A Laura Ingalls Wilder suggested reading list

Laura Ingalls Wilder, c. 1930s. Photo: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library

The “Little House” books are the eight autobiographical novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder, originally published in the 1930s and 1940s. A ninth book was published after her death. They are:

“Little House in the Big Woods.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1932.
“Farmer Boy.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1933.
“Little House on the Prairie.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1935.
“On the Banks of Plum Creek.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1937.
“By the Shores of Silver Lake.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1939.
“The Long Winter.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1940.
“Little Town on the Prairie.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1941.
“These Happy Golden Years.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1943.
“The First Four Years.” New York: HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, 1971.

Many, many additional works examine the life, work and cultural impact of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the “Little House” books. A selected list includes:

Anderson, William, ed. “The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” New York: Harper, 2017.
Anderson, William. “Laura Ingalls Wilder Country: The People and Places of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Life and Books.” New York: HarperPerennial, 1995.
Arngrim, Alison. “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated.” New York: HarperCollins, 2011.
Fellman, Anita Clair. “Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Impact on American Culture.” Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press: 2008.
Fraser, Caroline. “Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” New York: Metropolitan Books, 2017.
Gilbert, Melissa. “Prairie Tale: A Memoir.” New York: Gallery Books, 2010.
Hill, Pamela Smith. “Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life.” Pierre, SD: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2007.
Hill, Pamela Smith.”Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography.” Pierre, SD: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2014.
Hines, Stephen W. “Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist: Writings from the Ozarks.” Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2008.
Holtz, William. “The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane.” Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1995.
Ketcham, Sallie. “Laura Ingalls Wilder: American Writer on the Prairie.” New York: Routledge, 2015.
Miller, Sarah. “Caroline: Little House, Revisited.” New York: William Morrow, 2017.
McClure, Wendy. “The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie.” New York: Riverhead, 2011.
McDowell, Marta. “The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Frontier Landscapes That Inspired the Little House Books.” Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2017.
Miller, John E. “Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend.” Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2006.
Miller, John E. “Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane: Authorship, Time, Place and Culture.” Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2008.
Romines, Ann. “Constructing the Little House: Gender, Culture, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.” Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.
Walker, Barbara. “The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories.” New York: HarperCollins, 2018.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls, and Rose Wilder Lane. “A Little House Sampler.” University of Nebraska Press, 1988.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. “A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Journeys Across America.” Harper Collins, 2006.
Woodside, Christine. “Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books.” New York: Arcade, 2016.