Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder
Wilder c. 1894[6] (age approximately 27)
Born	Laura Elizabeth Ingalls (1867-02-07)February 7, 1867 Pepin County, Wisconsin, US
Died	February 10, 1957(1957-02-10) (aged 90) Mansfield, Missouri, US
Occupation	Writer, schoolteacher, journalist, farm wife
Nationality	American
Period	1911–1957 (as writer)
Genres	Diaries, essays, family saga (children's historical novels)
Subjects	Midwestern & Western
Notable work(s)	Little House on the Prairie Little House series
Notable award(s)	Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal est. 1954
Spouse(s)	Almanzo Wilder (1885–1949) (his death)
Signature

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, most notably the author of the Little House series of children's novels based on her childhood in a pioneer family.^[7] Her daughter Rose encouraged Laura to write and helped her to edit and publish the novels.

A popular 1974–84 TV series loosely based on the Little House books starred Melissa Gilbert as Wilder.

Birth and ancestry

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, seven miles north of the village of Pepin in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin,^[8] to Charles Phillip Ingalls and Caroline Lake (Quiner) Ingalls. She was the second of five children, following Mary Amelia, who went blind in her teens.^{[lower-alpha 1]} Their three younger siblings were Caroline Celestia; Charles Frederick, who died in infancy; and Grace Pearl. Her birth site is commemorated by a replica log cabin, the Little House Wayside.^[9] Life there formed the basis for her first book, Little House in the Big Woods.^[8]

Wilder was a descendant of the Delano family, relatives of the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,^[10] whose progenitor emigrated on the Mayflower in 1620, and of Edmund Rice, who emigrated in 1638 to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.^[11] One paternal ancestor, Edmund Ingalls, was born on June 27, 1586, in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, England, and emigrated to America, where he died in Lynn, Massachusetts, on September 16, 1648.^[12]

Early life

Family on the move

The Ingalls moved from the Big Woods of Wisconsin in 1868, Laura's first full year. They stopped in Rothville, Missouri, and settled in the state of Kansas, in Indian Country near what is now Independence. Laura's younger sister Carrie was born there in August 1870, a few weeks before they moved again. According to Laura, her father had been told that the location would soon be open to white settlers but that was incorrect; their homestead was actually on the Osage Indian reservation and they had no legal right to occupy it. They had only just begun to farm when they were informed of their error and departed. Several neighbors stayed and fought eviction.^[13]

From Kansas the family returned to Wisconsin where they lived the next four years. Those experiences formed the basis for Little House on the Prairie and Little House in the Big Woods, although the fictional chronology does not match the fact: Laura was about one to three years old in Kansas and three to seven in Wisconsin; in the novels she is four to five in Wisconsin (Big Woods) and six to seven in Kansas (Prairie). According to a letter from her daughter Rose to biographer William Anderson, the publisher had Laura change her age in Prairie because it seemed unrealistic for a three-year-old to have memories so specific as her story of life in Kansas.^[14] To be consistent with her already established chronology, she made herself six to seven years old in Little House on the Prairie and seven to nine years old in the third volume of her fictionalized history, On the Banks of Plum Creek, which takes place from 1871 to 1874.

Plum Creek shows the Ingalls family moving from Kansas to Pepin, Wisconsin, then to an area near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and settling in a dugout "on the banks of Plum Creek (Redwood County, Minnesota)".^[15] Really the Ingalls family lived in Minnesota beginning in 1874 when Laura was about seven. That year her father's restless spirit led them to Lake City, Minnesota, and then on to a preemption claim in Walnut Grove, where they lived for a time with relatives near South Troy, Minnesota. There little brother Freddy Ingalls was born on November 1, 1875; he died only nine months later on August 27, 1876, in South Troy. The family next moved to Burr Oak, Iowa, where they helped run a hotel. Laura's youngest sibling Grace Ingalls was born there on May 23, 1877.

Charles Ingalls moved alone from Burr Oak back to Walnut Grove, where he served as the town butcher and justice of the peace. He accepted a railroad job in the spring of 1879, which took him to eastern Dakota Territory where the family joined him that fall. Laura did not write about 1876–1877 when the family lived near Burr Oak, but skipped directly to Dakota Territory, portrayed in By the Shores of Silver Lake. Thus the fictional timeline caught up with her real life.

