Laura Ingalls Wilder(1867-1957)
- Writer
Born Laura Elizabeth Ingalls in Wisconsin in 1867, she spent her
childhood as a "pioneer girl, " settling in Wisconsin (twice),
Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota by the time she was
twelve years old. Her family stayed in South Dakota, or Dakota
Territory as it was known, and in 1885, she married Almanzo Wilder. She
called him "Manly" and he called her "Bess". The following year, they
had a daughter, Rose, later to become the author Rose Wilder Lane. In
1894, the three of them left De Smet and traveled to the Ozark
mountains of Missouri, where they settled in the town of Mansfield.
Laura and Manly remained there for the rest of their lives. In the
1930's and 1940's, encouraged and aided by Rose, Laura set pen to paper
and wrote a series of books about her childhood on the frontier. Called
the "Little House" books, they were published every year or so from
1932 to 1943, describing Laura's experiences from her earliest memories
of the big woods of Wisconsin and the Kansas prarie to the golden year
in which she married Almanzo. The books were immensely popular with
children, for whom they were written, and adults alike. Except for the
occasional book tour, Laura's life as a farm wife in Mansfield still
remained relatively unchanged, however, though she did receive much
more mail than she ever had before! She died in 1957, shortly after her
90th birthday. Even after her death, Rose found more of her writings.
These included a diary she kept detailing the journey to Mansfield in
1894, letters she wrote to Almanzo while visiting Rose in San Francisco
in 1915, and even a new, unfinished "Little House" book, about the
first four years after her marriage to Almanzo. Her major contribution
to movies and television has been her books, for they were the
inspiration for the long-running TV series "Little House on the
Prairie" (1974-1983), and its various TV-movie sequels. Currently
(1999), a TV-movie entitled "Beyond the Prarie," is in production. It
purports to be "the true story of Laura Ingalls Wilder."
