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Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction
It’s not secret that I am an unashamed Laura Ingalls Wilder fangirl. I was given Little House in the Big Woods at about 7, and have carefully rebuilt my read-to-shreds copies from when I was a kid to the expensive heavy duty paper, full color illustration ones. I wanted a sunbonnet, so I could wearing it trailing down my back. The first time I ever tried to make a recipe based on vague instructions in a book was the green tomato pickle in The Long Winter (it didn’t work). I got my copy of The Little House Cookbook by basically hipchecking someone out of the way at a used book sale.
I regret nothing.
I had, of course, heard about the mythical Pioneer Girl manuscript- the initial autobiography intended for adults that Laura wrote several years before she and her daughter started writing and editing the Little House books. I knew you could get one by ordering it from the Hoover Presidential Library, but that it was rough draft, mostly unedited, and kind of expensive. However, I’d also heard rumors of a published edition happening sometime in the vague future.
Friends, the future is now. This is an annotated edition that draws the lines from the initial draft that was written on lined tablets, and includes notes on what was added and omitted from subsequent drafts before the project was shelved due to lack of interest from publishers. There are usually about three pages of annotations per page of text, expanding on everything from what census records had to say about people mentioned, to what the fuck a slough was, and how scenes were included in the Little House books proper.
Basically it’s enough to make my little nerd heart very happy.
It’s really fascinating to see Wilder’s evolution as a writer, and the seeds of some of the specific stories that were so memorable. There’s also a timeline that was rejiggered for the books to stick to the overarching narrative of a family always going wes towards progress. In reality, Laura was about 3 when they were in Kansas, then they moved back to the Big Woods of Wisconsin for a couple years. There’s also a year or so in Burr Oak, Iowa, which was not included in the books at all, and a little brother that died as baby.
In terms of the romance between Laura and Almanzo, it doesn’t quiiiiiiiite play out like it did in the novels. Pioneer Girl is first person, and Laura is a little bit more proactive and a little bit less into Almanzo (there was a point she was considering Cap Garland as a potential beau! CAP AND MARY POWER 4EVERZ) (I know they don’t and I’ve been sad about it for about 23 years) than he is about her. Because Laura is a single woman in an area with a lot of single men, she’s a hot commodity, and there are quite a number of those men that show interest. She ponders options.
There’s also a section about Pa Ingalls alleged run-in with The Bloody Benders (you may remember them from that one creepy episode of The Librarians)- it’s included as an appendix, as is a facsimile of a revision Rose did trying to make Pioneer Girl more appropriate for a juvenile audience. There’s also a bit about Ma’s brother being one of the first white people in the Black Hills (this story is told in These Happy Golden Years and was one of the bones of contention between Laura and Rose- Rose wanted to make it one of Laura’s Ingalls uncles, and Laura, perhaps having a sense of how anal historians could be, said no, since no Ingalls actually made it there at that time).
Mostly, since I found out that the Little House books weren’t strictly biographical, I’ve been fascinated about what the true story was. This is, I think, as close as we’re ever going to get. It’s still filtered through memory, and there’s definitely certain things that don’t jive with the historical record- order of events, Laura’s age, people who can’t be found on any documents, that’s sort of thing. Any autobiography is inherently only a version of the truth, memory being as unreliable as it is.
There was an article on Slate in January that getting your hands on this book is hard, because the initial print run was only 15,000:
“It was a huge risk to even print 15,000…there’s pretty finite number of people who are really interested in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s real life.”
Oh come on! You have MULTIPLE generations of people who cut their teeth on these books! There are pageants in DeSmet and Walnut Grove every year, and multiple Laura Ingalls Wilder blogs about cooking and what the story is and this and that and the other thing, and what the hell a hair receiver is, plus people will buy anything with a brand on it. OF COURSE THIS WAS GOING TO EXPLODE. (I got lucky, because my dad found one of the few remaining copies in Minnesota for my Christmas present.)
It’s been out of print since about Christmas, and FINALLY is available again. FINALLY. (Seriously, we’ve been stalking the publisher to get the timing of this review right.) Word on the streets is that back-orders from Amazon are being shipped, and it’s been sighted in the wild in places like Barnes and Nobel and the Harvard Book Store.
