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Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story
The life story of the feminist founder of the American libertarian movement
Peter Bagge returns with a biography of another fascinating twentieth-century trailblazer—the writer, feminist, war correspondent, and libertarian Rose Wilder Lane. Following the popularity and critical acclaim of Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story and Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story, Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is a fast-paced, charming, informative look at the brilliant Lane. Highly accomplished, she was a founder of the American libertarian movement and a champion of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in bringing the classic Little House on the Prairie series to the American public.
Like Sanger and Hurston, Lane was an advocate for women’s rights who led by example, challenging norms in her personal and professional life. Anti-government and anti-marriage, Lane didn’t think that gender should hold anyone back from experiencing all the world had to offer. Though less well-known today, in her lifetime she was one of the highest-paid female writers in America and a political and literary luminary, friends with Herbert Hoover, Dorothy Thompson, Sinclair Lewis, and Ayn Rand, to name a few.
Bagge’s portrait of Lane is heartfelt and affectionate, probing into the personal roots of her rugged individualism. Credo is a deeply researched dive into a historical figure whose contributions to American society are all around us, from the books we read to the politics we debate.
Peter Bagge returns with a biography of another fascinating twentieth-century trailblazer—the writer, feminist, war correspondent, and libertarian Rose Wilder Lane. Following the popularity and critical acclaim of Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story and Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story, Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is a fast-paced, charming, informative look at the brilliant Lane. Highly accomplished, she was a founder of the American libertarian movement and a champion of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in bringing the classic Little House on the Prairie series to the American public.
Like Sanger and Hurston, Lane was an advocate for women’s rights who led by example, challenging norms in her personal and professional life. Anti-government and anti-marriage, Lane didn’t think that gender should hold anyone back from experiencing all the world had to offer. Though less well-known today, in her lifetime she was one of the highest-paid female writers in America and a political and literary luminary, friends with Herbert Hoover, Dorothy Thompson, Sinclair Lewis, and Ayn Rand, to name a few.
Bagge’s portrait of Lane is heartfelt and affectionate, probing into the personal roots of her rugged individualism. Credo is a deeply researched dive into a historical figure whose contributions to American society are all around us, from the books we read to the politics we debate.
108 pages, Hardcover
First published April 16, 2019
9 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Peter Bagge
277 books166 followersPeter Bagge is an American cartoonist known for his irreverent, kinetic style and his incisive, black-humored portrayals of middle-class American youth. He first gained recognition with Neat Stuff, which introduced characters such as Buddy Bradley, Girly-Girl, and The Bradleys, and followed it with Hate, his best-known work, which ran through the 1990s and later as annuals. Bagge’s comics often exaggerate the frustrations, absurdities, and reduced expectations of ordinary life, combining influences from Warner Brothers cartoons, underground comix, and classic cartoonists like Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and Robert Crumb. Beyond satire and fiction, Bagge has produced fact-based comics journalism, biographies, and historical comics, contributing to outlets such as suck.com, MAD Magazine, toonlet, Discover, and Reason. His biographical works include Woman Rebel, about Margaret Sanger, Fire!!, on Zora Neale Hurston, and Credo, on Rose Wilder Lane. Bagge has collaborated with major publishers including Fantagraphics, DC Comics, Dark Horse, and Marvel, producing works such as Yeah!, Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd, Other Lives, and Reset. He has also worked in animation, creating Flash cartoons and animated commercials, and has been active as a musician in bands such as The Action Suits and Can You Imagine. Bagge’s signature art style is elastic, energetic, and exaggerated, capturing movement and comic expression in a way that amplifies both humor and social commentary. His personal politics are libertarian, frequently reflected in his comics and essays, and he has been a longtime contributor to Reason magazine. Bagge’s work combines biting satire, historical insight, and a relentless visual inventiveness, making him a central figure in American alternative comics for over four decades.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
June 6, 2019
The best book that I've read thus far in 2019. Absolutely fascinating, meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated, and I laughed out loud on more than one occasion. Rose Wilder Lane lived quite a life, and after reading this book, I will never look at Manly and Half-Pint the same way again.
March 12, 2019
You should know by now that I am a HUGE Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. HUGE. I've taken a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on her, I've been to her house, and my youngest sister is named Laura (not a coincidence). I haven't known much about Rose until more recent years, and this is a fun, odd, and much-needed graphic biography of her. After reading Prairie Fires by Caroline Frasier, I was pretty well convinced that Rose was a grade-A nutjob. I'm glad this book tells things from her perspective, as rarely is a person just a crazy basket case without more to the story.
First of all, her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, was a difficult mother: demanding, cheap, and grumpy. And as an only child, she had no one to share the burden with. Then her own life didn't go remotely as expected. From an early marriage that didn't work out to losing a baby and having a hysterectomy, meaning no children ever, to becoming a famous writer and friends with influential people across the twentieth century, I hadn't given either the difficulties or achievements in her life much weight. In her lifetime, she was the highest-paid woman journalist/writer with many bestsellers. She even went to Vietnam in her 70s to write about that war. Very well-traveled, she kept trying to get away but was always inextricably pulled back home to Mansfield, Missouri. She was inspired by, helped with, and felt sidelined by her mother's books. Even though she unofficially adopted several young men, she never seemed to fulfill her maternal drive. A famous contrarian and libertarian, she hung out with Ayn Rand.
Graphic biographies are, by their nature, accessible and concise. If you're a Wilder fan and/or have heard of Rose and want to know more, or just want to see what life was like for a famous woman writer from the Midwest in the first half of the twentieth century, this is a great book.
First of all, her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, was a difficult mother: demanding, cheap, and grumpy. And as an only child, she had no one to share the burden with. Then her own life didn't go remotely as expected. From an early marriage that didn't work out to losing a baby and having a hysterectomy, meaning no children ever, to becoming a famous writer and friends with influential people across the twentieth century, I hadn't given either the difficulties or achievements in her life much weight. In her lifetime, she was the highest-paid woman journalist/writer with many bestsellers. She even went to Vietnam in her 70s to write about that war. Very well-traveled, she kept trying to get away but was always inextricably pulled back home to Mansfield, Missouri. She was inspired by, helped with, and felt sidelined by her mother's books. Even though she unofficially adopted several young men, she never seemed to fulfill her maternal drive. A famous contrarian and libertarian, she hung out with Ayn Rand.
Graphic biographies are, by their nature, accessible and concise. If you're a Wilder fan and/or have heard of Rose and want to know more, or just want to see what life was like for a famous woman writer from the Midwest in the first half of the twentieth century, this is a great book.
July 17, 2022
Con Peter Bagge da un poco igual sobre qué hable. Cuando le lees, estás leyendo ante todo un cómic de Peter Bagge. Sus brazos espaguetis y sus «suspir» y «solloz» son inconfundibles. Todo lo lleva a su terreno, y además en estos cómics biográficos que ha dedicado a Margaret Sanger, Zora Neale Hurston y Rose Wilder Lane se ocupa de figuras que le son ideológicamente afines (sí, Bagge se define como libertario, pero no en el sentido de anarquista, sino más bien de anarcocapitalista). Las notas al final del cómic demuestran que se ha documentado de forma bastante meticulosa, y además revelan que no solo es un dibujante de cómics increíble, sino también un escritor competente y ameno. En resumen, me da igual sobre qué traten los cómics de Peter Bagge (incluso que se alinee con la tontuna esa del anarcocapitalismo), siempre me lo paso bien leyéndolos.