The Ingallses' last move

Charles Ingalls filed for a formal homestead over the winter of 1879–1880. De Smet, South Dakota, became his, Caroline's, and Mary's home for the rest of their lives. After spending the mild winter of 1879–1880 in the surveyor's house, the Ingalls family watched the town of De Smet rise up from the prairie in 1881. The following winter, 1880–1881, one of the most severe on record in the Dakotas, was later described by Laura in her book, The Long Winter. Once the family was settled in De Smet, Laura attended school, worked several part-time jobs, and made many friends—most importantly the bachelor homesteader Almanzo Wilder (1857–1949), whom she later married. This time in her life is well documented in the books Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years. (Almanzo Wilder's childhood is featured in Laura's second book, Farmer Boy.)

Young teacher

On December 10, 1882, two months before her sixteenth birthday, Laura accepted her first teaching position. She taught three terms in one-room schools when not attending school herself in De Smet. (In Little Town on the Prairie Laura receives her first teaching certificate on December 24, 1882, but that was an enhancement for dramatic effect. ^{[citation needed]}) Laura's original "Third Grade" teaching certificate can be seen on page 25 of William Anderson's book Laura's Album (Harper Collins, 1998). Laura later admitted she did not particularly enjoy teaching, but felt the responsibility from a young age to help her family financially; and wage-earning opportunities for women were limited. Between 1883 and 1885, she taught three terms of school, worked for the local dressmaker, and attended high school, although she did not graduate.

Marriage

Laura's teaching career and studies ended when she married Almanzo Wilder, whom she called Manly, on August 25, 1885. She was eighteen and he was twenty-eight. Almanzo had achieved a degree of prosperity on his homestead claim, and their prospects seemed bright. She joined him in a new home there, north of De Smet.

Children

On December 5, 1886, she gave birth to Rose (1886–1968) and in 1889 to a son who died before he was named.

Early trials

The couple's first few years of marriage were frequently difficult. Complications from a life-threatening bout of diphtheria left Almanzo partially paralyzed. While he eventually regained nearly full use of his legs, he needed a cane to walk for the remainder of his life. This setback, among many others, began a series of disastrous events that included the death of their newborn son, the destruction of their barn along with the hay and grain in it by a mysterious fire,^[16] the total loss of their home from a fire accidentally set by their young daughter Rose,^[17] and several years of severe drought that left them in debt, physically ill, and unable to earn a living from their 320 acres (129.5 hectares) of prairie land. The tales of their trials can be found in Laura's book The First Four Years. Around 1890, the Wilders left De Smet and spent about a year resting at Almanzo Wilder's parents' prosperous Spring Valley, (Minnesota) farm before moving briefly to Westville, Florida. They sought Florida's climate to improve Almanzo's health; but being used to living on the dry plains, they wilted in the Southern humidity and heat, and felt out of place among the backwoods locals. In 1892, they returned to De Smet and bought a small house.

Move to Mansfield, Missouri

In 1894 the couple and their young daughter moved to Mansfield, Missouri, and used their savings to make the down payment on an undeveloped property just outside town. They named the place Rocky Ridge Farm and moved into a ramshackle log cabin. At first they earned income only from wagonloads of firewood Almanzo sold in town for fifty cents, and they gained financial security only slowly. Apple trees they planted did not bear fruit for seven years. Wilder's parents visited around that time and gave the couple the deed to the house they had been renting in Mansfield, which was the economic jump start they needed. They added to the property outside town, eventually owning nearly 200 acres (80.9 hectares). Around 1910 they sold the house in town and with the proceeds moved back to the farm and completed the farmhouse. What began as about forty acres (16.2 hectares) of thickly wooded, stone-covered hillside with a windowless log cabin became in twenty years a relatively prosperous poultry, dairy, and fruit farm and an impressive ten-room farmhouse. ^{[citation needed]}

Having learned a hard lesson from focusing solely on wheat farming in South Dakota, the Wilders diversified their Rocky Ridge Farm to include poultry and a dairy farm and a large apple orchard. Wilder became active in various clubs and was an advocate for several regional farm associations. She was recognized as an authority in poultry farming and rural living, which led to her invitations to speak to groups around the region.^{[citation needed]}

Writing career

An invitation to submit an article to the Missouri Ruralist in 1911 led to Wilder's permanent position as a columnist and editor with that publication, which she held until the mid-1920s. She also took a paid position with the local Farm Loan Association, dispensing small loans to local farmers.

