Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts

Pioneer Girl Project #2

by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nancy Tystad Koupal (Editor)

For generations, the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder have defined the American frontier and the pioneer experience for the public at large. Pioneer The Revised Texts presents three typescripts of Wilder's original Pioneer Girl manuscript in an examination of the process through which she and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, transformed her autobiography into the much-loved Little House series. As the women polished the narrative from draft to draft, a picture emerges of the working relationship between the women, of the lives they lived, and of the literary works they created. Editor Nancy Tystad Koupal and other editors of the Pioneer Girl Project provide a meticulous study of the Wilder/Lane partnership as Wilder's autobiography undergoes revision, and the women redevelop and expand portions of it into Wilder's successful children's and young adult novels and into Lane's bestselling adult novels in the 1930s. The three revised texts of Pioneer Girl, set side by side, showcase the intertwined processes of writing and editing and the contributions of writer and editor. In background essays and annotations, Koupal and her team of editors provide historical context and explore the ways in which Wilder or Lane changed and reused the material. Wilder and Lane's partnership has been the subject of longstanding speculation, but Pioneer The Revised Texts is the first work to explore the women's relationship by examining the evolution of surviving manuscripts. Showcasing differences in the texts and offering numerous additional documents and handwritten emendations, the editors create a rich resource for scholars to use in assessing the editorial and writing principles, choices, and reasoning that Lane employed to shape the manuscripts for publication. Readers can follow along as Wilder grows into a novelist that "no depression could stop." The New York Times best seller, Pioneer The Annotated Autobiography (2014), edited by Pamela Smith Hill, gave the general reader easy access to Wilder's original account for the first time, but that book only scratched the surface of available textual and archival materials. Ultimately, the editors of Pioneer The Revised Texts employ the rich resource of letters between Wilder and her publisher and between Wilder and Lane, along with rough drafts and false starts of the Little House books, to inform scholars and readers about the original manuscript's metamorphosis into novels and about the intriguing editorial relationship between Wilder and Lane. Pioneer The Revised Texts deepens our understanding of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the process through which she would ultimately become an icon of young adult literature.

484 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2021

About the author

Laura Ingalls Wilder was an American author, journalist, and educator whose "Little House" series transformed the arduous reality of the American frontier into a foundational pillar of children's literature. Born in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin to Charles and Caroline Ingalls, Laura’s childhood was a nomadic journey through the heart of a shifting nation. Her family moved across Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakota Territory—often staying just ahead of legal evictions or chasing the promise of fertile soil. These years were marked by extreme hardship, including the "Hard Winter" of 1880–81 in De Smet, South Dakota, where the family survived near-starvation. Despite the struggle, these experiences provided the raw material for her eight-volume record of pioneer life, a series that has since been translated into over forty languages.
Before becoming a world-renowned novelist in her sixties, Wilder lived several distinct lives. At fifteen, she became a teacher in one-room prairie schools, a job she took primarily to support her family financially. In 1885, she married Almanzo Wilder, beginning a partnership that endured fire, paralysis from diphtheria, and the heartbreaking loss of an infant son. These trials eventually led them to Mansfield, Missouri, where they established Rocky Ridge Farm. It was here that Laura developed her voice as a professional writer, serving as a columnist and editor for the Missouri Ruralist for over a decade.
The Great Depression and the 1929 stock market crash wiped out the Wilders’ savings, providing the ultimate catalyst for Laura to pen her memoirs. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane—a successful author in her own right—encouraged her mother to adapt her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, into a format more suitable for children. This resulted in a complex and often rocky literary collaboration; while Lane provided the professional "style," Wilder provided the "substance" and narrative heart. The first book, Little House in the Big Woods, was published in 1932 when Laura was sixty-five.
Wilder’s legacy is a blend of immense literary success and modern historical scrutiny. While her books remain staples in classrooms for their vivid descriptions of 19th-century domestic life, her portrayals of Native Americans and African Americans have led to recent reevaluations. In 2018, the American Library Association renamed the "Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal" to the "Children's Literature Legacy Award" to reflect these evolving cultural sensitivities. Nonetheless, Wilder remains a monumental figure in American letters, a woman who successfully "saved the American soul" by documenting the grit, faith, and unyielding persistence of the pioneer spirit.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

10 stars if I could! Fascinating read the editing of Wilder and Lane and read the stories left out of the books.

[Adele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another really interesting exploration of Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiography. This one compares three manuscripts edited by Rose Wilder Lane and sent out for publication. None of them were accepted, which honestly, is understandable. The first draft of the autobiography was not publication-ready and, in my opinion, Lane's changes made things worse at least as often as they made things better. This only gets three stars because it is not a progression from the autobiography to the published books. Wilder went back to her original manuscript when writing the extended children's version requested by the publisher after reading Lane's version, and she continued to return to the original version while writing the subsequent books through the years. This was still enjoyable, but I am now looking forward to reading Pioneer Girl: The Path Into Fiction even more.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! It could be called, "Serial Killers on the Prairie, and more things you didn't know about Laura Ingalls Wilder." I bought this book in De Smet, and didn't realize I was getting all the texts of the original book. But it was good to see what Rose wanted to cut, but Laura kept putting back in! I learned that Laura had a graveyard fetish too, and that cows give their milk more easily when you sing to them or play music for them. A wonderful look into Laura's edgier life!

When locusts came to Missouri in 1936 and ate their land, Laura wrote Rose, “We are doing what we can to kill them, but what’s the use of fighting a judgment of God. We as a nation would insult Him by wanting, destroying his bounty. Now we’ll take the scarcity and like it.” Pg 105

[Cheri Yecke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides an in-depth dive into the evolution of the "Pioneer Girl" text by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It shows the progression of changes, most of which made by Rose, as the mother-daughter duo attempted to find a publisher for "Pioneer Girl," which was intended as a book for adults. Lucky for us, they did not find a publisher. Had they, the chidren's Little House series as we know it would likely not exist!

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love little house on the prairie this is an absolute must read!!