Prairie Man
My Little House Life & Beyond
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
USA TODAY Bestseller
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Bestseller
An illuminating, insider’s journey through the world of Little House on the Prairie and beyond, from Dean Butler, who starred as Almanzo Wilder, the man Laura “Half Pint” Ingalls married—on the iconic show still beloved by millions of fans as it reaches its 50th anniversary.
With a foreword from Melissa Gilbert (Laura) and Alison Arngrim (Nellie)!
Cast just before his twenty-third birthday, Dean Butler joined Little House on the Prairie halfway through its run, gaining instant celebrity and fans’ enduring affection. Ironically, when the late, great Michael Landon remarked that Little House would outlive everyone involved in making it, Butler deemed it unlikely. Yet for four decades and counting, Butler has been defined in the public eye as Almanzo Wilder—a role he views as the great gift of his life.
Butler had been cast as a romantic lead before, notably in the made-for-TV movie of Judy Blume’s Forever, opposite Stephanie Zimbalist. But Little House was, and remains, one of the most treasured shows in television history. As the eventual husband of Laura “Half-pint” Ingalls—and the man who would share actress Melissa Gilbert’s first real-life romantic kiss—Butler landed as a central figure for the show’s devoted fans.
Now, with wit and candor, Butler recounts his passage through the Prairie, sharing stories and anecdotes of the remarkable cast who were his on-screen family. But that was merely the beginning of a diverse career that includes Broadway runs and roles on two other classic shows—Moondoggie in The New Gidget and Buffy’s ne’er-do-well father, Hank, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Coming of age during a golden era of entertainment, Butler has evolved along with it, and today enjoys success and fulfillment as a director and producer—notably of NBC Golf’s Feherty—while remaining deeply loyal to Little House.
The warmth, heart, and decency that fans of Laura and Almanzo fell in love with on Little House echo through this uplifting memoir, a story, in Butler’s words, about “good luck, good television, and the very good—if gloriously imperfect—people who made it so.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Little House on the Prairie actor Butler delivers a sweet if superficial debut memoir about his early life and acting career. Born in British Columbia in 1956, Butler grew up in Northern California, where his first performances were in an elementary school show choir. He chalks up his eventual turn toward acting to a job announcing high school basketball games ("Everything that has happened since can be traced back to that moment when Mr. Cochran pointed me to the microphone"). The bulk of the book sheds light on Butler's screen credits, beginning with the 1978 adaptation of Judy Blume's Forever and focusing primarily on his five-year stint, from 1979 to 1983, as Almanzo Wilder in Little House on the Prairie. He shares regrets about his lack of sensitivity to the eight-year age difference between him and series lead Melissa Gilbert, who played his love interest ("Today that... difference is a tiny gap, but forty-five years ago, it was the Grand Canyon"), and muses on his complicated relationship with costar Michael Landon. Other behind-the-scenes sections, covering Butler's work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and numerous documentaries, generate occasional interest, but there's not a lot of substance. This is for die-hard Little House on the Prairie fans only.