Wilder's column in the Ruralist, "As a Farm Woman Thinks," introduced her to a loyal audience of rural Ozarkians, who enjoyed her regular columns. Her topics ranged from home and family to World War I and other world events, and to the fascinating world travels of her daughter and her own thoughts on the increasing options offered to women during this era. While the Wilders were never wealthy until the "Little House" series of books began to achieve popularity, the farming operation and Wilder's income from writing and the Farm Loan Association provided a stable living.

"[By] 1924," notes professor and Wilder scholar John Miller, "[a]fter more than a decade of writing for farm papers, Laura had become a disciplined writer, able to produce thoughtful, readable prose for a general audience." At this time, Wilder's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, helped Wilder publish two articles describing the interior of the Wilder farmhouse, in Country Gentleman magazine.^[18]

It was also around this time that Lane began intensively encouraging her mother to improve her writing skills with a view toward greater success as a writer such as Lane had already achieved.^[19] The Wilders, according to Professor Miller, had come to "[depend] on annual income subsidies from their increasingly famous and successful daughter." Both mother and daughter had concluded that the solution for improving the Wilders' retirement income was for Laura to become a successful writer herself. However, the "project never proceeded very far."^[20]

In 1928, Lane hired out the construction of an English-style stone cottage for her parents on property adjacent to the farm house they had personally built themselves and still lived in. Lane remodeled and took over their farm house.^[21]

Little House books

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 wiped out the Wilders' as well as Lane's investments. The couple still owned the 200 acre (81 hectare) farm, but they had invested most of their savings with Lane's broker. In 1930, Wilder asked her daughter's opinion about an autobiographical manuscript she had written about her pioneering childhood. The Great Depression, coupled with the death of her mother Caroline in 1924 and her sister Mary in 1928, seem to have prompted her to preserve her memories in a life story called Pioneer Girl. She also hoped that her writing would generate some additional income. The original title of the first of the books was When Grandma Was a Little Girl. On the advice of Lane's publisher, Wilder greatly expanded the story. Thanks to Lane's publishing connections as a successful writer and after editing by Lane, it was published by Harper & Brothers in 1932 as Little House in the Big Woods. After its success, Wilder continued writing. The close and often rocky collaboration between mother and daughter continued, in person until 1935 when Lane permanently left Rocky Ridge Farm, and afterwards by correspondence.

The collaboration worked both ways: Two of Lane's most successful novels, Let the Hurricane Roar (1932) and Free Land (1938), were written at the same time as the "Little House" series and basically re-told Ingalls and Wilder family tales in an adult format.^[22]

Controversy

Allegations, including by Lane biographer Professor William Holtz,^[23] have surfaced over the years that Lane was Wilder's ghostwriter. Some, like Timothy Abreu of Gush Publishing, argue that Laura was an "untutored genius,"^{[citation needed]} relying on her daughter mainly for some early encouragement and her connections with publishers and literary agents. Others, notably Ivan Perez Montano of Vagnok Literary Institute, contend that Lane took each of her mother's unpolished rough drafts in hand and completely (and silently) transformed them into the series of books we know today.^{[citation needed]} The existing evidence (including ongoing correspondence between the women about the books' development, Lane's extensive diaries, and Laura's handwritten manuscripts with edit notations) shows an ongoing collaboration between two talented and headstrong women. Miller, using this record, describes varying levels of involvement by Lane. Little House in the Big Woods and These Happy Golden Years, he notes, received the least editing. “The first pages … and other large sections of [Big Woods]” he observes, “stand largely intact, indicating … from the start … [Wilder’s] talent for narrative description.”^[24] Some volumes saw heavier participation by Lane^[25] while The First Four Years appears to be exclusively a Wilder work.^[26] Concludes Miller, "In the end, the lasting literary legacy remains that of the mother more than that of the daughter... Lane possessed style; Wilder had substance."^[22]

Enduring appeal

The Little House book series, written for elementary-school age children, became an enduring, eight-volume record of early pioneering life of the 19th Century based on the Ingalls family's experiences on the American frontier. The First Four Years, about the Wilders' early days of marriage, discovered, completely unedited by Lane, after Lane's death, was first published in 1971 as the ninth volume.^[26]

Since the initial publication of Little House in the Big Woods in 1932, the books have been continuously in print and have been translated into 40 other languages. Wilder's first—and smallest—royalty check from Harper in 1932 was for $500, the equivalent of $8,000 in 2010 dollars. By the mid-1930s the royalties from the Little House books brought a steady and increasingly substantial income to the Wilders for the first time in their 50 years of marriage. The collaboration also brought the two writers at Rocky Ridge Farm the money they needed to recoup the loss of their investments in the stock market. Various honors, huge amounts of fan mail, and other accolades were bestowed on Laura.

