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Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, near the village of Pepin, in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin, to Charles Phillip Ingalls and Caroline Lake (Quiner) Ingalls. She was the second of five children; her siblings were Mary Amelia, who went blind; Caroline Celestia, Charles Frederick, who died at nine months old, and Grace Pearl. Her birth site is commemorated by a period log cabin, the Little House Wayside. Her life here formed the basis for the book Little House in the Big Woods. A paternal ancestor was Edmund Ingalls born June 27, 1586 in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, England. He died on September 16, 1648 in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. She is also a descendant of the Delano family and Edmund Rice, a 1638 immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony. In Laura's early childhood, her father settled on land not yet open for homesteading in what was then Indian Territory near Independence, Kansas -- an experience that formed the basis of Ingalls' novel Little House on the Prairie. Within a few years, her father's restless spirit led them on various moves to a preemption claim in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, living with relatives near South Troy, Minnesota, and helping to run a hotel in Burr Oak, Iowa. After a move from Burr Oak back to Walnut Grove, where Charles Ingalls served as the town butcher and Justice of the Peace, Charles accepted a railroad job in the spring of 1879 which led him to eastern Dakota Territory, where he was joined by the family in the fall of 1879. Over the winter of 1879 - 1880, Charles landed a homestead, and called DeSmet, South Dakota, home for the rest of his, Caroline, and Mary's lives. After spending the mild winter of 1879 – 1880 in the Surveyor's House, the Ingalls family watched the town of DeSmet rise up from the prairie in 1880. The following winter, 1880 – 1881, one of the most severe on record in the Dakotas, was later described by Wilder in her book, The Long Winter. Once the family was settled in DeSmet, Wilder attended school, worked several part-time jobs and made many friends, most importantly the bachelor homesteader Almanzo Wilder (1857 – 1949), whom she later married, despite his being 10 years older than her. This time in her life is well documented in the Little House series of books. Shortly before her sixteenth birthday, she accepted her first teaching position, teaching three terms in one room schools, when not attending school herself in DeSmet. She later admitted that she did not particularly enjoy teaching, but felt the responsibility from a young age to help her family financially, and wage earning opportunities for females were limited. Between 1883 and 1885, she taught three terms of school, worked for the local dressmaker and attended high school, although she did not graduate. Her teaching career and her own studies ended when she married Almanzo Wilder, whom she called Manly, on August 25, 1885, when she was eighteen and he was twenty-eight. Almanzo Wilder had achieved a degree of prosperity on his homestead claim, owing to favorable weather in the early 1880s, and the couple's prospects seemed bright. She joined Almanzo in a new home on his claim north of De Smet and agreed to help him make the claim succeed. On December 5, 1886, she gave birth to Rose Wilder (1886 – 1968) and later, an unnamed son, who died shortly after birth in 1889. The first few years of marriage held many trials. Complications from a life threatening bout of diphtheria left Almanzo partially paralyzed. While he eventually regained nearly full use of his legs, he needed a cane to walk for the remainder of his life. This setback, among many others, began a series of disastrous events that included the death of their unnamed newborn son, the destruction of their home and barn by fire, and several years of severe drought that left them in debt, physically ill, and unable to earn a living from their 320 acres (1.3 km2) of prairie land. The tales of their trials at farming can be found in The First Four Years, a manuscript that was discovered after Rose Wilder Lane's death. Published in 1971, it detailed the hard fought first four years of marriage on the Dakota prairies. Around 1890, the Wilders left DeSmet and spent about a year resting at Wilder's parents' prosperous Spring Valley (Minnesota) farm before moving briefly to Westville, Florida. They sought Florida's climate to improve Wilder's health, but being used to living on the dry plains, they wilted in the heat and Southern humidity, and felt out of place among the backwoods locals. In 1892, they returned to DeSmet and bought a small house (although later accounts by Lane mistakenly indicated it was rented). The Wilders received special permission to start their precocious daughter in school early and took jobs (Almanzo as a day laborer, Laura as a seamstress at a dressmaker's shop) to save enough money to once again start a farm. In 1894, the hard-pressed young couple moved a final time to Mansfield, Missouri, using their savings to make a down payment on a piece of undeveloped property just outside of town. They named the place Rocky Ridge Farm. What began as about 40 acres (0.2 km2) of thickly wooded, stone covered hillside with a windowless log cabin, over the next 20 years evolved into a 200-acre (0.8 km2),
