February 7 - Happy Birthday, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Posted on February 7, 2022

Key Points

This is an update of my post published on February 7, 2011:

She lived in a little house in Wisconsin, then in little houses in Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa. She ended up in the Dakota Territory – but you better believe she still lived in a little house!

Born Laura Ingalls on this date in 1867, she married Almanzo Wilder and lived in the Dakotas, Florida, and Missouri. At times as a married woman Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in a ramshackle, windowless log cabin—but eventually the hard-working couple managed build and live in a 10-room farmhouse with outbuildings.

Wilder had lived a pioneering, farming, rural life as a child and as an adult, and later in life, inspired by her daughter’s writing career, she began to write about her own and others’ experiences in a series of children’s books: Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and six other books. Wilder was 64 years old when her first book was published.

Above, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Below, Rose Wilder Lane

Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, wrote adult novels—and the two most successful were written about many of the same adventures in her mother’s Little House series. Both women were able to achieve a certain amount of fame and fortune for their writings, although these days Wilder is far more famous than is Lane.

Apparently there is a big question mark about how much of the Little House books Laura Ingalls Wilder actually wrote, and how much was Rose Wilder Lane’s work. Probably Wilder did pretty much all the writing and Lane heavily edited. At any rate, the mother-and-daughter team succeeded, however they divided up the work!

WARNING!!

Wilder’s books portray horrible racism toward Native and Black characters. Some people suggest cutting out the most egregious passages, but most people agree that we should enjoy the books BUT talk about the racism. Why did Ma and Pa say such awful things? Let’s deal with the racism that existed then and today, examine it, discuss it – and there lies the path toward building anti-racism!

Here is an article to help you consider the racism in the books.