June 9, 2019
Prior to marrying, my main exposure to Laura Ingalls Wilder was through the TV show. At my wife's urging, I actually read all the Little House books and made a pilgrimage with her to the Ingalls' home sites in Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota in the mid-90s.
We also read most of the spin-off series written by others about Laura's grandmother, mother and daughter. The Rose books were my least favorite of those, and added to some other nonfiction I read about Laura and some samplings of Rose's writing, I ended up with a pretty negative attitude toward Rose Wilder Lane.
This book does little to improve my opinion of her -- I still find her annoying as hell -- but at least I can appreciate that she was a more complex person than I previously thought.
Bagge's biography is not rigorous history. He skips around through her life and dramatizes the moments from Rose's life he finds most interesting, often going for a humorous angle. He is obviously on Team Rose, heaping lots of scorn on Laura whenever he has a chance.
My wife is on Team Laura (or a "bonnethead" as I found out from Bagge), so I took a great deal of pleasure teasing her with the "facts" Bagge puts forth in his book. She insists that anyone interested in fully understanding the collaboration between Laura and Rose on the Little House books needs to read Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, a book which is missing from Bagge's bibliography.
Anyhow, I found this work enjoyable enough that it makes me want to read some more books about and by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane when I have a chance.
We also read most of the spin-off series written by others about Laura's grandmother, mother and daughter. The Rose books were my least favorite of those, and added to some other nonfiction I read about Laura and some samplings of Rose's writing, I ended up with a pretty negative attitude toward Rose Wilder Lane.
This book does little to improve my opinion of her -- I still find her annoying as hell -- but at least I can appreciate that she was a more complex person than I previously thought.
Bagge's biography is not rigorous history. He skips around through her life and dramatizes the moments from Rose's life he finds most interesting, often going for a humorous angle. He is obviously on Team Rose, heaping lots of scorn on Laura whenever he has a chance.
My wife is on Team Laura (or a "bonnethead" as I found out from Bagge), so I took a great deal of pleasure teasing her with the "facts" Bagge puts forth in his book. She insists that anyone interested in fully understanding the collaboration between Laura and Rose on the Little House books needs to read Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, a book which is missing from Bagge's bibliography.
Anyhow, I found this work enjoyable enough that it makes me want to read some more books about and by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane when I have a chance.
June 9, 2020
The only thing I knew about R.W. Lane before reading this is that her mother wrote "Little House on the Prairie", which I've not read or watched. But I trust Bagge to pick interesting topics, and he didn't let me down. She had a fascinating life.
Early on, she wrote biographies of Charlie Chaplin, Jack London, Herbert Hoover and Henry Ford. They were all largely fiction, and she came close to being sued each time!
Later she traveled in Europe after WWI as a war correspondent and sometimes with the Red Cross.
Bagge likes her because she is an early proponent of Libertarianism in the USA. I don't subscribe to that worldview, but found her life interesting anyway. Anyway, she lived by her principles; even making sure to be paid little enough money that she wouldn't have to pay income tax! (This is after she had already made a good deal of money.)
This book will likely anger "bonnetheads" because it presents her mother as a very difficult person and by strongly suggesting that R.W. Lane actually wrote more than a little of what was published in her mother's name. (She definitely edited it.) I don't have horse in that race, so don't care. Whether true or not, the sources are discussed in detail in the endnotes.
Like the other two of Bagges biographies, he sticks mostly to a one-idea-per-page format, so you can get whiplash from the sharp jumps in time and place from page to page. And his drawing style is, as it always was, cartoony even when dealing with serious subjects. But the story is solid, and the endnotes fill in details that may have been unclear, as well as adding speculations on things that can't be known for sure (such as whether she had more than friendships with certain men and women).
Early on, she wrote biographies of Charlie Chaplin, Jack London, Herbert Hoover and Henry Ford. They were all largely fiction, and she came close to being sued each time!
Later she traveled in Europe after WWI as a war correspondent and sometimes with the Red Cross.
Bagge likes her because she is an early proponent of Libertarianism in the USA. I don't subscribe to that worldview, but found her life interesting anyway. Anyway, she lived by her principles; even making sure to be paid little enough money that she wouldn't have to pay income tax! (This is after she had already made a good deal of money.)
This book will likely anger "bonnetheads" because it presents her mother as a very difficult person and by strongly suggesting that R.W. Lane actually wrote more than a little of what was published in her mother's name. (She definitely edited it.) I don't have horse in that race, so don't care. Whether true or not, the sources are discussed in detail in the endnotes.
Like the other two of Bagges biographies, he sticks mostly to a one-idea-per-page format, so you can get whiplash from the sharp jumps in time and place from page to page. And his drawing style is, as it always was, cartoony even when dealing with serious subjects. But the story is solid, and the endnotes fill in details that may have been unclear, as well as adding speculations on things that can't be known for sure (such as whether she had more than friendships with certain men and women).
March 8, 2020
Creo que hablamos poco de la capacidad divulgativa de los cómics. A mí me maravillan los cómics que funcionan a modo de biografía ilustrada y que, mezclando palabras y dibujos, te hacen entender en un lapso breve de tiempo todo lo que deberías saber sobre un personaje o hecho determinado. Creo que deberíamos hablar más de ello como lectores, y fomentarlo mucho más en la escuela.
Después de leer este cómic sobre Rose Wilder Lane me ha extrañado mucho no haber escuchado hablar antes sobre esta mujer. Escritora (parece ser que fue ella quien reescribió todos los libros de “La casa de la pradera” antes de que su madre, Laura Ingalls, los publicase), reportera y viajera por todo el mundo, Rose es una mujer muy peculiar y una auténtica rareza en su tiempo. Me ha gustado mucho ver como, a su manera, defendía algo así como la sororidad (antes de que se llamase así) y como se empeñó en amadrinar en los estudios a varios jóvenes de pocos recursos. También me ha parecido interesante entender sus ideales liberales y como esa retorcida idea de “libertad” estructuró su vida hasta el final.
Como todos los libros que intentan resumir una vida en unas pocas páginas, ‘Credo’ puede pecar un poco de “wikipédico”, ya que va saltando de evento en evento de la vida de la biografiada. El dibujo tiene bastante correspondencia con la historia que cuenta, ya que habla de toda la primera mitad del siglo xx usando viñetas de cómic americano clásico.