I don’t feel like the annotations comes down hard on one side or the other on the issue of how much Laura’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, edited the novels- did she basically take Pioneer Girl and rewrite everything? Did she just nudge? Was it truly a collaborative effort? There are letters where Laura and Rose discuss things back and forth, and it’s clear that Rose had a significant hand in things, but I think based on Rose’s own writings, and how much of Laura’s voice stays in the Little House books, Rose didn’t have total control. (Seriously, this is a major point of debate. There are camps. People get defensive.)
Is the manuscript a work of staggering genius? Quite frankly, no, but that’s not what makes it interesting. What makes this interesting is being able to see the evolution, what changes the story went through to go from memoir to children’s novel, and the annotations are just fucking fascinating.
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This is the best idea that the South Dakota Historical Society Press has ever had! I live here and can’t get a copy, so if you find one, grab it!
I too have replaced many read to shreds copies of the Little House books. One of my daughter’s loved the series too which tickles me to no end. I grew up with the television series too at the right age. My mom has pics of 12 year old me in my Prarie style dress somewhere lol.
I’ve been looking forward to this book! I saw some of the pages and more of the story of how the books evolved at the Missouri museum (Laura house ) when I took my daughter to see it in the early 90s.
I was one of the lucky ones who got it a few months ago – it’s a huge book and not cheap, but worth every single penny. This is one of the first series I ever read and is probably why I love reading so much. Thank you, Laura, for a lifetime of joy.
I ordered it from Amazon about 4 months ago, and it was delivered on Sunday. ( I thought the post office only delivered Amazon packages on Sundays for the pre-Christmas rush, but I guess they are still doing it). It is a big, beautiful book. I haven’t been able to start reading it yet, but it is sitting on my bedside table, waiting for me. I can’t wait.
I had no idea it was so hard to come by. I got my copy last November and read it, but only after my daughter got her hands on it first. As a long-time Laura fan and an author myself, the evolution was indeed fascinating.
I’ve been waiting for it, have one on order but good luck getting a copy…..I work for an indie book store and we can’t get them. They’ve been on back order since long before Christmas.
I was on the library waiting list for MONTHS. I finally got it last month, and it was worth the wait.
I will say that the annotations did Rose no favors. I had no opinion of her before I read this, and by the end of the book I was so frustrated with her. Such poor life decisions!
I have got to get this book. I am one of those people who only watched the series growing up and didn’t fall in love with the books until my late twenties. The idea that there were only a finite audience for this book is so ridiculous
I ordered this book in December and just received it on Monday and I am impressed just by the size of the book alone. $25 and change is not bad at all. But, moving on. I didn’t read the juveniles as a kid because I thought, “Boring.” Well, I fixed that when I read them after I graduated high school and then it was all, “AWESOMESAUCE!” From there, I picked up various books about Wilder (was there anything she wasn’t good at?) I read MacBride’s books about Rose. Then, I started Wilkes’s Caroline years and didn’t pick up the rest about her or Caroline’s ma. My favorite of all up until this point was Laura Ingalls Wilder Country by William Anderson because the pictures were gorgeous and it shed some light on her life that I wasn’t aware of at the time. But this new book is really a must for any Wilder fan: hefty, informative and honest.
This makes me so so excited! My local indie bookseller called this weekend to say my copy had FINALLLLLLY arrived. I can’t believe the publisher printed so few. I’m also reading the series to my children and had to scramble hard to get a copy of These Happy Golden Years (I wanted to buy a matching set so am being anal) and it too is out of stock. As a sidenote…I love how she has Cap razz Almanzo to go out in sub-40 degree weather to pick her up from Brewsters (AFTER she disses him). “God hates a coward.” Oh, Almanzo. I love you so.
I am one of the fifteen thousand! I still find it strange that so few copies of this were printed at first. I too am a huge LIW nerd and have been since the age of seven when I found “Little House in the Big Woods” in the library–one of the most joyful moments of my childhood was finding out there were more books in the series! When I got “Pioneer Girl” I was literally up all night reading it. The best part of the book for me are the photographs of some of the people in the books. Sometimes it gets a little too academic, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome.
I planned to buy this before Christmas, but it slipped my mind completely – thank you for the reminder. The book is $47.90 on Amazon in Canada (grrr, our exchange rate isn’t *that* bad!) and isn’t even available at Chapters. It’s on back order at Amazon, but I’m definitely placing an order and crossing my fingers – I know I’ll kick myself if I don’t end up with a copy.
It’s finally getting a second printing? I can’t even deal. I read these books like drugs in elementary school and I have a set waiting for my three nieces when they’re old enough. I got mine in first grade, the eldest is about three years away. Yay!
