Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman behind the Legend

by John E. Miller

Overview

Although generations of readers of the Little House books are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder’s early life up through her first years of marriage to Almanzo Wilder, few know about her adult years. Going beyond previous studies, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder focuses upon Wilder’s years in Missouri from 1894 to 1957. Utilizing her unpublished autobiography, letters, newspaper stories, and other documentary evidence, John E. Miller fills the gaps in Wilder’s autobiographical novels and describes her sixty-three years of living in Mansfield, Missouri. As a result, the process of personal development that culminated in Wilder’s writing of the novels that secured her reputation as one of America’s most popular children’s authors becomes evident.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826261151
Publisher:	University of Missouri Press
Publication date:	01/31/2006
Series:	Missouri Biography Series , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

John E. Miller is a writer and historian who taught American history for three decades at South Dakota State University. He is the author of several books, including Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little Town: Where History and Literature Meet and Looking for History on Highway 14. He resides in Brookings, South Dakota.

The Missouri Biography Series, edited by William E. Foley

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Pioneer Girl, 1867-1879 2. Schoolgirl and Courting Days, 1879-1885 3. The Joys and Sorrows of Early Married Life, 1885-1894 4. In the Land of the Big Red Apple, 1894-1911 5. Building a Writing Career, 1911-1923 6. Turning to Autobiography, 1923-1932 7. Becoming a Celebrated Author, 1932-1937 8. Completing the Series, 1937-1943 9. Basking in the Glow of Her Readers' Affection, 1943-1957 Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

"[Miller] draws on Wilder’s unpublished autobiography, existing letters written to her daughter and to her husband on the few occasions she traveled without him, and her fiction and ‘newspaper stories, local histories, land records,’ which he mines to create an impressively detailed context for her life. . . . Miller does not try to make her any more-or less-than she was, and that is the virtue of his biography."

Washington Post Book World

"Miller’s absorbing new biography . . . puts the author’s early years in context before focusing on her adult life as a farmer’s wife, mother, journalist and budding author. . . . Miller uncovers facts about Laura’s life that were not revealed in her own work, and he places her experience in a broader context. He makes her days on the frontier and the farm come alive with statistics on population and demographics as well as rich details about Indians and wildlife."

In These Times

Draws on Wilder’s unpublished autobiography, existing letters written to her daughter and to her husband on the few occasions she traveled without him, and her fiction and ‘newspaper stories, local histories, land records,’ which he mines to create an impressively detailed context for her life. . . . Miller does not try to make her any more--or less--than she was, and that is the virtue of his biography.”--Washington Post Book World

“John E. Miller’s scrupulous new biography of Wilder is a valuable and absorbing book.”--Great Plains Quarterly

“Miller’s thorough, riveting, work illuminates a complex process of authorship, and the mother and daughter behind it.”--Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"An enjoyable portrait of a fascinating personality and her time.”--Ventura County Star

“Shedding new light on this remarkable woman, Miller demonstrates that Wilder’s entire life was a process of becoming the woman we know as the beloved children’s author.”--American Bookseller

“Miller’s absorbing new biography . . . puts the author’s early years in context before focusing on her adult life as a farmer’s wife, mother, journalist and budding author. . . . Miller uncovers facts about Laura’s life that were not revealed in her own work, and he places her experience in a broader context. He makes her days on the frontier and the farm come alive with statistics on population and demographics as well as rich details about Indians and wildlife.”--In These Times

From the Publisher