Después de leer este cómic sobre Rose Wilder Lane me ha extrañado mucho no haber escuchado hablar antes sobre esta mujer. Escritora (parece ser que fue ella quien reescribió todos los libros de “La casa de la pradera” antes de que su madre, Laura Ingalls, los publicase), reportera y viajera por todo el mundo, Rose es una mujer muy peculiar y una auténtica rareza en su tiempo. Me ha gustado mucho ver como, a su manera, defendía algo así como la sororidad (antes de que se llamase así) y como se empeñó en amadrinar en los estudios a varios jóvenes de pocos recursos. También me ha parecido interesante entender sus ideales liberales y como esa retorcida idea de “libertad” estructuró su vida hasta el final.
Como todos los libros que intentan resumir una vida en unas pocas páginas, ‘Credo’ puede pecar un poco de “wikipédico”, ya que va saltando de evento en evento de la vida de la biografiada. El dibujo tiene bastante correspondencia con la historia que cuenta, ya que habla de toda la primera mitad del siglo xx usando viñetas de cómic americano clásico.
April 18, 2022
Goofier than I thought, but Bagge is always worth reading. The end notes are driving me a little bonkers, but, still, this is good comics biography.
Mildly recommended.
Thanks GSU Clarkston Library for the loan.
Mildly recommended.
Thanks GSU Clarkston Library for the loan.
May 10, 2019
I was unable to overcome my personal bias as a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan and fully embrace this book. I believe I "imprinted" on Caroline Fraser's book Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and my understanding of the Laura Ingalls Wilder / Rose Wilder Lane dynamic is pretty much set.
Still, I was impressed that Peter Bagge would give Rose the graphic novel treatment and I thought I owed it to Rose to read a biography that was devoted to just her. Of course, no biographer of either Rose or Laura could completely leave out their mother-daughter relationship or their professional collaboration, but Bagge seems to delight in an ugly portrayal of Laura. Indeed, in his notes, he calls out Caroline Fraser for what he says is an unfair portrayal of Rose, and I believe he went out of his way in Credo to "correct" the record. For a Laura fan, it doesn't make me more sympathetic to Rose, it makes me see the biographer himself as spiteful and mean-spirited.
And, once I was feeling down on Peter Bagge, I started finding all kinds of flaws in the graphic novel itself: sloppy work with some of the captions, grammatical errors and typos in the notes section, etc.
I'd read Bagge's Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story just before reading Credo and I liked it better. Because I was coming to Zora with a limited knowledge of her personal life and a huge affection for Their Eyes Were Watching God, I was able to overlook my personal distaste for Bagge's drawing style (everyone is so ANGRY all the time! -- they're always making ugly faces, they're always yelling) and his disjointed storytelling methods. I didn't love the graphic novel portion of the book, but he won me over with the notes section. His notes were informative and offered a lot of insight into his admiration for Zora.
On the contrary, the notes section in Credo seemed off-the-cuff and flippant.
I think, in this case, the author and the reader are both guilty of personal bias.
Bagge references The Ghost in the Little House by William Holtz, which I suspect informed his opinions of Rose and Laura as much as Fraser's book informed mine. Both Holtz's book and Fraser's book appear to be extensively researched and carefully footnoted. And, yet, they draw very different conclusions. I'm not sure why there doesn't seem to be a more fair and balanced biography of either of these women - or a fair and balanced biography that we all can agree on. It seems silly to choose sides, but at this point, I'm unable not to choose sides.
For fans of the Little House books, who would like a deeper understanding of how those books developed over time, I would heartily recommend Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder (edited by Pamela Smith Hill). This is the extensively annotated and illustrated manuscript that Laura wrote first; a one-volume, adult treatment of her life story. The Pioneer Girl manuscript exists in multiple drafts, some handwritten by Laura, some typed by Rose, and it provides wonderful insight into the collaborative writing process.
Still, I was impressed that Peter Bagge would give Rose the graphic novel treatment and I thought I owed it to Rose to read a biography that was devoted to just her. Of course, no biographer of either Rose or Laura could completely leave out their mother-daughter relationship or their professional collaboration, but Bagge seems to delight in an ugly portrayal of Laura. Indeed, in his notes, he calls out Caroline Fraser for what he says is an unfair portrayal of Rose, and I believe he went out of his way in Credo to "correct" the record. For a Laura fan, it doesn't make me more sympathetic to Rose, it makes me see the biographer himself as spiteful and mean-spirited.
And, once I was feeling down on Peter Bagge, I started finding all kinds of flaws in the graphic novel itself: sloppy work with some of the captions, grammatical errors and typos in the notes section, etc.
I'd read Bagge's Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story just before reading Credo and I liked it better. Because I was coming to Zora with a limited knowledge of her personal life and a huge affection for Their Eyes Were Watching God, I was able to overlook my personal distaste for Bagge's drawing style (everyone is so ANGRY all the time! -- they're always making ugly faces, they're always yelling) and his disjointed storytelling methods. I didn't love the graphic novel portion of the book, but he won me over with the notes section. His notes were informative and offered a lot of insight into his admiration for Zora.
On the contrary, the notes section in Credo seemed off-the-cuff and flippant.
I think, in this case, the author and the reader are both guilty of personal bias.
Bagge references The Ghost in the Little House by William Holtz, which I suspect informed his opinions of Rose and Laura as much as Fraser's book informed mine. Both Holtz's book and Fraser's book appear to be extensively researched and carefully footnoted. And, yet, they draw very different conclusions. I'm not sure why there doesn't seem to be a more fair and balanced biography of either of these women - or a fair and balanced biography that we all can agree on. It seems silly to choose sides, but at this point, I'm unable not to choose sides.
For fans of the Little House books, who would like a deeper understanding of how those books developed over time, I would heartily recommend Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder (edited by Pamela Smith Hill). This is the extensively annotated and illustrated manuscript that Laura wrote first; a one-volume, adult treatment of her life story. The Pioneer Girl manuscript exists in multiple drafts, some handwritten by Laura, some typed by Rose, and it provides wonderful insight into the collaborative writing process.
February 3, 2019
I received an advance copy from the publisher at ALA Midwinter.
This was (as far as I know) my first Peter Bagge book. I've known his work forever (he's inescapable in Seattle literary/comics stuff), but this was the first time I've read one of his books. This was also the first book about either Wilder woman I've read outside of the Little House books and some assorted profiles in magazines which looked at Rose with a somewhat cynical eye due to the libertarian stuff.
This was a good introduction to her life and work, beyond the surface that I'd known. I knew she'd been key to the Little House books being published, but I didn't realize HOW much work she'd put into it, or how fraught her relationship with Laura was throughout her life. Rose, after coming out of a pretty intense childhood, became a badass, traveling the world and unafraid to explore her beliefs and stand up for them. While I don't know that I'd suggest this as a solid single source, it's a great jumping-off point to learn more about Rose Wilder Lane and her life.
This was (as far as I know) my first Peter Bagge book. I've known his work forever (he's inescapable in Seattle literary/comics stuff), but this was the first time I've read one of his books. This was also the first book about either Wilder woman I've read outside of the Little House books and some assorted profiles in magazines which looked at Rose with a somewhat cynical eye due to the libertarian stuff.