relatively prosperous poultry, dairy, and fruit farm. The ramshackle
log cabin was eventually replaced with an impressive 10-room farmhouse
and outbuildings. The couple's climb to financial security was a slow
process. Initially, the only income the farm produced was from
wagonloads of firewood Almanzo sold for 50 cents in town, the result of
the backbreaking work of clearing the trees and stones from land that
slowly evolved into fertile fields and pastures. The apple trees did
not begin to bear fruit for seven years. Barely able to eke out more
than a subsistence living on the new farm, the Wilders decided to move
into nearby Mansfield in the late 1890s and rent a small house. Almanzo
found work as an oil salesman and general delivery man, while Laura
took in boarders and served meals to local railroad workers. Wilder's
parents visited around this time, and presented to the couple, as a
gift, the deed to the house they had been renting in Mansfield. This
was the economic jump start they needed; they added acerage to the
original purchase, eventually owning nearly 200 acres. Around 1910,
sold the house in town and using the proceeds from the sale, were able
to move back to the farm permanently, and to complete Rocky Ridge
Farmhouse. By
1910, Rocky Ridge Farm was established to the point where the Wilders
returned there to focus their efforts on increasing the farm's
productivity and output. The impressive 10-room farmhouse completed in
1912 stands as a testament to their labors and determination to carve a
comfortable and attractive home from the land. Having
learned a hard lesson from focusing solely on wheat farming in South
Dakota, the Wilders' Rocky Ridge Farm became a diversified poultry and
dairy farm, with an abundant apple orchard. Wilder, always active in
various clubs and an advocate for several regional farm associations,
was recognized as an authority in poultry farming and rural living,
which led to invitations to talk to groups around the region. Following her daughter Rose Wilder Lane's developing writing career also inspired Wilder to do some writing of her own. An invitation to submit an article to the Missouri Ruralist in
1911 led to a permanent position as a columnist and editor with that
publication — a position she held until the mid-1920s. She also took a
paid position with a Farm Loan Association, dispensing small loans to local farmers from her office in the farmhouse. Her column in the Ruralist, "As a Farm Woman Thinks," introduced Mrs. A.J. Wilder to a loyal audience of rural Ozarkians, who enjoyed her regular columns, whose topics ranged from home and family to World War I and
other world events, to the fascinating world travels of her daughter
and her own thoughts on the increasing options offered to women during this era. While
the Wilders were never wealthy until the "Little House" series of books
began to achieve popularity, the farming operation and Wilder's income
from writing and the Farm Loan Association provided a stable enough
living for the Wilders to finally place themselves in Anderson,
Missouri middle class society. Wilder's
fellow clubwomen were mostly the wives of business owners, doctors and
lawyers, and her club activities took up much of the time that Lane
encouraged her to use to develop a writing career for national
magazines, as Lane had done. Wilder seemed unable or unwilling to make
the leap from writing for the Missouri Ruralist to
these higher paying national markets. The few articles she was able to
sell to national magazines were heavily edited by her daughter and
placed solely through Lane's established publishing connections. For
much of the 1920s and 1930s, between long stints living abroad
(including in her beloved adopted country of Albania), Lane
lived with the Wilders at Rocky Ridge Farm. As her free-lance writing
career flourished, she successfully invested in the booming stock market. Her
newfound financial freedom led her to increasingly assume
responsibility for her aging parents' support, as well as providing for
the college educations of several young people she "adopted," both in
Albania and Mansfield. Lane also took over the farmhouse her parents
had built and had a beautiful, modern stone cottage constructed for
them as a gift. However, when Lane left the farm for good a few years
later, the Wilders, homesick for the house they had built with their
own hands, moved back to it, and finished their lives there. By the
late 1920s, they had scaled back the farming operation considerably and
Wilder had resigned from her positions with the Missouri Ruralist and
the Farm Loan Association. Hired help was installed in the caretaker's
house Lane had built on the property, to take care of the remaining
farm work that Almanzo, now in his 70s, could no longer easily manage.
