Author: Caroline Fraser
Series: No
Genre: Biography, History
Brief Summary:
Most of us are familiar with the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, pioneer girl extraordinaire. The story of her childhood is chronicled in the Little House series of books written by Wilder herself. And while they are pleasant enough, they offer a rather sterile, sanitized version of the truth, painted over with the varnish of childhood innocence. The books, after all, were written for children, and the author wanted to preserve the wholesome images of her parents (particularly her father) and the happy nostalgia of her childhood. All very good and well, but painfully far from the truth. This book takes all you think you know about Laura's story and turns it on its head.
Through documents, letters, diary entries, and scraps of unpublished manuscripts, Fraser offers a fresh take on Laura's story, told with all the gritty harshness that it deserves. From her childhood of poverty made worse by the lackluster work efforts and wanderlust of her father, Charles, to her less-than-perfect marriage to Almanzo Wilder, to the troubled, often toxic relationship with her only daughter, nothing is spared. The story is unmistakenly Laura's, but her daughter's story, interwoven throughout is equally as interesting and ultimately more tragic. Spanning from childhood until after her death, the book offers not only her individual story but a testament to the times as well. They don't call it the 'Wild West' for nothing, after all!
Here is what Goodreads had to say about it:
My take:Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls—the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser—the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series—masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books.
The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder’s real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading—and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters.
Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder’s dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day.
A good part of my childhood was spent enjoying the original Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have rather fond memories of my mom and I reading them together, a tradition that I have chosen to continue with my own daughter, in fact. I loved the books, it's true, but even as a child, I found them almost 'too good to be true'. In the same way that I dismissed Pollyanna for its rather saccharine overtone, I could not help but cast the same light (albeit not as harshly) on the Little House books. But being a lover of history, especially of this particular time period, Laura Ingalls herself has always held my interest. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to find Prairie Fires and learn the story-behind-the-story, so to speak.
The book itself can be a bit dry at times, but the underlying story is interesting enough to make up for it. Stripped of all the sugar-coating, the woman is a hundred times more interesting than the girl ever was. The book is painfully gritty and I can't promise that you will walk away with warm fuzzies for any of the people involved, including Laura herself. But it's one I would also have no qualms about recommending. As biographies go, I found this one very entertaining. And even though it deprived me of my childhood hero, it gave me a real woman that I could admire a thousand times more. Her life has always been an inspiration for me, and this book solidified my views. 5*s from me!