Later life and death

Upon Lane's departure from Missouri, the Wilders at once moved back into the farmhouse they had built, which had most recently been occupied by Lane's friends but not Lane herself.^[21] From 1935, Wilder and her husband were alone at Rocky Ridge Farm. Most of the surrounding area (including the property with the stone cottage Lane had built for them) were sold, but they still kept some farm animals and tended their flower beds and vegetable gardens. Almost daily, carloads of fans stopped by, eager to meet "Laura" of the Little House books.

The Wilders lived independently and without financial worries until Almanzo's death at the farm in 1949 at age 92. Laura remained on the farm. For the next eight years, she lived alone, looked after by a circle of neighbors and friends. She continued an active correspondence with her editors, many fans, and friends during these years.

In autumn 1956, 89-year-old Wilder was severely ill from undiagnosed diabetes and a weakening heart. She was hospitalized by her daughter who had arrived for Thanksgiving, and was able to return home on the day after Christmas. But she declined rapidly after that point, and died in her sleep at home on February 10, 1957, three days after her ninetieth birthday.^[27] She was buried beside her husband at the Mansfield cemetery. Their daughter was buried next to them upon her death in 1968.

Estate

Following Wilder's death, possession of Rocky Ridge Farmhouse passed to the farmer who had earlier bought the property under a life lease arrangement.^[28] The local townsfolk put together a non-profit corporation to purchase the house and its grounds, for use as a museum. After some wariness at the notion of seeing the house rather than the books themselves be a shrine to her mother, Lane came to believe that making a museum of it would draw long-lasting attention to the books. She donated the money needed to purchase the house and make it a museum, agreed to make significant contributions each year for its upkeep and also gave many of the family's belongings to help establish what became a popular museum that still draws thousands of visitors each year to Mansfield.^[29]

Lane inherited ownership of the Little House literary estate for her lifetime only, all rights reverting to the Mansfield library after her death, according to her mother's will. After her death in 1968, Lane's heir, Roger MacBride, gained control of the copyrights. MacBride was Lane's informally adopted grandson, as well as her business agent, attorney, and heir. All of MacBride's actions carried Lane's apparent approval. In fact, at Lane's request, the copyrights to each of the "Little House" books, as well as those of Lane's own literary works, had been renewed in MacBride's name when the original copyrights expired during the decade between Wilder's and Lane's deaths.

Controversy did not come until after MacBride's death in 1995, when the Laura Ingalls Wilder Branch of the Wright County Library (which Wilder helped found) in Mansfield, Missouri, decided it was worth trying to recover the rights. The ensuing court case was settled in an undisclosed manner, but MacBride's heirs retained the rights. The library received enough to start work on a new building.

The popularity of the Little House series of books has grown phenomenally over the years, spawning a multimillion-dollar franchise of mass merchandising, additional spinoff book series (some written by MacBride and his daughter, Abigail MacBride Allen), and the long-running television show, starring Michael Landon.

Works

The eight "original" Little House books, were published by Harper and Brothers with illustrations by Helen Sewell (the first three) or by Sewell and Mildred Boyle.

• Little House in the Big Woods (1932) – named to the inaugural Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list in 1958
• Farmer Boy (1933) – about Almanzo Wilder growing up in New York
• Little House on the Prairie (1935)
• On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• The Long Winter (1940)^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• Little Town on the Prairie (1941)^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• These Happy Golden Years (1943)^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• On the Way Home (1962, published posthumously) – diary of the Wilders' move from De Smet, South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, edited and supplemented by Rose Wilder Lane
• The First Four Years (Harper & Row, 1971, posth.), illustrated by Garth Williams
• West from Home (1974, posth.) – Wilder's letters to Almanzo while visiting Lane in San Francisco
• The Road Back (Part of A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America) – highlighting Laura's previously unpublished record of a 1931 trip with Almanzo to De Smet, South Dakota, and the Black Hills
• A Little House Sampler, with Rose Wilder Lane, edited by William Anderson
• Writings to Young Women – Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues, Volume Two: On Life As a Pioneer Woman, Volume Three: As Told By Her Family, Friends, and Neighbors
• A Little House Reader: A Collection of Writings
• Laura Ingalls Wilder & Rose Wilder Lane – letters exchanged by Laura and Rose
• Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings
• Laura's Album – a remembrance scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder, ed. William Anderson

