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Loading... Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman behind the Legend (MISSOURI BIOGRAPHY SERIES) (edition 1998)by John E. Miller (Author)
Work InformationBecoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend by John E. Miller
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Writing a biography of an icon is difficult. Writing a biography of an icon who created a fictitious autobiography is worse. I have read four biographies of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Two frankly aren't worth the bother -- one is nothing more than a paraphrase of her books, and the books are known not to be true. They are intended to describe pioneer life, not to tell us exactly how Bessie Wilder, the former Laura Ingalls, grew up. This book is much more serious. I have heard Miller speak, and he has done his best to get behind the "Little House" books. The records for a real biography of Laura don't exist (there are no diaries, and other records are scarce), but Miller has done what he can. And he has brought out the key facts: That Wilder did rewrite her life, and that her daughter Rose Wilder Lane rewrote even that. The resulting books are of course very popular, and some will be rather disappointed to know that they are not "the truth." But this is a book for any true fan of the true Laura. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesMissouri Biography Series (1998)
Although generations of readers of the Little House books are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder's early life up through her first years of marriage to Almanzo Wilder, few know about her adult years. Going beyond previous studies, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder focuses upon Wilder's years in Missouri from 1894 to 1957. Utilizing her unpublished autobiography, letters, newspaper stories, and other documentary evidence, John E. Miller fills the gaps in Wilder's autobiographical novels and describes her sixty-three years of living in Mansfield, Missouri. As a result, the process of personal development that culminated in Wilder's writing of the novels that secured her reputation as one of America's most popular children's authors becomes evident. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I should note that this book was published in 1998. For a more current, more extensive biography of Wilder, I advise reading Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser. ( )