In the middle of theGreat Depression , untried pedant were introduced to a spirited girl farm up in woodsy Wisconsin during the 1870s . Thoughnot every detailwas strictly autobiographic , Little House in the Big Woodswas the unfeigned news report of its author , Laura Ingalls Wilder , who wasbornon February 7 , 1867 , and give out on February 10 , 1957 . lecturer were captivated by her tale of kinsperson life on the homestead , and Wilder capitalized on this success by pen an full serial of Little House books , which followed the protagonist to the prairie of mod - day South Dakota and beyond . Get to know the pioneering author behind the serial publication with these eight fascinating fact .
1. Laura Ingalls Wilder moved a lot during her early life.
Bornnear Lake Pepin , Wisconsin , Laura Ingalls drop her childhood traveling around the Midwest with her class , with stop in Minnesota , Iowa , and Kansas , among other places . They settle in Dakota Territory , where a teenaged Laura take up precept and met Almanzo Wilder . The two married in 1885 andwelcomeda daughter , Rose , the following year .
2. Laura Ingalls Wilder started her writing career as a columnist.
In 1894 , the Wildersmovedto Rocky Ridge Farm outside Mansfield , Missouri . Around1911 , when Wilder was in her forties , she started contributing article to a farm diary calledThe Missouri Ruralist . Her piecescovereda wide grasp of farm - relate matter — with titles like “ Economy in Egg Production ” and “ Shorter Hours for Farm Women”—as well as more abstract musings , like “ What ’s in a Word ” and “ Make Your Dreams Come straight . ” She also wrote two resort columns afterward in her incumbency : “ The Farm Home ” and “ As a Farm Woman consider . ”
3. Laura Ingalls Wilder visited the 1915 World’s Fair in San Francisco.
In 1915 , Wilder journeyed west to inspect her girl , who was working as a journalist in San Francisco . ( To Rose , Wilder was only “ Mama Bess . ” ) The pair explored thePanama - Pacific International Exposition , a human race ’s comely that boasted opulent new computer architecture , exciting unexampled technology , and many more sporty feats . Wildercomparedit to a “ fairyland . ” During the sojourn , Wilder also take atumbleoff a streetcar andspentsome sentence in the infirmary recovering from a headway combat injury .
4. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first book was rejected by publishers.
Wilder was in her sixties by the time she begin place her former life-time on paper . Her memoir , Pioneer Girl , was generally geared toward adults and feature some surprisingly black report — like thetimeWilder ’s neighbor froze to death during a Minnesota blizzard . No publishers were concerned , so Rose started helping her female parent transmute the Holy Scripture into something balmy and more Thomas Kid - friendly . In 2014 , after a four - yr endeavor by anorganizationcalled the “ Pioneer Girl Project , ” Wilder ’s original holograph forPioneer Girlwaspublishedby the South Dakota Historical Society Press .
5. Rose Wilder Lane heavily edited her mother’s work.
The product of Wilder and her girl ’s monumental editing effort wasLittle House in the Big Woods , the first mass in Wilder ’s now classic baby ’s series . Ithitshelves in 1932 , when Wilder was 65 year honest-to-goodness . Rose remained closely mired in her female parent ’s writing summons , which reach ascension to thetheorythat Rose actually wrote the Little House books herself . Though scholars stilldebatehow much of the committal to writing was Wilder ’s own , it ’s passably wide agreed that Rose had a heavy hand in developing the writing style and summate her own flair .
6. Laura Ingalls Wilder benefited from the Homestead Act of 1862.
TheHomestead Act , which Abraham Lincoln sign into law in May 1862 , encouraged Midwestern expansion by entitling citizen to 160 acre of free land ; all applier had to do was crotch over a low filing fee and call to survive on and uprise their novel homestead . This go-ahead came at the expense of Native Americans , whom the governmentforcedto relocate to reservation . Wilder ’s father , Charles Ingalls , claimeda homestead for his home in the Dakota Territory ( in what is now De Smet , South Dakota ) , as did her married man . Wilder ’s books definitely do n’t present an objective portraiture of how her phratry do good from systemic abuse of marginalized groups — in fact , she often portray aboriginal and Black Americans in stereotypical , racist way . Though Wilder has long been lauded as a innovator in baby ’s lit , educators have of late recognized the need to better contextualize her oeuvre for young readers . With this in mind , the Association for Library Service to Children ( an offshoot of the American Library Association)changedthe name of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to the “ Children ’s Literature Legacy Award ” in 2018 .
7. Laura Ingalls Wilder was related to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
While there ’s no evidence that Wilder herself was aware of it , she wasrelatedtoFranklin Delano Rooseveltthrough her neat - grandmother Margaret Delano Ingalls ( whose ancestor hadarrivedon theMayflower ) . Wilder ’s presidential connexion plausibly would n’t have made her too felicitous ; though she had been a Democrat for most of her life , she despised Roosevelt ’s New Deal so much that she became a staunch conservativist and never went back .
8. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s estate didn’t stay in the family for long.
Wilder ’s will stipulated that Rose should inherit the right to her female parent ’s study , which she did after Wilder run away in 1957 . But since Rose did n’t have any children , shelefteverything to her literary agent , Roger Lea MacBride , before she die in 1968 . MacBride — an free-spoken libertarian who actually ran for United States President in 1976 — was the one who licence the rights to the Michael Landon - starringTV seriesbased on Wilder ’s books and oversaw the publication of subsequent Wilder - relate works .
Wilder ’s estate then eliminate into MacBride ’s girl ’s hands after his death in 1995 , whichprompteda lawsuit by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Library in 1999 . The library claimed that Wilder ’s will had meant to direct royalties to the library in the event of her daughter ’s death , and that Rose go against her female parent ’s wish by bequeathing them to MacBride . The party reportedlyreacheda village in 2001 : MacBride ’s girl and Wilder ’s publisher add accumulative $ 875,000 to the library , which relinquished its claim to the Holy Scripture rights .
