Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend

by John E. Miller

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 Utilizing her unpublished autobiography, letters, newspaper stories, and other documentary evidence, John E. Miller fills the gaps in Wilder’s autobiographical novels and describes her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.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Adult, Womens, Biography Memoir, American

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 1998

Reviews

[Kressel Housman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given the classic status of the Little House series, I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that it’s become a popular topic amongst literary historians, especially in the Midwest. Two professors at the University of Missouri have taken up the question of the influence of Laura’s daughter Rose on the series. Professor William Holtz argues in his book The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane that Rose ghostwrote the series. This book, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, is a rebuttal of his argument, contending that while the book couldn’t have come about without Rose, Laura wrote the bulk of it. I read this one first because I prefer that position, but had I known that it was actually written in response to Holtz’s book, I might have done differently.

My preference for crediting Laura isn’t just emotional. The books portray the Ingalls family as valuing education almost above all else. They study in the house through The Long Winter and they scrimp and save just to put Mary through the College for the Blind. Of course, if you accept that Rose ghostwrote the series, you can argue that that’s just part of her invention, but I think the historical facts point otherwise. Charles Ingalls was not just a simple farmer and carpenter; he ended up holding political office in De Smet. A visit to the website of the Vinton School for the Blind (which still exists) will tell you that its most famous graduate, Mary Amelia Ingalls, was a top student. As an adult, Carrie worked in the newspaper business in South Dakota. And most significantly, Laura began her own writing career as a columnist for a small-town newspaper much like the one Carrie was working for. Her articles are collected in Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings, which is essential reading before embarking on this book. It’s a fresh new way to experience Laura’s voice.

As I stated above, the author, Professor John E. Miller, makes it clear that Rose was pivotal in the development of the series. She became an author before her mother did, and aside from actually editing the books, she was the one who put her mother in touch with agents and publishers. The relationship between mother and daughter, however, was anything but smooth. As much as Laura represented home life and simplicity, Rose bucked tradition and sought out adventure. She had quite an interesting life, and I am looking forward to learning more about it in The Ghost in the Little House. I could not help but conclude, though, that not only wouldn’t the books have come about without her, they wouldn’t have come about if she had settled down and had a family. Laura never had grandchildren, but with Rose, she had the series.

I noticed that several other Goodreads reviewers found that all the historical background in the book made it dull. Well, one reader’s boredom is another‘s education. I think it adds tremendous depth to consider how Laura wrote these books during the Great Depression, and that The Long Winter, the ultimate story of triumph over hardship, was published in 1940, the beginning of the war years when rationing was to become a reality for all Americans. The book may not be entertaining, but it’s not meant to be. It’s meant to enrich our understanding of how one pioneer girl became one of America’s most beloved children’s authors.

[The Book Maven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm. I am not sure what to make of this book. I guess the thing that I would tell potential readers is: be careful when you read a biography about someone you idolized. When you learn of their clay feet, it can be very disappointing.

In addition, after reading the Little House books hundreds of times, this biography seems lackluster at best. The first part of the book basically summarizes LAW's life, but offers very little that is new, particularly if you have read her books or were aware of other biographical details: the big "twists" are that she had a little brother who died very early in life, her childhood was much more nomadic than her books let on, her parents' families intermarried a great deal, and another couple passed the Long Winter with them in their DeSmet town house. Oh yeah, and Nellie Oleson is based on three people that LAW knew in her childhood. The second half of the book is almost more of an account of LAW's tempestuous relationship with her (possibly bipolar) daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. In fact, I would say that the second half of the book is equally a biography of RWL's life. This is the part of the book where facts become increasingly plentiful, much more clear, and better established...however, the ultimate disappointment is that the book does not give information as to the rest of RWL's life after her mother died. And given that the book becomes more and more about RWL in the second half, this is not only disappointing to the reader but shoddy writing and scholarship on the part of the author.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contrary to some of the other reviewers, I think this a good if not great biographical reference for the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Unlike the other "Laura" biographies, this one has the most insightful historical contexts. The historical context spans all of Laura's life from her earliest days in Pepin Wisconsin, to her life in Kansas, Walnut Grove, Burr Oak, De Smet, Missouri and everywhere in between. The book tells of the people and events surrounding Laura particularly within the location she was at the time, and in turn gives insight into how this shaped Laura's life experiences. There are also many relevant facts in this book such as: the fact that Laura was a loan officer for a Missouri bank, she once ran for political office, she died the year that a satellite first went into space, etc. I would not pass over this Laura Ingalls book as the narrative is fine throughout and detailed. It feels like a captivating history book. It reads as non-fiction, which it technically is anyway!

