The Long Winter

“There were no more lessons. There was nothing in the world but cold and dark and work and coarse brown bread and wind blowing. The storm was aways there, outside the walls, waiting sometimes, then pouncing, shaking the house, roaring, and snarling, and screaming in rage.”

These recollections of frontier life, its hardships and joys, the importance of friends and neighbors and community, and most of all family, are beloved for good reason, withstanding the test of time to become classics still read today. There isn’t much that hasn’t been said about them, both in deserved praise and affection — and, sadly, on the other end of the spectrum, ridiculousness when modern day values, mores, and conventions are applied with no show more historical perspective whatsoever.

I doubt I can add much of anything new to the praise, other than to say that The Long Winter is my personal favorite among these books from Laura Ingalls Wilder. It’s wonderful, and were it complete fiction, it would still be considered a classic. The fact that it’s based on real events only adds resonance to it.

The Long Winter is almost claustrophobic, as the reader feels trapped in this endless winter of intermittent blizzards that will bring families, and an entire town, to the brink of starvation. Yet it is also like a soft heavy blanket in which to wrap ourselves up in and stave off the hardships of life. It is a winter so harsh that Laura’s family must move into town for safety, and weather blizzards so cold and frightening that winter can only be defeated — and then, only just — by pioneer spirit and sticking together.

The inventive ways they keep going, adapting to each new setback as the train with supplies has one disheartening delay after another until they seem doomed, is a true testament to courage and love. It becomes increasingly bleak, and finally tremendously exciting as Almonzo and Cap set out in the short window between blizzards to find grain on a farm which may be only a rumor; and a suicide mission borne of the kind of humanity missing completely today in a certain part of the world.

More than any of the other books in the series, which are all great, I think this one really captures that life so well that had Wilder not written any others, this would still be considered a classic. I can’t say enough good things about this book. From the sadness of Pa’s cracked and swollen fingers that will no longer play the fiddle to keep the family’s spirits up, to the truly thrilling, edge-of-your-seat quest by Almonzo and Cap to save everyone in town from starvation, it is about as perfect a read, heartwarming and uplifting, that you’ll ever come across. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings beautiful memoir, Cross Creek, of a later time, is more lyrical certainly, and lovelier in the use of language, but The Long Winter is just as impactful in its own manner, and a must-read. Wonderful. show less

First sentence: The mowing machine's whirring sounded cheerfully from the old buffalo wallow south of the claim shanty, where bluestem grass stood thick and tall and Pa was cutting it for hay.

Premise/plot: The Ingalls family--and the whole community/territory--face a brutal, harsh, and terribly long winter full of blizzards.

This first chapter is called "Make Hay While the Sun Shines" and if it's found within a book called THE LONG WINTER, the reader knows what to expect even if the characters don't. The book opens with Ma and Pa and family getting ready for harvest and winter. Laura is helping out Pa. Mary and Carrie are helping out Ma. Laura is especially pleased that she's old enough (around 14 now) to help Pa and do outdoor show more chores.

The Ingalls family is living in their claim shanty. This would be the first fall/winter they've been there. And they know it will be tough, but when the first blizzard comes in October, they know that it wouldn't only be tough to survive but impossible to survive if they were to try to stay on their homestead. Fortunately, Pa owns property in town. A place where they can be nice and warm and cozy for the winter. Or so they think.

What no one could know is just how hard, how long, how tough this winter was going to be. Some folks are prepared--the Wilder boys for instance--but most are not. Most are relying on the train making regular stops in town. The trains are essential for stocking the stores of supplies. But when almost every day brings a blizzard--with clear days coming only one at a time and never on a predictable schedule--it soon becomes clear that the trains will not be saving the day. Not til spring. The town's survival, the Ingalls' family survival, is a big if at this point.

Cold. Hunger. Starvation. No supplies. What's not to love?

My thoughts: The Long Winter has always been one of my favorites of the Little House series. I'll admit it tends to make you cold and hungry. But that's not a bad thing, right? I didn't think so. Only two books can trick my mind and body--okay maybe three--into thinking it's cold and hungry. One, of course, is The Long Winter. The other two are by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I think one of the reasons I love The Long Winter is that it introduces Almanzo Wilder onto the scene. True, there was Farmer Boy, but not every reader takes the time to read Farmer Boy. I spent forty plus years avoiding it. I read it earlier this year for the first time. But this Almanzo is a man--a young man it's true--19 years of age. And he's acting "manly" alright when it's time to save the day. I love every scene Almanzo is in. Laura first meets him when she's lost and trying to find her Pa in the slough of hay. Here is the description: "His blue eyes twinkled down at her as if he had known her a long time." Anyway, I love this book.
Is it my favorite and best from the series? Probably. I do love These Happy Golden Years. So those two are my favorite and best. But I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one so much.