This was a good introduction to her life and work, beyond the surface that I'd known. I knew she'd been key to the Little House books being published, but I didn't realize HOW much work she'd put into it, or how fraught her relationship with Laura was throughout her life. Rose, after coming out of a pretty intense childhood, became a badass, traveling the world and unafraid to explore her beliefs and stand up for them. While I don't know that I'd suggest this as a solid single source, it's a great jumping-off point to learn more about Rose Wilder Lane and her life.
March 13, 2020
I picked this one off a library shelf solely because I admire the cartoonish art style of Peter Bagge. My only prior exposure to the Wilder/Lane family was an television episode or two of The Little House On The Prairie series, which did not engage me enough to follow on a regular basis.
I found out that Rose Wilder Lane was a very curious and interesting historical figure, a real trailblazer for women's rights, libertarianism and other causes. I enjoyed the way that Bagage highlighted her life through one or two page sections that focus on specific significant moments (of which there are many) in the life of Rose Wilder Lane. Extensively researched, the lengthy afterword/footnotes provided by Bagge is as entertaining and informative as the illustrated pages.
I have a new appreciation for a prominent women in American history.
I found out that Rose Wilder Lane was a very curious and interesting historical figure, a real trailblazer for women's rights, libertarianism and other causes. I enjoyed the way that Bagage highlighted her life through one or two page sections that focus on specific significant moments (of which there are many) in the life of Rose Wilder Lane. Extensively researched, the lengthy afterword/footnotes provided by Bagge is as entertaining and informative as the illustrated pages.
I have a new appreciation for a prominent women in American history.
May 5, 2019
I tried, but I just couldn’t get into this. It’s too episodic and disjointed, just lurching from one bit to the next with no context or transitions. I don’t like the artwork much, either - everyone just looks angry all the time. There’s no apparent actual substance, except people yelling at each other, and then ZIP! onto the next thing, several years later. I gave up.
P.S. TEAM LAURA all the way, woohoo!! :)
P.S. TEAM LAURA all the way, woohoo!! :)
May 20, 2020
This was a really interesting read. I would likely have given it 3.5 stars rather than 4, given the option. Bagge's research is in depth and Lane was definitely fascinating, leading a complex, varied, and complete life. The graphic novel portion is a bit disjointed. Better than many graphic novel biographies that I've read lately, but still with a lot of head scratching and how exactly did we get heres. The art style is very cartoon-ey - which works well for some of the content - Lane was apparently pretty volatile at times. As a fan of the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder - and the tv show tbh - learning about her daughter was quite fascinating. What this biography has that the others I've read lately both did and did not have, was an extensive endnote section. I also just read Colette which also had a footnote section, but it wasn't tied specifically to what was going on in the graphic novel - and the entries per year were often just a recitation of what was published that year. Bagge ties the entries specifically to pages, often explaining exactly what is happening on those pages.
My biggest recommendation therefore is to read the end notes concurrently with the graphic portion. I believe you'll get the most out of the book that way. Bagge also includes a very extensive bibliography for further reading.
My biggest recommendation therefore is to read the end notes concurrently with the graphic portion. I believe you'll get the most out of the book that way. Bagge also includes a very extensive bibliography for further reading.
May 14, 2019
I really didn’t know much about Rose Wilder Lane before this, other than that she was Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter, but I did know that most stories about her are not sympathetic. I think this did a great job making Rose look like a flawed, but ultimately well-meaning person who was mentally ill. Also, she is just super interesting. She did all sorts of cool things in her life. The art style was not my taste, but the text is well-researched, and Lane is a worthy subject.
October 15, 2019
Graphic novel biography of the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I knew very little about Lane. She was a proto-libertarian, and probably wrote/edited the Little House series while probably suffering from Manic Depressive disorder. The author in an appendix does a good job noting his sources.
November 12, 2020
Did not like! The way that Laura Ingalls Wilder was portrayed was awful. I didn't really like how Rose Wilder Lane was portrayed, but I believe the author was trying to portray her mental state due to bipolar disorder.
November 20, 2022
A very witty, yet compassionate graphic biography of Rose Wilder Lane, who received such harsh treatment in Caroline Fraser’s Prairie Fires.
February 22, 2021
An interesting way to read a biography. Not quite what I expected—a very high level overview of the most important events in Lane's life.
The intro and end notes are worth reading. I wish I'd read the end notes while going through the body of the book.
The intro and end notes are worth reading. I wish I'd read the end notes while going through the body of the book.
July 19, 2020
Maybe feeling a bit nostalgic, lamenting my gone youth, I got to thinking "What the hell is Peter Bagge up to these days?” His comic Hate was a constant companion to my mid-20s life, as important to me as, oh say, The Pixies. Well a quick internet search showed that lately he’s been up to writing graphic novels about odd-ball, singular, feminist pioneers. This one is about commie-hating, proto-Libertarian Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Little House of the Prairie series author Laura Wilder. Despite not having a particular interest in tween girl books nor particularly liking Libertarians I took a chance on this. This woman was a nut but a REALLY fascinating nut. She lived an extremely interesting idiosyncratic life and knew a lot of characters. The first four-fifths of the book is the graphic novel and the last fifth is Bagge's well-written (opinionated) commentary about the contents of each page. The art style is classic Bagge, at one point Lane flips out and I laughed out loud from the visual—it looked like when Lisa would flip out on Buddy. This is really well done.
April 3, 2022
As I read through this book, I realized there is a great deal that is noteworthy about Rose Wilder Lane’s life! As our world developed into the 20th Century, Lane solidified her significance as a pioneer, in discovering and questioning the trends in world societies. It seems she had many questions about the role of government, in particular. Not just a philosopher, she rolled up her sleeves and got involved.
I was attracted by the dynamic, humorous artwork and dialogue. After reading the several pages of text at the end, which serve as notes for the graphic sections, I found myself flipping back to the graphical part and understanding better what was going on in each scene.
In retrospect I find the graphic novel to appear as comics strips about certain events in Lane’s life, rather than a cataloging of all events. Yet, I do get a feel for Lane’s personality, and a small sense of the remarkable impact she represents in our society. There is a lot more to this woman’s life than is widely known, and it seems this book merely skims that surface.
I was attracted by the dynamic, humorous artwork and dialogue. After reading the several pages of text at the end, which serve as notes for the graphic sections, I found myself flipping back to the graphical part and understanding better what was going on in each scene.
In retrospect I find the graphic novel to appear as comics strips about certain events in Lane’s life, rather than a cataloging of all events. Yet, I do get a feel for Lane’s personality, and a small sense of the remarkable impact she represents in our society. There is a lot more to this woman’s life than is widely known, and it seems this book merely skims that surface.
October 30, 2024
October 29th, 2024
This was a fascinating read. The text of the graphic novel itself is really only a portion of the story - the end notes flesh the story out a great deal.
I have to admit there were pieces of the storytelling here I disliked.
Clearly the author has a great deal of sympathy towards Rose Wilder Lane herself - not as much as he tells us other biographers have had, but more than he seems willing to recognize. And his visceral hatred towards Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a little much (though considering his undeniable sympathies towards Lane, perhaps such feeling is understandable).
