At age 64, Wilder received unexpected news from a New York editor: She was on her way to becoming a children’s author. The manuscript she had mailed had eventually turned into “Little House in the Big Woods.” Wilder said that upon the book’s success and reading all the letters she received from children around the country she began to think “what a wonderful childhood I had had.”
Video Features
Clip | The letter from NY that changed Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life
Clip | Roxane Gay and others on racist “Little House” depictions
Clip | The word that Laura refused to say in her wedding vows
Clip | Until she was an author, money was a struggle for Wilder
Clip | The secret mother-daughter collaboration on “Little House”
Clip | Disaster was looming when the Ingalls moved to Minnesota
Clip | How the logs of the “Little House” cabin were stolen
Written Features
The subtle libertarian politics of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books
What should be done about racist depictions in the “Little House” books?
8 Interesting facts about Laura Ingalls Wilder
What’s it like to attend “Laurapalooza,” the conference for Laura Ingalls Wilder superfans (“bonnetheads”)?
A “Little House” adulthood: How the books changed when I grew up
In promoting the “myth of white self-sufficiency,” the “Little House” books rewrite history
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s famous gingerbread recipe
Laura Ingalls Wilder biographical timeline
Favorite quotes from the “Little House” books
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 1916 column for Thanksgiving reminds us to “just be glad that we are alive”
10 of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s most inspiring quotes
127 songs are mentioned in the “Little House” books. This playlist presents many of them.
A Laura Ingalls Wilder suggested reading list
Quizzes & Games
How well do you know the life and work of Laura Ingalls Wilder? Test your knowledge with this beginner quiz.
How well do you know the life and work of Laura Ingalls Wilder? Test your knowledge with this advanced quiz.
How well do you know the life and work of Laura Ingalls Wilder? Test your knowledge with this expert quiz.
Join the Laura Ingalls Wilder #ShareYourShelfieContest
Play Laura Ingalls Wilder bingo
TRANSCRIPT
(gentle music) - [Female Narrator] Mrs. Laura I. Wilder, Rocky Ridge, Mansfield, Missouri.
Dear Mrs. Wilder, I liked the material you've used.
It covers a period in American history about which very little has been written and almost nothing for boys and girls.
- [Male Narrator] The news from a New York editor was unexpected, and at 64, Laura Ingalls Wilder was on her way to becoming a children's author.
The manuscript 'When Grandma was a Little Girl,' was spun out of a memoir Wilder had written called 'Pioneer Girl'. It showed promise, but it needed more work.
- [Female Narrator] Would you be willing to make some editorial changes on your manuscript?
The more details you can include about the everyday life of the pioneers, such as the making of the bullets, what they eat and wear, et cetera, the more vivid an appeal it will make to children's imaginations.
- [Male Narrator] 'When Grandma was a Little Girl' turned into 'Little House in the Big Woods' and that turned into something else entirely.
- When to my surprise the book made such a success and children all over the U.S. wrote to me begging for more stories, I began to think what a wonderful childhood I had had.
(gentle music) (children giggling) - [Narrator] So began the 'Little House' series.
Wilder's eight books about growing up and moving West.
Running through them all, she later said, were her parent's values.
When possible, they turned the bad into good.
When not possible, they endured.
Sister Mary and I love Pa's stories best.
We never forgot them and I have always thought that they were just too good to be altogether lost.