Prairie Fires
The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
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4.0 • 163개의 평가
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- US$12.99
출판사 설명
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books
Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls—the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser—the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series—masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books.
The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder’s real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading—and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters.
Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder’s dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day.
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Well researched
This was a very well-researched piece. It goes into extensive detail about LIW and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lance. My only issue was the way the author interchanges the use of the first and last names, making it difficult to know to whom she is referring. She will call Rose or Laura by their first names in one sentence and their last names in the next (also making it confusing when she references their husbands by the last names). All in all, this was a very enlightening read.
So well done
Caroline Fraser’s careful research and commitment to accuracy, as well as her writing prowess, shows. This should be proclaimed as the last word on the literary adventures of Laura Ingalls and her daughter, Rose. Well done, Ms.Fraser.
Not sure about it...
Interesting information throughly mixed with the author's opinions. Fraser's contempt for both Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter is quite obvious. Wilder's stories are wonderful, and much beloved by generations; whether or not they are 100% true does not change that one iota. Wilder did not set out to write factual history, but to create wonderful stories for children that honored her family. Fraser's attitude of castigating Wilder and Lane for their writing process and accuracy is just silly. Still, the book contains very interesting information if you can ignore the author's bias.