A comfortable and worry-free retirement seemed possible for the Wilders
until the Stock Market Crash of 1929 wiped out the family's investments. The couple still owned the 200 acres (0.8 km2)
farm, but they had invested most of their hard-won savings with Lane's
broker. Lane was faced with the grim prospect of selling enough of her
writing in a depressed market to maintain the financial
responsibilities she had assumed, and the Wilders became dependent on
her as their primary source of support. In
1930, Wilder asked her daughter's opinion about a biographical
manuscript she had written about her pioneering childhood. The Great Depression,
coupled with the death of her mother in 1924 and her sister Mary in
1928, seem to have prompted her to preserve her memories in a "life
story" called Pioneer Girl.
She had also renewed her interest in writing in the hope of generating
some income. The first idea for the title of the first of the books was When Grandma was a Little Girl (later Little House in the Big Woods). After its success, Laura continued writing, given mental support and help in the form of her sister, Carrie, sharing her own memories. Almanzo died in 1949, aged 92. Laura died on February 10, 1957, three days
after her 90th birthday. Both died at Rocky Ridge Farm at Mansfield, Missouri. Controversy surrounds Lane's exact role in what became her mother's famous "Little House" series of books. Some argue
that Laura was an "untutored genius," relying on her daughter mainly
for some early encouragement and her connections with publishers and
literary agents. Others contend
that Lane took each of her mother's unpolished rough drafts in hand and
completely (and silently) transformed them into the series of books we
know today. The truth most likely lies somewhere between these two
positions — Wilder's writing career as a rural journalist and credible
essayist began more than two decades before the "Little House" series,
and Lane's formidable skills as an editor and ghostwriter are well-documented. But Lane's New York literary agent, George T. Bye, turned away the initial drafts, commenting that they lacked drama.
The
existing evidence (including ongoing correspondence between the women
concerning the development of the series, Lane's extensive personal
diaries and Wilder's first person draft manuscripts) tends to reveal an
ongoing joint collaboration. The conclusion can be drawn that Wilder's
strengths as a compelling storyteller and Lane's considerable skills in
dramatic pacing and literary structure contributed to an occasionally
tense, but fruitful, collaboration between two talented and headstrong
women. Whatever the extent of the collaboration, it seems to have worked both ways: two of Lane's most successful novels, Let the Hurricane Roar (1932) and Free Land (1938),
were written at the same time as the "Little House" series and
basically re-told Ingalls and Wilder family tales in an adult format.
The collaboration also brought the two writers at Rocky Ridge Farm the
money they needed to recoup the loss of their investments in the stock
market. Simply stated: If Wilder had not written the books, they would
not exist — Lane had no interest in writing what she called "juveniles"
— but had Lane not edited the books, they might well have never been
accepted for publication let alone become famous. Since the initial
publication of "Little House in the Big Woods" in 1931, the books have been continually in print and have been translated into 40 different languages. Whatever
the collaboration personally represented to the mother and daughter was
never publicly discussed, however. Wilder's first — and smallest —
royalty check from Harper in 1932 was for $500 — the equivalent of
$8,000 in 2010 funds. By the mid-1930s the royalties from the "Little
House" books brought a steady and increasingly substantial income to
the Wilders for the first time in their 50 years of marriage. Various
honors, huge amounts of fan mail and other accolades were granted to
Laura Ingalls Wilder. The novels and short stories of Rose Wilder Lane during
the 1930s also represented her creative and literary peak. Her name
received top billing on the magazine covers where her fiction and
articles appeared. The Saturday Evening Post paid her $30,000 in 1938 (approximately $450,000 in 2010 funds) to serialize her best-selling novel Free Land, while Let the Hurricane Roar saw an increasing and steady sale, augmented by a radio dramatization starring Helen Hayes. The book remains in print today as Young Pioneers. Lane left Rocky Ridge Farm in the late 1930s, establishing homes in Harlingen, Texas, and Danbury, Connecticut.