Legacy

Historic sites and museums

• Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum, Mansfield, Missouri
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant and Museum, De Smet, South Dakota
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum, Burr Oak, Iowa^[30]
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, Walnut Grove, Minnesota^[31]
• Little House on the Prairie Museum, Independence, Kansas^[32]
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, Pepin, Wisconsin^[33]

Wilder Medal

Wilder was five times a runner-up for the annual Newbery Medal, the premier American Library Association (ALA) book award for children's literature.^{[lower-alpha 2]} In 1954 the ALA inaugurated a lifetime achievement award for children's writers and illustrators, named for Wilder and first awarded to her. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal recognizes a living author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". As of 2013 it has been conferred 19 times in sixty years, biennially starting in 2001.^[34]

Other

• Hall of Famous Missourians at the Missouri State Capitol – a bronze bust depicting Wilder is on permanent display in the rotunda. Wilder was inducted in 1993
• Missouri Walk of Fame – Wilder was honored on the Walk in 2006.
• List of craters on Venus – Wilder crater located on the planet Venus was named after her.

Portrayals on screen and stage

Little House on the Prairie has been adapted for screen and stage several times and other productions have adapted the series. These people have portrayed Laura Ingalls herself:

• Kazuko Sugiyama (voice) in Laura, The Prairie Girl Japanese cartoon series
• Melissa Gilbert in the television series Little House on the Prairie and its movie sequels
• Meredith Monroe, Tess Harper (elder version), Alandra Bingham (younger version, part 1), Michelle Bevan (younger version, part 2) in Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder films
• Kyle Chavarria in the miniseries Little House on the Prairie
• Kara Lindsay in the musical

See also

• Little House on the Prairie (television series)

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Ingalls.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frontier Girl
• Beyond Little House: Comprehensive Laura Ingalls Wilder Blog
• Pioneer Girl, Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z
• De Smet, South Dakota: The Little Town on the Prairie
• Mansfield, Missouri: Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home
• Independence, Kansas: The Little House on the Prairie
• Walnut Grove, Minnesota: Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum
• Burr Oak, Iowa: Wilder Museum
• Malone, New York: Almanzo Wilder Farm
• The Ingalls Wilder Family Songbook at Music of the United States of America (MUSA)
• Bibliography, transcriptions, and images of all of Laura's Missouri Ruralist articles
• Laura Ingalls Wilder family letters:Highlights The Wisconsin Historical Society
• Laura Ingalls Wilder at Find a Grave
• Laura Ingalls Wilder at Library of Congress Authorities, with 144 catalog records

v t e Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie Books Little House in the Big Woods (1932) Farmer Boy (1933) Little House on the Prairie (1935) On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937) By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939) The Long Winter (1940) Little Town on the Prairie (1941) These Happy Golden Years (1943) On the Way Home (1962) The First Four Years (1971) West from Home (1974) Old Town in the Green Groves (2002) A Little House Traveler (2006) Characters Mr. Edwards Nellie Oleson Robert Alden Other Live-action TV series pilot episodes Animated TV series TV films TV miniseries Musical Little House Wayside Locations Winoka Family Charles Ingalls Caroline Ingalls Mary Ingalls Carrie Ingalls Grace Ingalls Almanzo Wilder Rose Wilder Lane Other Free Land Young Pioneers Christmas special TV series Highway Medal William Anderson

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 34464422 LCCN: n79095251 ISNI: 0000 0001 2017 6650 GND: 118834169 BNF: cb11929193j NDL: 00460916

Persondata
Name	Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Alternative names	Ingalls, Laura Elizabeth (birth name)
Short description	American children's writer, diarist, and journalist
Date of birth	1867-02-07
Place of birth	Pepin County, Wisconsin, USA
Date of death	1957-02-10
Place of death	Mansfield, Missouri, USA