Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote stories that have defined the American frontier for generations of readers. As both author and character in her own books, she became one of the most famous figures in American children's literature. Her famous Little House on the Prairie series, based on her childhood in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, and South Dakota, blended memoir and fiction into a vivid depiction of nineteenth-century settler life that continues to shape many Americans' understanding of the country's past. Poised between fiction and fact, literature and history, Wilder's life is a fascinating window on the American West. Placing Wilder's life and work in historical context, and including previously unpublished material from the Wilder archives, Sallie Ketcham introduces students to domestic frontier life, the conflict between Native Americans and infringing white populations, and the West in public memory and imagination.

Sallie Ketcham is an independent scholar and writer from Minnesota.

Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: Laura Ingalls Wilder Chapter 1 A Home in the West: The 1860s Chapter 2 Wandering the West: The 1870s Chapter 3 Settling the West: The 1880s Chapter 4 Leaving the West: The 1890s Chapter 5 Writing the West: 1911 to 1943 Chapter 6 I Am Your Laura: 1943 and Forward PART II: Documents Bibliography Index