I love to read because of Laura Ingalls Wilder. My second grade teacher read Little House in the Big Woods after recess every day for several weeks, and I was hooked. I inhaled the series, collected (though admittedly I don't think I read) the spinoff series, and read plenty of supplementary works. (It wasn't until this book that I realized that William Anderson, whose work I own, was in fact Wilder's first biographer. My extended relatives gave me copies of his books because it was an easy thing that they knew I liked.) My parents acquiesced in June 2001 to visiting her home in Mansfield, and my grandmother and I assembled a scrapbook of that trip. (That same grandmother, somewhat incidentally, had an uncle who was a neighbor of the Ingalls family in South Dakota - or so I was told. Who knows the truth, honestly, but my dad was aware of that connection, so it at least didn't appear out of whole cloth for me.)
I even made efforts to read Rose's works - at least one novel, and I'm pretty sure some nonfiction as well.
I watched a handful of episodes (on VHS!) of the TV adaptation and was unimpressed, not realizing that the world of Little House had to be so thoroughly expanded to a decade-long weekly series. (And truly, Michael Landon could NOT have been more physically incorrect as Pa!)
As with everything, I went through seasons with the Little House world.. I probably haven't actually read any of them since I crossed into double digits, age-wise, but I've retained my fondness, and my profound gratitude. I purchased a 1932 copy of Little House in the Big Woods in around 2019, and have treasured it (it's not a first edition, but it does have Helen Sewell's illustrations).
Since 2001, of course, public perceptions of Wilder have shifted. The casual racism Wilder demonstrated led public reassessments of her work. I also became more and more aware of the controversies surrounding Wilder's role in the authorship of the books, especially when the Pioneer Girl memoir was released. I knew, of course, that aspects of of the books had been somewhat fictionalized - composite characters, for example, as well as stretches of Wilder's life she'd not written about - but learning that there is some dispute about how the books came to be altered their merits in my mind.
But Prairie Fires was really impactful to me. I found it so utterly compelling, and occasionally shattering. And Peter Bagge is right: Rose Wilder Lane does NOT come across well in that book. She comes across as reckless and scattered, a plagiarist, and somewhat addicted to real estate. Prairie Fires isn't exactly a flattering portrait of Wilder herself - it's a warts-and-all portrait - but again, Lane looks bad in it.
I think that, moreso than anything else, seems to be the driving impetus behind this book - or that, and sympathies with Lane's philosophies.
In this book, Laura Ingalls Wilder comes across as both cold and manipulative, and rather unwilling (or perhaps unable) to show her loved ones that she does, in fact, love them. Almanzo comes across as something of a non-entity, except for his screaming matches with his wife.
Like I said, Rose is a sympathetic figure here. Her libertarian leanings are definitely granted wide berth: the fact that she refuses to participate in so many of the programs that are now common use is treated as something heroic, and not, as I would consider them, a bit absurd. The book does give some rationale behind views that seem extreme, though, and perhaps Lane's experiences made it reasonable to fear the government as she did.
The major biographical aspects of Lane's life that were present in Prairie Fires feature here. Lane's career was such that it's hard, it seems, to construct a meaningful narrative: she seems to be all over the place, with little rhyme or reason. But some of these accomplishments are definitely underappreciated in both the Little House world, and arguably in the history of women in journalism. I was genuinely blown away to encounter her in Vietnam in 1965, reporting on the early days of US involvement in the region!
It is reassuring to read some of what the author has to say about Lane's politics. One of the most unnerving aspects of Prairie Fires was Wilder and Lane's purported sympathies with the fascist powers in World War II. Bagge refutes these charges.
On the whole, this was a fascinating book, and definitely a worthy addition the broader understanding of the Laura Ingalls Wilder universe. That said, it is definitely a book with an agenda, and should be recognized as such.
This was a fascinating read. The text of the graphic novel itself is really only a portion of the story - the end notes flesh the story out a great deal.
I have to admit there were pieces of the storytelling here I disliked.
Clearly the author has a great deal of sympathy towards Rose Wilder Lane herself - not as much as he tells us other biographers have had, but more than he seems willing to recognize. And his visceral hatred towards Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a little much (though considering his undeniable sympathies towards Lane, perhaps such feeling is understandable).
I love to read because of Laura Ingalls Wilder. My second grade teacher read Little House in the Big Woods after recess every day for several weeks, and I was hooked. I inhaled the series, collected (though admittedly I don't think I read) the spinoff series, and read plenty of supplementary works. (It wasn't until this book that I realized that William Anderson, whose work I own, was in fact Wilder's first biographer. My extended relatives gave me copies of his books because it was an easy thing that they knew I liked.) My parents acquiesced in June 2001 to visiting her home in Mansfield, and my grandmother and I assembled a scrapbook of that trip. (That same grandmother, somewhat incidentally, had an uncle who was a neighbor of the Ingalls family in South Dakota - or so I was told. Who knows the truth, honestly, but my dad was aware of that connection, so it at least didn't appear out of whole cloth for me.)
I even made efforts to read Rose's works - at least one novel, and I'm pretty sure some nonfiction as well.
I watched a handful of episodes (on VHS!) of the TV adaptation and was unimpressed, not realizing that the world of Little House had to be so thoroughly expanded to a decade-long weekly series. (And truly, Michael Landon could NOT have been more physically incorrect as Pa!)
As with everything, I went through seasons with the Little House world.. I probably haven't actually read any of them since I crossed into double digits, age-wise, but I've retained my fondness, and my profound gratitude. I purchased a 1932 copy of Little House in the Big Woods in around 2019, and have treasured it (it's not a first edition, but it does have Helen Sewell's illustrations).
Since 2001, of course, public perceptions of Wilder have shifted. The casual racism Wilder demonstrated led public reassessments of her work. I also became more and more aware of the controversies surrounding Wilder's role in the authorship of the books, especially when the Pioneer Girl memoir was released. I knew, of course, that aspects of of the books had been somewhat fictionalized - composite characters, for example, as well as stretches of Wilder's life she'd not written about - but learning that there is some dispute about how the books came to be altered their merits in my mind.
But Prairie Fires was really impactful to me. I found it so utterly compelling, and occasionally shattering. And Peter Bagge is right: Rose Wilder Lane does NOT come across well in that book. She comes across as reckless and scattered, a plagiarist, and somewhat addicted to real estate. Prairie Fires isn't exactly a flattering portrait of Wilder herself - it's a warts-and-all portrait - but again, Lane looks bad in it.
I think that, moreso than anything else, seems to be the driving impetus behind this book - or that, and sympathies with Lane's philosophies.
In this book, Laura Ingalls Wilder comes across as both cold and manipulative, and rather unwilling (or perhaps unable) to show her loved ones that she does, in fact, love them. Almanzo comes across as something of a non-entity, except for his screaming matches with his wife.
Like I said, Rose is a sympathetic figure here. Her libertarian leanings are definitely granted wide berth: the fact that she refuses to participate in so many of the programs that are now common use is treated as something heroic, and not, as I would consider them, a bit absurd. The book does give some rationale behind views that seem extreme, though, and perhaps Lane's experiences made it reasonable to fear the government as she did.