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well-researched, fairly unbiased account of the life of LIW, focusing on how the fictional Laura became the well-known author. There's a little too much detail on some side issues in a few places, but overall an educational read that helps fill in some gaps. It really helps the reader to understand that here is a woman and her husband who were on the prairie in Dakota from before the time the railroad first crossed it, and watched the first towns being planted, up through when the first space satellite was launched, which is absolutely incredible to think about. I always forget how far into the last century LIW lived (her lifetime crosses over that of my parents, if only by a couple of years) and that this girl who crossed unbroken prairie in a covered wagon grew up to see WWII, including the detonation of the atomic bomb (on the negative side) and the first space satellite (on the positive)! I think the world has changed a lot from when I was a kid and the first microwaves were a thing, before (gasp!) cell phones, and it's true, the world HAS changed a lot; but I can't hold a candle to a life lived before, during, and post Industrial Revolution. Such an amazing thing to consider!

[Beth A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the little house books, and really enjoyed learning more about Laura’s life and how she came to write the books. I was a bit disappointed to see the difficult relationship she had with her daughter, Rose. Much of the personal information in this book is from Rose’s perspective, because Laura didn’t journal or save records like Rose. Rose did her editing and worked for varying amounts of time -days to months- on different books. It’s funny how Rose’s writing was more famous at the time, but Laura’s is what’s endured. I think Laura Ingalls Wilder was a remarkable woman, and an amazing storyteller.

[Michelle Llewellyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for a good read about the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, there are better ones out there than this one. I would recommend

Laura Ingalls Wilder: a biography by William Anderson
Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert

I felt the author's own opinion detracted from the real facts and too much focus was centered on Laura's relationship with Rose. Except for the bit about another family living with the Ingalls during the Hard Winter, Miller has nothing new to add that wasn't already covered by the other two biographies I'd already read.

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read a number of other biographies of Laura Ingalls Wilder, I consider this one to be fairly good though not extraordinary--though to someone who is first finding out about the facts of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life, this book could be shocking or even disturbing. Miller did considerable research as he sets up extensive historical context around Wilder's life, especially her time in South Dakota and Missouri (I should note this book is part of a Missouri Biography series from University of Missouri Press). He draws a lot of newspaper and other cultural documents of the time. There are moments when that feels like padding because there is otherwise insufficient material on Wilder. He delves into the important, even controversial, subject of Rose Wilder Lane's role in her mother's Little House books as well.

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.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent biography that focuses on her daughter Rose almost as much as it does on Laura, mainly because Laura left behind very little documentation in the way of personal letters or diaries, whereas Rose left many diaries and letters behind when she died. It's a little bit frustrating, because we know factual things about Laura, but anything that hints at what her personality or thoughts were like is through the lens of Rose's perceptions of her (which were often volatile and negative). This book seems to be a response to The Ghost in the Little House, which I haven't read, but which asserts that Rose was actually the ghostwriter of the series. Miller isn't willing to draw that conclusion, although he does acknowledge that Rose did heavy editing on most of the books. Overall, Miller's attitude is rather protective of Laura. Other books I have read about her lately were willing to be slightly more critical of her.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm a "Little House" freak, so naturally I liked it. Seemingly very well-researched (could this be a thesis-book?) the book was a bit dry and dull (as was life probably in early 1900), but it did paint the true picture of Laura Ingalls Wilder- a hardworking, simple farm woman with incredible strength and faith in her and her family's ability to "make it" wherever they went. Inspirational, really. If only I have half the fortitude Laura did, perhaps the age of sixty five isnt too old to become an author.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually didn't finish the book. It was interesting in the beginning as it detailed some of the differences between real life and Laura's fiction life. The book started to lose my interest once it got to the point where they relocated to Mansfield. To be fair, I don't know much about that point in Laura's life, because that is where the books stop, so that may be part of why I lost interest.

[Kathy Kramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt that this book did a good job of presenting the facts and presenting Laura Ingalls Wilder as a human being. I thought that this book also did a good job of showing the dynamic between Laura and her daughter Rose without taking sides. The book also presents an even-handed answer to the "authorship" question raised by William Holtz's Ghost in the Little House.

