Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

Laura Ingalls Wilder

South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2014 - Biography & Autobiography - 400 pages

Follow the real Laura Ingalls and her family as they make their way west and discover that truth is as remarkable as fiction.

Hidden away since 1930, Laura Ingalls Wilder's original autobiography reveals the true stories of her pioneering life and shows how Wilder, as an author of growing skill, transformed her girlhood into one of the greatest children's series of all time, the Little House books. Some of her experiences will be familiar; some will be a surprise. This September, for the first time ever, Wilder's fans around the world will be able to read them all.

Pioneer Girl follows the Ingalls family's journey through Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, back to Minnesota, and on to Dakota Territory sixteen years of travels, unforgettable experiences, and the everyday people who became immortal through Wilder's fiction. Using additional manuscripts, letters, photographs, newspapers, and other sources, award-winning Wilder biographer Pamela Smith Hill adds valuable context and leads readers through Wilder's growth as a writer. Do you think you know Laura? Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography will re-introduce you to the woman who defined the pioneer experience for millions.

About the author

Wilder was born near Pepin, Wisconsin; attended school in DeSmet, South Dakota; and became a teacher before she was 16, teaching for seven years in Dakota Territory schools. She and her husband, Almanzo Wilder, farmed near DeSmet for about nine years and then moved to Mansfield, Missouri, where they lived out the rest of their days. Wilder did not write her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, about her early years in Wisconsin, until late in life, on the urging of her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. It was first published in 1932. She followed this with Farmer Boy (1933), a book about her husband's childhood in New York State. She then completed a series of books about her life as she and her family moved westward along the frontier. Little House on the Prairie (1935) records the family's move to Kansas. On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937) describes the family's move to Minnesota. By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939) records the family's move to South Dakota, as do the final three books in the series: The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie (1941), and These Happy Golden Years (1943), which ends with her marriage to Almanzo Wilder. Three of Wilder's books were published posthumously: On the Way Home, a diary of her trip to Mansfield; The First Four Years, an unfinished book about her first four years of marriage; and West from Home, letters she wrote on a visit to her daughter in San Francisco, none of them up to the quality of her earlier books. At her best, Wilder employs a clear, simple style, a wealth of fascinating detail, and a straightforward narrative style. Her tales of a strong, traditional frontier family that endures the hardships of the late eighteenth century are seen through the eyes of a child, which endears them to young readers. Her work is possibly the best example of historical realistic fiction for children.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography
• Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Editor: Pamela Smith Hill
• Edition: illustrated, annotated
• Publisher: South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2014
• ISBN: 0984504176, 9780984504176
• Length: 400 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures; Biography & Autobiography / Women; History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); History / Modern / General; History / Social History; History / United States / General; Literary Criticism / Women Authors; Social Science / Women's Studies