The major biographical aspects of Lane's life that were present in Prairie Fires feature here. Lane's career was such that it's hard, it seems, to construct a meaningful narrative: she seems to be all over the place, with little rhyme or reason. But some of these accomplishments are definitely underappreciated in both the Little House world, and arguably in the history of women in journalism. I was genuinely blown away to encounter her in Vietnam in 1965, reporting on the early days of US involvement in the region!
It is reassuring to read some of what the author has to say about Lane's politics. One of the most unnerving aspects of Prairie Fires was Wilder and Lane's purported sympathies with the fascist powers in World War II. Bagge refutes these charges.
On the whole, this was a fascinating book, and definitely a worthy addition the broader understanding of the Laura Ingalls Wilder universe. That said, it is definitely a book with an agenda, and should be recognized as such.
September 11, 2021
Did you, like me, love the Little House series since you were a child? Well, this book will change how you feel. Thanks for ruining what good childhood memories I had left, Peter Bagge.
I was going to give this a two star rating and then had to ask myself why. Was he writing the truth? I don't know, but I did not like what I was reading. I think in the end I did get a lot out of the back of the book where he gave us kind of an encyclopedia of information about Rose Wilder Lane. I can't say that I would recommend this book to anyone, but I did learn some stuff I didn't know before.
I was going to give this a two star rating and then had to ask myself why. Was he writing the truth? I don't know, but I did not like what I was reading. I think in the end I did get a lot out of the back of the book where he gave us kind of an encyclopedia of information about Rose Wilder Lane. I can't say that I would recommend this book to anyone, but I did learn some stuff I didn't know before.
July 30, 2022
I choose to read this book for a couple of reasons. I have a feeling that my wife will also enjoy this book. Plus, I really liked creator Peter Bagge's biography of Zora Neale Hurston. The main subject of this book is Rose Wilder Lane; the daughter of one Laura Ingalls Wilder; writer and main character of the Little House on the Prairie series of books.
My wife grew up in the 70s and 80s during a time when interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiographical books was at a resurgence thanks to the Little House on the Prairie TV show that starred Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. I think my wife would have been considered a fanatic of Little House as a kid. She read all of the books- numerous times over! She watched the show religiously, refusing to go to bed until after the program ended. And for Halloween and just regular kid play time, she and her sister would dress up as the characters and play with the neighbor children as Laura and sister Caroline.
Anyways, back to Rose. If it wasn't for Lane, the Little House books might never have happened. Laura was great at recalling past events. But she was unable to divert from the facts to make her tales very interesting. Thus, it's safe to say that Rose was definitely the editor of Laura's memoirs. There's also a very good argument amongst fans that she may have rewritten if not completely ghost written a very large portion of the books. While Rose's contributions to Laura's writings are the main reason I (and probably my wife will) read this book, it's actually not her only contribution to the literary world.
Rose Wilder Lane was a pioneering feminist writer in the 1930s-early 50s. Wilder toured much of Europe and chronicled her visits in a number of publications including The Saturday Evening Post and Woman's Day. She was like a precursor to the Travel Channel! Much of her earliest fiction writings were considered scandalous if only for the tawdry episodes of romance and passion that the stories contained. Though it didn't help that it was a woman who was writing such 'trash.' But it was her political essays that got the writer into the most trouble.
Among those who favor smaller government, Rose Wilder Lane is considered a pioneer of Libertarianism. She was also a staunch anti-Communist and anti-Fascist. This won her a lot of fans who were afraid of the rise of political tyrannies in Europe and Asia as well as government overreach at home. Yet, during World War II, when Lane began to criticize FDR's New Deal policies, the writer began to incur the wraith of the FBI. All of a sudden, Lane was deemed unpatriotic. In retaliation, Lane stepped up her critique of American policy, including the unfair treatment of blacks and women. She also decided to forgo large paychecks in order to not have to pay the government a single dime from her coffers!
To say Rose Wilder Lane was an odd duck is putting it mildly. Thanks to her pioneer upbringing, she was fiercely independent. Lane couldn't stay still, travelling and pulling up stakes frequently. She might have been bi-sexual based on some of her long-time companions. The writer might have been involved in a couple of cults; though they were way less creepy than a lot of the ones we see on the news nowadays. Sadly, Rose also suffered from bi-polar disorder.
I really feel that Lane's mental illness was the one thing that Peter Bagge glossed over. Bagge merely hints at the possible homosexual affairs as there's never been definitive proof of such. But Lane had a tragic stillbirth, which resulted in an emergency hysterectomy. The loss of the chance to become a mother haunted her throughout her life and resulted in the unofficial adoption of many children and grandchildren. Peter Bagge does chronicle these relationships. I just don't feel that he really captures the lows Lane suffered from as much as focusing on her highs.
I gotta say that Peter Bagge doesn't paint a rosy picture of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She seemed like a mean old biddy and I'm glad she wasn't my grandmother! From how my wife talked, I thought Laura and her husband Almanzo were this perfect, loving couple. In reality, she was such a bitter person that the man Laura dubbed 'Manly' was seriously emasculated. As for Rose, I really think Laura did anything but make her life a living hell. No wonder Rose wanted to be anywhere but where she was!
A powerful account of an almost forgotten character of 20th century American history. With an extensive notes section, full of photos and facts, it was a good read. Though, a magnifying glass with that small print font might be needed.
My wife grew up in the 70s and 80s during a time when interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiographical books was at a resurgence thanks to the Little House on the Prairie TV show that starred Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. I think my wife would have been considered a fanatic of Little House as a kid. She read all of the books- numerous times over! She watched the show religiously, refusing to go to bed until after the program ended. And for Halloween and just regular kid play time, she and her sister would dress up as the characters and play with the neighbor children as Laura and sister Caroline.
Anyways, back to Rose. If it wasn't for Lane, the Little House books might never have happened. Laura was great at recalling past events. But she was unable to divert from the facts to make her tales very interesting. Thus, it's safe to say that Rose was definitely the editor of Laura's memoirs. There's also a very good argument amongst fans that she may have rewritten if not completely ghost written a very large portion of the books. While Rose's contributions to Laura's writings are the main reason I (and probably my wife will) read this book, it's actually not her only contribution to the literary world.
Rose Wilder Lane was a pioneering feminist writer in the 1930s-early 50s. Wilder toured much of Europe and chronicled her visits in a number of publications including The Saturday Evening Post and Woman's Day. She was like a precursor to the Travel Channel! Much of her earliest fiction writings were considered scandalous if only for the tawdry episodes of romance and passion that the stories contained. Though it didn't help that it was a woman who was writing such 'trash.' But it was her political essays that got the writer into the most trouble.