ETA: I listened to The Long Winter--a book I've read dozens of times--on audio narrated by Cherry Jones. The audio book is a little over seven hours. show less

First sentence: The mowing machine's whirring sounded cheerfully from the old buffalo wallow south of the claim shanty, where bluestem grass stood thick and tall and Pa was cutting it for hay.

Premise/plot: The Ingalls family--and the whole community/territory--face a brutal, harsh, and terribly long winter full of blizzards.

This first chapter is called "Make Hay While the Sun Shines" and if it's found within a book called THE LONG WINTER, the reader knows what to expect even if the characters don't. The book opens with Ma and Pa and family getting ready for harvest and winter. Laura is helping out Pa. Mary and Carrie are helping out Ma. Laura is especially pleased that she's old enough (around 14 now) to help Pa and do outdoor show more chores.

The Ingalls family is living in their claim shanty. This would be the first fall/winter they've been there. And they know it will be tough, but when the first blizzard comes in October, they know that it wouldn't only be tough to survive but impossible to survive if they were to try to stay on their homestead. Fortunately, Pa owns property in town. A place where they can be nice and warm and cozy for the winter. Or so they think.

What no one could know is just how hard, how long, how tough this winter was going to be. Some folks are prepared--the Wilder boys for instance--but most are not. Most are relying on the train making regular stops in town. The trains are essential for stocking the stores of supplies. But when almost every day brings a blizzard--with clear days coming only one at a time and never on a predictable schedule--it soon becomes clear that the trains will not be saving the day. Not til spring. The town's survival, the Ingalls' family survival, is a big if at this point.

Cold. Hunger. Starvation. No supplies. What's not to love?

My thoughts: The Long Winter has always been one of my favorites of the Little House series. I'll admit it tends to make you cold and hungry. But that's not a bad thing, right? I didn't think so. Only two books can trick my mind and body--okay maybe three--into thinking it's cold and hungry. One, of course, is The Long Winter. The other two are by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I think one of the reasons I love The Long Winter is that it introduces Almanzo Wilder onto the scene. True, there was Farmer Boy, but not every reader takes the time to read Farmer Boy. I spent forty plus years avoiding it. I read it earlier this year for the first time. But this Almanzo is a man--a young man it's true--19 years of age. And he's acting "manly" alright when it's time to save the day. I love every scene Almanzo is in. Laura first meets him when she's lost and trying to find her Pa in the slough of hay. Here is the description: "His blue eyes twinkled down at her as if he had known her a long time." Anyway, I love this book.

Is it my favorite and best from the series? Probably. I do love These Happy Golden Years. So those two are my favorite and best. But I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one so much. show less

First sentence: The mowing machine's whirring sounded cheerfully from the old buffalo wallow south of the claim shanty, where bluestem grass stood thick and tall and Pa was cutting it for hay.

Premise/plot: The Ingalls family--and the whole community/territory--face a brutal, harsh, and terribly long winter full of blizzards.

This first chapter is called "Make Hay While the Sun Shines" and if it's found within a book called THE LONG WINTER, the reader knows what to expect even if the characters don't. The book opens with Ma and Pa and family getting ready for harvest and winter. Laura is helping out Pa. Mary and Carrie are helping out Ma. Laura is especially pleased that she's old enough (around 14 now) to help Pa and do outdoor show more chores.

The Ingalls family is living in their claim shanty. This would be the first fall/winter they've been there. And they know it will be tough, but when the first blizzard comes in October, they know that it wouldn't only be tough to survive but impossible to survive if they were to try to stay on their homestead. Fortunately, Pa owns property in town. A place where they can be nice and warm and cozy for the winter. Or so they think.

What no one could know is just how hard, how long, how tough this winter was going to be. Some folks are prepared--the Wilder boys for instance--but most are not. Most are relying on the train making regular stops in town. The trains are essential for stocking the stores of supplies. But when almost every day brings a blizzard--with clear days coming only one at a time and never on a predictable schedule--it soon becomes clear that the trains will not be saving the day. Not til spring. The town's survival, the Ingalls' family survival, is a big if at this point.

