Laura Ingalls Wilder (Littles House Books)

by William Anderson

Paperback, 1995

Status

Available

Local notes

921 Wil

Barcode

6315

Collection

Publication

HarperColl (1995), 256 pages

Description

A biography of the writer whose pioneer life on the American prairie became the basis for her "Little House" books.

Awards

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1992

Physical description

256 p.; 5.25 inches

User reviews

LibraryThing member t1bclasslibrary
This is a standard biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder- it talks about her life from childhood, and explains what changes she made in the books.
LibraryThing member MerryMary
Fills in many gaps in Laura's story as we know it from her books. A bit simplified, but still of worth.
LibraryThing member mrsarey
This is a great look at the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Although she gave a great sense of her world, it has always been through a child's eyes. With this biography, it makes that world whole and understandable.
LibraryThing member rainbowdarling
As a biography, this book lives up to expectations. It gives great detail about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life and her travels. It gives a lot of details left out of the Little House series and fills in some of the gaps that are completely skipped over. However, it seems to gloss over even some of the
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known facts of her life as detailed in other biographies (Donald Zochert's 1977 biography, for instance, gives greater detail). After reading another biography, this one seems to fall short on both detail and facts.

This is not a bad biography by any means, but I think the one by Donald Zochert is better and more detailed. It seems to give a more complete and more accurate view of Wilder's life and is therefore more satisfying for one in search of a truly meaty biography.
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LibraryThing member Jdonldsn
This biography of one of the most beloved pioneer writers of our country is unique in that it offers snippets of the people in Laura's life growing up than most other accounts. Also, the photos were good and give the reader a great picture of the era.
Classroom Use: Write a short story about the
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things you have and your way of life just as Laura did with her books. What do you think Laura would have been like if she had grown up with you and all the technology we have today?
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LibraryThing member silversurfer
A great little biography about an Author that became an American Icon. It tells the well know story of Laura & Charles and their travels throught the western land during the 1800's. If you only know Laura's story throuhg the TV series, you really don't know it at all. Much of what we saw came from
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writer's imagination's. Actually her true account of her life is much more fascinating. Especially her 64 year marriage to Almanzo Wilder. This book pays homage to them and Laura;s exciting life.
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LibraryThing member waltzmn
"Biography" comes from two Greek words, βίος, earthly life, the way of the world; and γράφω, to write. So a proper biography should tell of a person's true and genuine life.

Even if that life is not the story the subject of the biography told.

Let's be clear: The "Little House" books are
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fiction. They are very loosely based on the life of Laura Ingalls, later known as "Bessie" Wilder, but Wilder had no qualms about rewriting her past. Her goal in writing Little House in the Big Woods does not appear to have been to write a biography; she seems to have been trying to describe how pioneers lived. To accomplish this, she made herself several years older than she actually was. What's more, her writer daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, heavily modified her mother's work, so that it probably drifted even farther from the truth. Where, for instance, is the dead brother? How did Pa avoid fighting in the Civil War? And what about the missing stops on the Ingalls trail of tears?

This "biography" is, frankly, far too much "Little House" and far too little reality. It is not a proper biography; it is much too willing to accept Laura's writings even when they conflict with the known facts. Admittedly the facts are hard to come by -- the Ingalls family left no diaries, and they lived near the frontier; we have only a few census records and such from their early years. But if one wishes to read Laura's version of history -- well, read the "Little House" books, not this. If you want a true biography, the best I know of is John E. Miller's Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend. Pamela Smith Hill's Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life is more about the composition of the books, but it too is useful. If you then wish to read Anderson's piece of hagiographic literature, fine -- but be aware that it is just that: the secular equivalent of a saint's life, not a biography.
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Pages

256

Rating

½ (52 ratings; 3.8)
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