Among those who favor smaller government, Rose Wilder Lane is considered a pioneer of Libertarianism. She was also a staunch anti-Communist and anti-Fascist. This won her a lot of fans who were afraid of the rise of political tyrannies in Europe and Asia as well as government overreach at home. Yet, during World War II, when Lane began to criticize FDR's New Deal policies, the writer began to incur the wraith of the FBI. All of a sudden, Lane was deemed unpatriotic. In retaliation, Lane stepped up her critique of American policy, including the unfair treatment of blacks and women. She also decided to forgo large paychecks in order to not have to pay the government a single dime from her coffers!
To say Rose Wilder Lane was an odd duck is putting it mildly. Thanks to her pioneer upbringing, she was fiercely independent. Lane couldn't stay still, travelling and pulling up stakes frequently. She might have been bi-sexual based on some of her long-time companions. The writer might have been involved in a couple of cults; though they were way less creepy than a lot of the ones we see on the news nowadays. Sadly, Rose also suffered from bi-polar disorder.
I really feel that Lane's mental illness was the one thing that Peter Bagge glossed over. Bagge merely hints at the possible homosexual affairs as there's never been definitive proof of such. But Lane had a tragic stillbirth, which resulted in an emergency hysterectomy. The loss of the chance to become a mother haunted her throughout her life and resulted in the unofficial adoption of many children and grandchildren. Peter Bagge does chronicle these relationships. I just don't feel that he really captures the lows Lane suffered from as much as focusing on her highs.
I gotta say that Peter Bagge doesn't paint a rosy picture of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She seemed like a mean old biddy and I'm glad she wasn't my grandmother! From how my wife talked, I thought Laura and her husband Almanzo were this perfect, loving couple. In reality, she was such a bitter person that the man Laura dubbed 'Manly' was seriously emasculated. As for Rose, I really think Laura did anything but make her life a living hell. No wonder Rose wanted to be anywhere but where she was!
A powerful account of an almost forgotten character of 20th century American history. With an extensive notes section, full of photos and facts, it was a good read. Though, a magnifying glass with that small print font might be needed.
February 21, 2023
Rose Wilder Lane was a free soul, a proto-feminist, a proto-libertarian, partial author of the Little House books and much more. Her amazing life (starting on a dirt poor De Smet farmstead, as described in Laura Ingalls Wilder's posthumously published The First Four Years) has been documented many times and ways (including Lane's autobiographical works) and is intrinsically fascinating. Here it gets the Peter Bagge treatment and, being a fan of both the Little House books and Bagge's work, I had high hopes for this book.
I was first surprised by Credo's diminutive size. When I first began reading Bagge's work, in 1985, it was being published magazine size. Later his work was published comic book size. Here it's published less than 7" x 9". What's next - postage stamp size? Bagge's lettering and art seemingly haven't been altered to accommodate the smaller size, either, making the work small, cramped and just plain hard to read. The font size used for the introduction practically requires a magnifying glass. Really, Drawn and Quarterly? Couldn't you give a great cartoonist a chance to shine?
Bagge's cartooning is as fun and expressive as ever, capturing the ever-shifting emotions and agendas of a person famous for their mood swings and short attention span. The drawing is excellent. The pacing, though... I would have loved to see the story slow down enough for longer dramatic scenes. As it, the (only 72-page) work feels like a picaresque travelogue, one that checks off a list of chronological events, but doesn't delve deeply into any of them. It's a lost opportunity because there are so many events in Lane's life that could benefit from the kind of wry but respectful observations I've seen in earlier Bagge fiction.
Bagge's afterward, on the other hand, is a wealth of great resources for further study of the people Rose journeyed with, with fun and insightful observations and commentary. For Bagge fans and Lane fans, the book is a must, despite its faults.
I was first surprised by Credo's diminutive size. When I first began reading Bagge's work, in 1985, it was being published magazine size. Later his work was published comic book size. Here it's published less than 7" x 9". What's next - postage stamp size? Bagge's lettering and art seemingly haven't been altered to accommodate the smaller size, either, making the work small, cramped and just plain hard to read. The font size used for the introduction practically requires a magnifying glass. Really, Drawn and Quarterly? Couldn't you give a great cartoonist a chance to shine?
Bagge's cartooning is as fun and expressive as ever, capturing the ever-shifting emotions and agendas of a person famous for their mood swings and short attention span. The drawing is excellent. The pacing, though... I would have loved to see the story slow down enough for longer dramatic scenes. As it, the (only 72-page) work feels like a picaresque travelogue, one that checks off a list of chronological events, but doesn't delve deeply into any of them. It's a lost opportunity because there are so many events in Lane's life that could benefit from the kind of wry but respectful observations I've seen in earlier Bagge fiction.
Bagge's afterward, on the other hand, is a wealth of great resources for further study of the people Rose journeyed with, with fun and insightful observations and commentary. For Bagge fans and Lane fans, the book is a must, despite its faults.
January 2, 2021
Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is a biographical graphic novel written and illustrated by Peter Bagge. It is an idiosyncratic, independent life and work of Rose Wilder Lane – Laura Ingalls Wilder's conservative daughter.
Rose Wilder Lane was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, political theorist and daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with two other female writers, Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson, Lane is noted as one of the founders of the American libertarian movement.
Born in 1886 in South Dakota, Lane was raised in the Missouri Ozarks after her parents gave up on homesteading. Restless, adventuresome, and bipolar, Lane heads to San Francisco in the early 1900s, where, after an unhappy marriage and a suicide attempt, she becomes a writer. By 1918, Lane is churning out serialized romances and fictionalized biographies.
In the decades after, she pursues a bifurcated life: one part as a well-paid women's magazine writer and world traveler, and another as a Missouri homebody not-so-secretly helping her ungrateful mother write the Little House on the Prairie series.
Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is written and constructed rather well. Bagge gives a rather sympathetic treatment to Lane, in particular to her strong libertarian turn, yet defends her against charges of being an Ayn Rand clone and admits she was a conspiracy theorist embarrassingly prone to hyperbole. Bagge's affinity for rendering characters as toothy, rubber-limbed ranters and ravers dovetails neatly with Lane's wild emotional extremes.
All in all, Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is a loopy, frantic, and personality-packed tribute and is fitting for one of America’s lesser-known gonzo feminist writers.
Rose Wilder Lane was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, political theorist and daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with two other female writers, Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson, Lane is noted as one of the founders of the American libertarian movement.
Born in 1886 in South Dakota, Lane was raised in the Missouri Ozarks after her parents gave up on homesteading. Restless, adventuresome, and bipolar, Lane heads to San Francisco in the early 1900s, where, after an unhappy marriage and a suicide attempt, she becomes a writer. By 1918, Lane is churning out serialized romances and fictionalized biographies.
In the decades after, she pursues a bifurcated life: one part as a well-paid women's magazine writer and world traveler, and another as a Missouri homebody not-so-secretly helping her ungrateful mother write the Little House on the Prairie series.
Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is written and constructed rather well. Bagge gives a rather sympathetic treatment to Lane, in particular to her strong libertarian turn, yet defends her against charges of being an Ayn Rand clone and admits she was a conspiracy theorist embarrassingly prone to hyperbole. Bagge's affinity for rendering characters as toothy, rubber-limbed ranters and ravers dovetails neatly with Lane's wild emotional extremes.