[Nancy Moffett · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a disappointingly dull reflection on Laura's life, which was a life full of adventure and triumph over adversity. I found the author condescending and judgmental towards the old fashioned values that gave her success. The level of control she exercised over her daughter Rose's life was imagined without any evidence other than Rose's whiny letters. I'm not convinced.

[Kiirsi Hellewell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book to read...I learned a lot about Laura and her family. That said, at times it was very dry, and there were several places where information from a previous paragraph was repeated entirely--or even contradicted in a few places. I sometimes felt fairly confused.

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

With apologies to the probable majority of people reading this, for the people who haven’t heard of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Series: it’s a series of eight books written in the late 1930s and early 1940s about a girl growing up in the United States Midwest between 1867 and 1885, following approximately the European expansion west into what had hitherto been Native American land. The series begins with the main character’s early childhood in “the Big Woods” in Wisconsin, and follow her family’s moves West ending up in De Smet, South Dakota (check this!) where Laura, in her late teens by the end of the series, meets and marries one Almanzo Wilder. Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, by John E. Miller, covers her childhood years briefly, but picks up in greater detail with her marriage and later life.

The Little House books are ostensibly Laura’s1 own biography. Hopefully it does not (really) come as a surprise to any adults familiar with the series that while the author stuck reasonably closely to her own life, the books themselves are fictionalized to a great extent. They’re not in libraries’ fiction collections by mistake. Many of the changes serve only to streamline the story line. Some are minor--the children’s ages were advanced by a couple of years, the cause of Mary’s blindness is uncertain though not scarlet fever as described in the books, a couple of moves were conflated—but Laura changed or eliminated a number of what I could consider major items. Some were for dramatic effect, such as altering Jack’s fate to serve as a demarcation between childhood and adolescence leading up to maturity and adulthood; in the books, Jack dies of old age in the beginning of On Silver Lake while in reality he had, several years earlier, gone on with another family out to homestead while the Ingalls remained on Plum Creek. She was also a bit fuzzy in the novels about Almanzo’s age—the real Almanzo was ten years older than his wife, but in the novels he is merely “older” than she. I suspect this wide an age gap may have been more common or acceptable in the nineteenth century, when the man might feel the need to prove himself able to support a family before marrying. Laura, when writing for children, clearly felt it better to make the husband and wife closer in age to suit modern couples.
According to this biography and others2, Laura left out a number of items that didn’t suit her agenda of promoting and promulgating the All-American Ethos of Hard Work, based on a nation of self-sufficient independent farmers working for themselves. The fact that the family was fairly poor should come as no surprise to anyone who has read the books, but they weren’t always farmers, much less independent. Laura did mention Pa’s carpentry work to augment the family income, but Ma and Pa also ran a hotel in Burr Oak between farming stints during what would have been the Plum Creek years, and operated a butcher shop during this same time. Laura also did not mention her little brother, Freddie who was born while the family was on Plum Creek, as he died so shortly thereafter that he played no part in the family’s later fortunes.

Overall it’s a nice modern addition to the literature about Laura Ingalls Wilder3—a bestselling children’s author even seventy years after her books’ publication. . Her novels may serve as a gentle introduction to a period and place in American history with no wars or other significant events, and so therefore not much written about, but aren’t wholly factual about Laura’s own life. For all their flaws, not least racism, the Little House series is deservedly still part of any self-respecting public or school library’s collection of historical fiction. Consider this a folksy biography about a footnote author who lives on through her fictionalized memoirs, worth adding to collections which don’t have any of the earlier biographies, or where demand would indicate a need for something more up to date.

1I hope she will forgive the familiarity, as that’s how nigh onto the third generation of readers regards her; I’m sure Laura herself would by far prefer Mrs. A.J. Wilder…
2I’d want to double check for confirmation.
3there were several biographies written in the mid-1970s when the television show was airing

[༺Kiki༻ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm behind schedule with book reviews, so I'm going to cheat and borrow a bit from my review of Prairie Fires.

Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder is more than just a biography of Laura Ingalls. It encompasses U.S. history, politics, and social commentary from Laura Ingalls birth in 1867 to her death in 1957. If the book had ended with the Wilder's move to Rocky Ridge Farm, it would have been a 4 star read. Unfortunately, the remainder of the book (Parts 5 - 9) spend too much time focusing on Rose Wilder Lane and her unbalanced behavior, which I found far less interesting.