Cold. Hunger. Starvation. No supplies. What's not to love?

My thoughts: The Long Winter has always been one of my favorites of the Little House series. I'll admit it tends to make you cold and hungry. But that's not a bad thing, right? I didn't think so. Only two books can trick my mind and body--okay maybe three--into thinking it's cold and hungry. One, of course, is The Long Winter. The other two are by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I think one of the reasons I love The Long Winter is that it introduces Almanzo Wilder onto the scene. True, there was Farmer Boy, but not every reader takes the time to read Farmer Boy. I spent forty plus years avoiding it. I read it earlier this year for the first time. But this Almanzo is a man--a young man it's true--19 years of age. And he's acting "manly" alright when it's time to save the day. I love every scene Almanzo is in. Laura first meets him when she's lost and trying to find her Pa in the slough of hay. Here is the description: "His blue eyes twinkled down at her as if he had known her a long time." Anyway, I love this book.
Is it my favorite and best from the series? Probably. I do love These Happy Golden Years. So those two are my favorite and best. But I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one so much. show less

Book 6 in the Little House series is a horrifically grim story of six months of the family surviving a terrible winter. Constant blizzards, temperatures of minus forty*. The trains stop running as the cuttings fill with snow, and so they all know there is not enough food or coal to survive the winter, and they slowly eke out what they have. It is a book of literally months of twisting hay into ropes to burn it, and grinding grain painfully slowly by hand in a coffee mill. Everyone is slowly starving to death, and their life has shrunk to a tiny circle around the stove, and they are tired and depressed. We even see Ma and Pa snap at each other for once.

But there are glimmers of hope in it all. Pa finds Almanzo's hidden grain and saves show more them from starving. Almanzo makes a heroic ride through the blizzards with Cap to get more grain for the town. They do what they can to keep their spirits up, reciting famous speeches and singing hymns. And somehow they hold on until April and the trains come through again.

It is odd reading it as an adult. We know Laura and Almanzo are going to end up together, but I hadn't realised until this one how attractive actually having food - pancakes and salt pork! - can be in a man when all you have is raw wheat. And Almanzo definitely saves the day by going out through the blizzard to the settler and buying his grain for the town - but the settler is hording his grain for exactly the same reason Almanzo is, and Almanzo is happy to take the risk and the heroics, but not happy to just feed the whole town from his future and his best seed grain.

I can't not comment on the cover of this book. It is ridiculous. It feels like someone was told 'there is a little house book called the Long Winter, can you draw a cover?' and never actually read the book. Smiling children with ruddy cheeks throw snowballs at each other and sledge down a hill. This is a winter that leaves them gaunt and pinched and unable to think, a winter where even in the first blizzard they are nearly all frozen to death just trying to walk home from school. Snowballs and scarfs it is not.

* I tried to translate that from fahrenheit to celsius, to get a feel for how terrible it was, but actually, it's the cross over point, it's minus forty in both scales. Petrifying. show less

I expected this book to be slow and boring, but it was anything but. In fact, I think this might be tied for my favorite book in the series. Through blizzard after blizzard, the story is interesting and even exciting at times. I really liked the perspective of the Wilder brothers being thrown in from time to time and was fascinated to read about some of the things the Ingalls family had to improvise in order to have just enough food and heat. I was glad to have warm weather when I started listening to this book, though it did get cold again, which added to the frigid feeling the book gives.

As before, my enjoyment of the book was greatly enhanced by the audiobook narrator, Cherry Jones, who does a fantastic job, and being able to hear show more Pa’s fiddle, thanks to Paul Woodiel. If you’ve ever considered reading this series, or have already read it and have occasion to listen to the audiobooks, I say do it! show less

If you know me at all, you know how much I hate being cold. Winter is the worst! This book is my worst nightmare. Snow. Way below zero temps. Freezing winds. No food. I like to think I am a hearty pioneer gal, but in my heart I know I love food and sunshine way too much. But, much like Laura, I would survive, because I'm strong like a bull.

A comically stereotypical Indian, straight from central casting, walks into the store in town and warns the white people that a big heap long winter is coming. He's basically ignored by everyone but Pa and the Wilder Boys, because they are smarter than everyone else. Plus handsome and talented and funny. But I digress. The winter comes, the trains stop, and the whole town is on the brink of death. show more Literally. Luckily for the entire town of DeSmet, Almanzo and Cap have more bravery than sense, and they go on a foolhardy mission to save the town.

I love this one. 4 stars. show less