All in all, Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is a loopy, frantic, and personality-packed tribute and is fitting for one of America’s lesser-known gonzo feminist writers.
January 16, 2021
Meh. Bagge's style really does not gel with biography, in my opinion. Admittedly, Rose Wilder Lane is in some respects (assuming the accuracy of Bagge's depiction of her crank-ness) somewhat akin to a cartoon character, but I don't find that the tropes of exaggerated comedy cartooning serve the biographical function well. While Bagge doesn't go as far as, say, having fire come out of her ears when she's angry, there's a lot of over the top humour-style stuff (e.g. a silhouette of Lane stamping up and down, with angular teeth, for anger). Indeed, the narrative is structured more like a sequence of gags than like a complex story. Most sequences are designed as one-page units, and it is the rare sequence that is longer than two pages. And these pages are often designed with the rhythms and visual grammar of a comic strip. E.g. there is one sequence in which Lane bemoans not getting any recognition for the greatness of her writing, but when she learns she has won a literary award, she immediately dismisses the judges as idiots. Ba-DUMP-bump. I was also amused that Bagge admits to simplifying and skipping over things because Lane's life was so busy and complex ... but his book is only 75 pages of comics--less than one page per year Lane lived. So, yeah, of COURSE the book has to leave a lot out.... Bagge does provide a useful page-by-page set of notes providing more details and sources, and often acknowledging places where he has taken some licence, so he does get points for grounding the comic in research, even if reality gets filtered through a very cartoonish lens in the text proper.
September 3, 2019
Everyone who loved the Ingalls Wilder books *has* to read this. I picked it up because it was Pete Bagge (have been reading his stuff for over 20 years, the gnarly old so and so) and had no idea who Rose Wilder Lane was.
It's difficult to quite articulate, therefore, how surprising this book is! I mean... What?!
It's eye opening on several different levels: Ingalls Wilder herself, the writings of the Little House books and what really blew me away was beginning to get my head around how the American pioneer spirit morphed in to the ultra-individualistic ideology that almost defines a certain white intellectual economy driven political American (and links right through to 'preppers' and the rest). As a UK based outsider, I never understood it.
It's also very, very funny, luckily. Pete can't be bothered to hide his admiration for Rose's world view, which adds to an entertaining sense that Bagge's curmudgeonly persona, as he's got older, has a mirror in Rose's somewhat unique (and often hilarious) stubbornness.
The only criticism I can think of is he really bloody jumps ahead sometimes or covers something fairly major in a couple of sentences - presumably because he had a page limit. However, don't let that put you off. I munched this up, it's a delight, and now have a whole lot of other interesting reading to pursue as a result.
It's difficult to quite articulate, therefore, how surprising this book is! I mean... What?!
It's eye opening on several different levels: Ingalls Wilder herself, the writings of the Little House books and what really blew me away was beginning to get my head around how the American pioneer spirit morphed in to the ultra-individualistic ideology that almost defines a certain white intellectual economy driven political American (and links right through to 'preppers' and the rest). As a UK based outsider, I never understood it.
It's also very, very funny, luckily. Pete can't be bothered to hide his admiration for Rose's world view, which adds to an entertaining sense that Bagge's curmudgeonly persona, as he's got older, has a mirror in Rose's somewhat unique (and often hilarious) stubbornness.
The only criticism I can think of is he really bloody jumps ahead sometimes or covers something fairly major in a couple of sentences - presumably because he had a page limit. However, don't let that put you off. I munched this up, it's a delight, and now have a whole lot of other interesting reading to pursue as a result.
April 18, 2025
El estilo de Peter Bagge es inconfundiblemente personal y cualquier cosa que dibuje estará bien. Aunque, como en este caso, se trate de rememorar la biografía de un personaje real, su narración siempre se desarrolla con ese aspecto underground de personajes con extremidades como palillos y sin articulaciones, con historias de una única página en la que la narración y lo sarcástico-humorístico se dan la mano en cualquier tema tratado, por más serio que este sea.
En este caso, nos conduce por la biografía de una extraordinaria (por lo de singular y única) mujer, Rose Wilder Lane, que vivió su vida como le dio la gana, haciendo gala de una rabiosa libertad de ser. Wilder Lane es una de las grandes referencias de ese horror conceptual que es el movimiento libertario americano, lo cual no quita que la historia de esta mujer tan rabiosamente libre como equivocada sea fascinante.
Las notas del final del libro son imprescindibles para entender bien cada una de las páginas, ya que Bagge dibuja buscando extraer lo cómico de cada situación sin detenerse ni un momento a aportar contexto.
En este caso, nos conduce por la biografía de una extraordinaria (por lo de singular y única) mujer, Rose Wilder Lane, que vivió su vida como le dio la gana, haciendo gala de una rabiosa libertad de ser. Wilder Lane es una de las grandes referencias de ese horror conceptual que es el movimiento libertario americano, lo cual no quita que la historia de esta mujer tan rabiosamente libre como equivocada sea fascinante.
Las notas del final del libro son imprescindibles para entender bien cada una de las páginas, ya que Bagge dibuja buscando extraer lo cómico de cada situación sin detenerse ni un momento a aportar contexto.
May 10, 2019
Better than Bagge's Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story but still suffers from disjointed storytelling. I'm glad I'd already readLibertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books so I wasn't coming into Credo as a cold reader. Credo would be a great introduction to Rose Wilder Lane, especially if you read the delightful endnotes full of commentary, photos, and historical detail.
h/t: interview with the author on NPR
h/t: interview with the author on NPR
October 12, 2019
The introduction and historical afterwards are probably the best part of an GD AWESOME book. Sadly, I don't see people flocking to get this. She's a small name compared to her mother, but should have been greater than. Her personal and mental issues are delicately but honestly portrayed. Her ideals came naturally because of her background, upbringing, travels, gender, society and the time she came of age. She was the perfect example of the time. So much goes on! She was ahead of her time. She saw the writing in the wall. And if four things had differ: help with her mental state had been given, more traditional parental love from her parents, the death of her son and her gender: we would not have had one bada$$ lady to study. Forget the popular women biographies GET THIS BOOK NOW
July 11, 2020
I was at work and needed something to read, so I looked for a graphic novel bio. Something that wouldn't take too much of my time before getting back to the stack of books beside my bed.
Rose Wilder Lane is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, of Little House fame. Turns out she helped a great deal with writing those books! She was quite a character. Rather an oddball, especially for her time. It was an interesting read. I don't know that, in this case, the graphic novel format was the best choice for such a multi-faceted person. Additionally, the art style wasn't my preference. Oh well; it was just a graphic novel and didn't take too much of my time to read, and I did learn quite a bit.
Rose Wilder Lane is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, of Little House fame. Turns out she helped a great deal with writing those books! She was quite a character. Rather an oddball, especially for her time. It was an interesting read. I don't know that, in this case, the graphic novel format was the best choice for such a multi-faceted person. Additionally, the art style wasn't my preference. Oh well; it was just a graphic novel and didn't take too much of my time to read, and I did learn quite a bit.
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