You might also enjoy:

Nonfiction
✱ The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder - highly recommended
✱ Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
✱ The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder
✱ The Children's Blizzard (about the blizzard in The Long Winter)

Fiction
✱ Caroline: Little House, Revisited

[Cindy Dyson Eitelman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good...until Rose grew up. Seriously, I mean it. The author did his stuff and churned out a delightful biography, but I think he really wanted to write a literary biography. If the title tells his intent, it was to describe how an ordinary girl with no apparent writing goals ended up being the children's author of the day, maybe of all time. And he couldn't. Or didn't, anyway.

He did well with the history of her early life but I wanted more about the places, people and times. When you can't find letters or diaries to flesh out a portrait, you have to fall back on newspapers, magazines, and other writings of the times...but I can't see he did much of that. He just relayed the history; well-written, enjoyable, but not deeply satisfying. I prefer reading the annotations in Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography.

When Laura's writing career became the focus, it was clear he wanted to dig deep and see how in the world she pulled it off. Where did she start as a diarist, and how did she progress to a master storyteller? Did her non-fiction articles get editorial help, and if so, how did that develop her writing? Why were some characters included and others suppressed? How did three real-life girls become one Nellie Oleson? How much of the book was written by Rose? (Almost none; it seems, but she clearly had an influence.)

He tried to answer all these questions and more, but he didn't have a lot of first-hand material about Laura Ingalls Wilder--no diaries, not many letters except travel journals. However, he had plenty of material about Rose Wilder Lane and her writing career--and that's what he included. A lot of it. Her thoughts, feelings, personal angst, and anger at her parents.

Fine. I get that. It's what made her a writer. But it's not what made Laura Ingalls Wilder a writer.

All bellyaching aside, it's a good book. I just wish it had been titled, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder lane: The Women Behind the Legend.

[Diem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wavered between 3 stars and 4 stars for this one. I was somewhat annoyed by the author's handling of political and religious issues, natch. I rarely see eye-to-eye with academia on these matters.

As part of a series dedicated to Missourians the book contained more about Missouri history than was ideal for someone not as in interested in that topic. Not that it wasn't interesting or apropos. Just a warning to others. One could certainly skim those parts without losing the thread of the story.

This is not a standard biography. It deal primarily with Laura's time in Missouri as an adult which was largely ordinary and unrecorded. There is interesting discussion of the nature of her relationship with her hugely complicated and brilliant only child, Rose. This portrait of Rose is less than flattering. Almanzo is mostly absent from the book as would be expected given how little is really know about his life in Missouri.

I ended up giving it 4 stars because I did enjoy the scholarly nature of the book and the amount of information and I could certainly recommend it to any devotees of Laura and/or Rose and/or Missouri.

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few adult biographies written about Laura Ingalls Wilder, this book does not disappoint. Miller performed patient and exacting research on his subject, and offers much intriguing information about the real Laura, whose fictionalized autobiographical works have made generations of readers feel that they "know" her. Miller tells us what was real and what was glossed over; he takes us into the Mansfield years and discusses the complex relationship between Laura and her daughter Rose. Readers will find plenty to chew on in this fascinating work. Affecting passages offer welcome glimpses into key moments and experiences in Wilder's life, such as the description of Almanzo's death and Laura's reaction, and accounts of their road trips and friendships. An important book for anyone interested in this author. Adult.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having grown up with the "Little House" books and loving them immensely, I was very happy to find such a great biographical work on her life. I learned so much about the real Laura, and about Rose and Almonzo, too.

Growing up, I had no idea that parts of the novels were embellished or otherwise changed to make them more palatable to readers (hence making them fiction). I also never had any idea that Rose (Laura and Almonzo's only child) helped write the beloved series of novels; by prodding Laura to follow through with them, editing, polishing drafts, etc.

The author also included a wealth of factual information about the towns and surrounding areas where Laura lived, which helped make the picture of the real Laura more colorful and enjoyable to read.

Great read!

[Curlita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read all the LIW books as a kid, and as an adult read a book about her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. The bio of Rose Wilder Lane puts forth the theory that Lane basically ghost-wrote the Little House books. I really liked Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder because it 1) told the story of Wilder's life (which often differed from the fictionalized version she wrote for children) and 2) presented a more balanced description of how Lane and her mother collaborated on the books. There was a lot of extraneous stuff about the community of Mansfield, Missouri (where LIW lived most of her life), but those parts were easy to skim over if they weren't terribly fascinating.

[Sallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished! Not, IMHO, an inspiring biography of LIW. I decided early on it was/is? a basically Joe Friday kind of bio - just the facts ma'am. Too much of Rose and her ups and downs and conflicts with Laura for me. I understand Rose helped Laura a lot with her books and getting them published only happened because Rose knew who to contact to get a reading, BUT.. she irritated me totally. I think I'll look around for other bios of LIW to see what else has been written that might bring her more alive than this one did for me. Her books brought her more alive in fact. Maybe I should just re-read the Little House books instead.

[Helena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say, I was surprised at how much of a role Rose Wilder Lane, Laura's daughter, played in the writing, editing, and publishing of the Little House books. I'm not sorry I read this, but I will say that it changed the way I viewed Laura Ingalls Wilder a bit, as my previous view of her was drawn only from the Little House books. I knew they were works of fiction, but they are autobiographical to a certain extent, and I think in my mind the book Laura and the author Laura were basically the same. Overall, I enjoyed this book and found it interesting to learn more about the life of one of my favorite children's authors.

[Jonna Higgins-Freese]

I'm fascinated with LIW, especially this (relatively) new scholarship I've discovered on her. I have really enjoyed learning about her partnership with her daughter to write the books, her daughter's sense that her life has been a wasted failure (because she didn't consider that the work she did on her mother's books "counted" for anything). It's been fascinating to see how LIW flourished as she aged. And I think part of the charm is that the essential Laura-ness of her is still not captured -- the children's books are fiction, and she left little record of her private feelings, so there's always an unsatisfied feeling of wanting to KNOW LIW and not being able to capture her.

[Jo Mclennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account of the suprisingly not very interesting life of Laura after she moved to Missouri with her husband. Most of the book revolves around her often stormy relationship with her only daughter, but the author assumes that people already have a working knowledge of Rose Wilder Lane's story. He often refers to future events or refers back to previous events in her life in a way I found confusing. And he ends abruptly at Laura's death and fails to finish off the book with any summary of how Laura (and Rose's) legacy continued. It kept me up several nights reading it though!

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been awhile since I revisited The Little House books so this was a nice read in that it refreshed my memory of them, reminded me how much I liked them, and added in a few other new tidbits to boot. I understand that there is some question on how much Laura's daughter Rose wrote or influenced these books and the latter half of this book mostly read like a dissertation "proving" the author's opinion. While it was interesting enough to read about Laura and Rose's interactions with each other I felt that it read more like a biography of Rose and went on a bit too much.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing about a Laura Ingalls Wilder biography is that the most interesting parts of her life she wrote about herself in the Little House series. The rest has to be gleaned from her daughter Rose's letters and journals, and is far less interesting. I enjoyed knowing what happened to Laura, Almanzo, Rose, and the rest of the Ingalls family, but for the most part they just went on with their lives.

It took me three tries over 8 years to read this book and I'm glad it finally stuck. But it's not one of my favorites.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this one for the first time on my way to and from visiting De Smet, South Dakota, the Wilders' first home for those of you who don't know the history. So as I was driving around a touring, this was a great companion to what I was seeing. I've been a Little House fan since I was a little girl, so as an adult I got to geek-out on this road trip. But this book provides a lot of new details that aren't in other books about Wilder. And the narration is very good for a biographical work. For Wilder fans, I'd say this is a must-read!

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Sometimes repetitive. Sprinkled with speculations and assumptions not supported with evidence (wish specific letters, articles, journal entries, etc. were quoted or paraphrased in these instances). Fun to see overarching historical backdrop of time during which series is set. My favorite parts were the anecdotes, I liked hearing about Almanzo. I grew up reading/loving this series and plan to reread them now :)

[Marilyn Ostermiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating tale of how Laura Ingalls Wilder became the celebrated children's book writer in collaboration with her daughter, Rose. If you are curious about what it was like to homestead on the prairie that became Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota, this will interest you. This detailed biography will take you inside the culture of a prairie town, what people ate, what they did for entertainment and how they tamed the land.

[Liddy Barlow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in the style of a term paper and sometimes over-speculating or relying too much on the over-emotional diary entries of Rose Wilder Lane, this did illuminate some of Laura's life. The parts about the process of writing her books were especially interesting. [Reviewed in the "book journal" I kept throughout 1999.]