and is attending the school. Nellie turns the teacher against Laura and Miss Wilder loses control of the school for a time. A visit by the school board restores order; however, Miss Wilder leaves at the end of the fall term.
For the winter term, Miss Wilder is replaced by Mr. Clewett. Laura sets herself to studying, as she only has one year left before she can apply for a teaching certificate. However, she soon becomes worn out from too much study. Laura is able to relax when the town of De Smet begins having literary meetings at the schoolhouse, where the whole town gathers for fun every Friday night. They would participate in activities such as putting on a play, a spelling bee, or a wax figure show, or they would sing prairie songs. This winter is very mild, so Laura and Carrie never miss a day of school. Laura and her classmates become friendly after a birthday party for Ben Woodworth, and so Laura begins lagging in her studies, though she remains head of the class.
Laura spends the summer studying to make up for lost time. The next school year, there is another new teacher, Mr. Owen. Laura likes Mr. Owen, and they become friends. Later, during a revival at the church, Almanzo Wilder begins escorting her home from church. Near Christmas, Mr. Owen organizes a school exhibition to raise awareness to the school's needs, as the school is becoming overcrowded. Mr. Owen assigns Laura and her friend Ida Brown the duty of reciting the whole of American History up that point. He gives them this warning in advance of the other students, because they will have the most important part. Carrie is to recite a poem and she does well on the night of the exhibition. Laura’s mind initially goes blank; even so, she does wonderfully. Ida Brown does just as well. Almanzo once again sees Laura home, and offers to take her on a sleigh ride after he completes the cutter he is building.
At home, Laura is met by Mr. Boast and Mr. Brewster, who interview Laura for a teaching position at a settlement led by Brewster twelve miles (19 km) from town. The school superintendent comes and tests Laura (though she is two months too young, he never asks her age), and she is awarded a third-grade teaching certificate.
Though Wilder began writing the books as autobiographical recollections, they are considered historical fiction and have won a number of literary awards. In 1941, Little Town on the Prairie was awarded a Newbery Honor for exceptional children’s literature.
To encourage settlement of the mid-west part of the United States, Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862. This act divided unsettled land into sections, and heads of households could file a claim for very little money. A section was 1-square-mile (2.6 km2), and a claim was ¼ of a section. 36 sections made a township. A section was identified by three numbers, for example NW quarter of Section 18, Township 109, Range 38. By paying $10.00 plus other filing fees, a man could get 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land for his use if he could live on it for 5 years and not give up to go back east. The Ingalls’ staked one claim near Plum Creek. In the spring of 1880, Charles Ingalls filed a homestead claim south of De Smet for the NE quarter of Section 3, Township 110, Range 56.[1]
Little Town on the Prairie takes place between the summer of 1881 and December 24th 1882. Mary enrolled in the Iowa School for the Blind in Vinton, Iowa on November 23rd 1881. Laura worked 12 hours a day to help provide the necessary money for Mary's clothing, books and transportation by basting shirts for 25 cents a day (the Dakota territorial government actually paid the tuition for sightless persons to attend the college, if the person was a Dakota resident).
In the context of Laura's books, the "Nellie Oleson" here is the Nellie from On the Banks of Plum Creek, although the fact that Nellie is a fictional character should not be forgotten. In reality, Laura never saw the "Nellie" from Plum Creek again after her family left Minnesota. The "returning" character of Nellie in this book is based on a real-life colleague and rival of Laura named Genevieve Masters.
At age 18 Laura married Almanzo Wilder.[2] A year of Almanzo’ s childhood in rural New York is memorialized in her second book, Farmer Boy. Together they homesteaded and raised horses, which Almanzo loved. They had one daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, and lost a son in infancy. Rose grew up to become an author, among other things. Laura wrote over the years in the form of essays and articles for newspapers and magazines, mostly articles related to homesteading.[3] Laura wrote out the manuscript for each of her books by hand, and Rose helped her type and edit them. The well-known illustrations by Garth Williams appeared in the revised editions about 20 years later.
The bodies of Charles, Caroline, Mary, Carrie, and Grace Ingalls, and the unnamed infant son of Laura and Almanzo Wilder are buried in the De Smet Cemetery. Laura and Almanzo Wilder stayed briefly in Westville, Florida in the 1890s.
Today, De Smet, South Dakota attracts many fans with its historic sites from the books By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years. From 1879 to 1894 the Ingalls family lived in De Smet and the family homestead, a house in town built by Charles Ingalls, the Brewster School where Laura taught, and the surveyor's home the family lived in between 1879 and 1880 are open to visitors.
In addition to the Little House books, four series of books expand the Little House series to include five generations of Laura Ingalls Wilder's family. The success of the Little House series has produced many related books including two series (Little House Chapter Books and My First Little House Books) that present the original stories in condensed and simplified form for younger readers. Additional series have been written to tell the stories of Laura’s mother, The Caroline Years, her grandmother, The Charlotte Years, and her daughter, The Rose Years. There are also Little House themed craft, music, and cookbooks.
The Little House on the Prairie television series was loosely based on the Little House books. A total of 203 episodes were produced and originally aired on NBC from 1974 to 1982. Pa was played by Michael Landon, Ma by Karen Grassle, Laura by Melissa Gilbert. Mary by Melissa Sue Anderson, and Carrie by identical twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. The series remains popular in syndication and has been released on DVD.
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