She eventually ceased fiction writing and spent the remainder of her
life writing about and promoting her philosophies of personal freedom
and liberty. She became one of the more influential American libertarians of the mid-twentieth century. During
these years, Wilder and her husband were frequently alone at Rocky
Ridge Farm. Most of the surrounding area (including the property with
the stone cottage Lane had built for them) had been sold off, but they
still kept some farm animals, and tended their flower beds and
vegetable gardens. Almost daily, carloads of fans would stop by, eager
to meet "Laura" of the Little House books.
The Wilders lived independently and without financial worries until
Almanzo's death in 1949, at the age of 92. Wilder was grieved, but
determined to remain independent and stay on the farm, despite Lane's
requests that her mother come live with her permanently in Connecticut.
For the next eight years, she lived alone, looked after by a circle of
neighbors and friends who found it hard to believe their very own "Mrs.
Wilder" was a world famous author. She was a familiar figure in
Mansfield, being brought into town regularly by her driver to run
errands, attend church, or visit friends. She continued an active
correspondence with her editors, many fans and friends during these
years. Throughout
the 1950s, Wilder was visited by Lane for long periods, usually for the
winter. Once, Wilder flew to Connecticut with Lane for a visit to
Lane's home. In the fall of 1956, Lane arrived in Mansfield for
Thanksgiving, and found her 89-year-old mother severely ill from
undiagnosed diabetes and a weakening heart. Several weeks in the
hospital seemed to improve the situation somewhat, and Wilder was able
to return home on the day after Christmas. But she was very old and
very ill, and declined rapidly after that point. Wilder had an
extremely competitive spirit going all the way back to the schoolyard
as a child, and she had remarked to many people that she wanted to live
to be 90, "because Almanzo had". She succeeded. On February 10, 1957,
just three days after her 90th birthday, Laura Ingalls Wilder died in
her sleep in her Mansfield farmhouse. With
Wilder's death in 1957, ownership of Rocky Ridge Farmhouse reverted to
the farmer who had earlier bought the surrounding land. The local
townsfolk put together a non-profit corporation to purchase the house
and its grounds, for use as a museum. After some wariness at the notion
of seeing the house rather than the books themselves be a shrine to her
mother, Lane came to believe that making a museum of it would draw
long lasting attention to the books. She donated the money needed to
purchase the house and make it a museum, agreed to make significant
contributions each year for its upkeep and also gave many of the
family's belongings to help establish what became a popular museum that
still draws thousands of visitors each year to Mansfield. Lane inherited ownership of the "Little House" literary estate for
her lifetime only, all rights reverting to the Mansfield library after
her death, according to her mother's will. After her death in 1968,
Lane's heir, Roger MacBride,
gained control of the copyrights. MacBride was Lane's
informally adopted grandson, as well as her business agent, attorney,
and heir. All of MacBride's actions carried Lane's apparent approval.
In fact, at Lane's request, the copyrights to each of the "Little
House" books, as well as those of Lane's own literary works, had been
renewed in MacBride's name when the original copyrights expired during
the decade between Wilder's and Lane's deaths. Controversy did not come
until after MacBride's death in 1995, when the Laura Ingalls Wilder
Branch of the Wright County Library
(which Wilder helped found) in Mansfield, Missouri, decided it was
worth trying to recover the rights. The ensuing court case was settled
in an undisclosed manner, but MacBride's heirs retained the rights. The
library received enough to start work on a new building. The popularity of the Little House series
of books has grown phenomenally over the years, spawning a
multimillion dollar franchise of mass merchandising, additional spinoff
book series (some written by MacBride and his daughter), and the
long running television show, starring Michael Landon. Laura Ingalls Wilder has been portrayed by Melissa Gilbert (1974 - 1984), Meredith Monroe (1997, 1998) and Kyle Chavarria (2005) in television series. Wilder
once said the reason she wrote her books in the first place was to
preserve the stories of her childhood for today's children, to help
them to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime. |