My mom got this for me for Christmas off my Amazon wishlist. I finally received it yesterday. Worth the wait! The book is huge, heavy, gorgeous. I’ve only skimmed around in it so far but can’t wait to sit down and really dig into it. And then I’ll probably have to re-read the Little House series for the first time in a zillion years. If you are a Little House fan grown up, curious about the background to these classic books, you NEED Pioneer Girl!
I think it is in its third printing now. It is a small academic press, and they really underestimated the demand. I think I read somewhere that if they printed too many, they could be in a financially precarious position, so they were conservative in their first printing estimate.
I just sent this to my mom! I’ll have to borrow it back from her, but she is an even bigger Laura fan than I am. Fact: she made me a Halloween costume one year, complete with sunbonnet with long strings, so I could be Laura. <3 So glad this book is everything awesome, now I wish I'd read it before giving it away…
I love this community of book lovers, whose experiences so mirror my own. I too have a much- and oft- repaired verion of three series from when I was a kid. I am now reading the books out loud to my little girls! Thanks for this review and all I can say is, There’s a Laura Ingalls cookbook?!?!!
YES THERE IS A COOKBOOK
http://www.amazon.com/Little-House-Cookbook-Frontier-Ingalls/dp/0064460908
Awesome review. Thanks for sharing the Laura Ingalls Wilder love!
Damn, that book has been taunting me for over a week now. Every time I pass through the Processing unit at work. Lucky for me it was still there when I checked just now so I slapped on the waiting call number label and will be checking it out for myself. Woo hoo!
I found out about it after it was sold out, too.
Our library managed to get a copy, and I pored over it for a week, It was AH-MAZING.
I just got mine in the mail this weekend!!! My husband got it for me for an xmas present and I’d almost given up hope of seeing it. As a Little House fan and history major I can’t wait to get into it. So glad others share my interest. 🙂
My library had the good sense to pre-order it and I was #1 on the hold list. However, it came in right before Christmas and there was no way I was going to be able to do that book justice with all the traveling so I had to return it. Now I’m about #235 on the hold list 🙁
I think, given the number of people who have reported their pre-orders being fulfilled, that there may be more Pioneer Girl arrivals on doorsteps in the future. I hope it shows up as available for purchase soon for everyone!
Got an email this week that my copy is finally on its way! A few weeks ago Amazon wanted to cancel my order but I told them to keep trying. Excited to get my hands on it. (Very interesting about the little brother, since the show had a 2-parter where Laura’s little brother was born and died.)
Speaking as one of the many for whom the Little House books are a treasured childhood memory and who’s reread them with pleasure as an adult (and who’s still furious about what the TV series did to them), Pioneer Girl was absolutely fascinating. I was lucky enough to get a library copy within a couple of weeks of reserving it a month or so ago when I first heard about it.
Speaking as an author who writes about the old west and as a lit and history major in college, holy cow. A person can only dream about the painstaking and loving research the editor did, and what a good job was done presenting it. Reading about the growth of an author like that and how the books came to be… [swoon]
Finally, speaking as a freelance museum curator, I wonder what the South Dakota Historical Society’s going to do with all those proceeds they didn’t anticipate, and are they hiring? [g]
@Trish, I think your:
“one of the most joyful moments of my childhood was finding out there were more books in the series!”
is the sweetest expression of a love for reading that I have ever seen.
@LML–Thanks! (blush)
I read about this project on NPR a couple of months ago, and ended up ordering it right that very minute directly from the SDHS. My copy finally arrived a few days ago, and I’m impatient to start (work & family commitments, how dare you impose on my reading time, grr).
My question: Does anyone know how it compares to Donald Zochert’s Laura? For a long time, that book was pretty much THE definitive bio of LIW, so does Pioneer Girlconfirm, expand upon, or refute the info in that bio?
@cayenne–I never read Laura but I can tell you that Pioneer Girl has some pretty dark stuff in it. It is clearly aimed at adults. A very good LIW biography is John E. Miller’s Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder–he had access to Pioneer Girl‘s manuscript and I found that a lot of stuff he covered was in PG.
Wanted it for Christmas and it was backordered. Still want it now. Bad. I literally went to Mansfield MO to see her home museum as my tenth birthday present, little nerd that I was and STILL AM because I LOVE those books. I bought my then-unborn daughter a hardback of Little House in the Big Woods while she was still in the womb. I have those picture book versions like Summertime in the Big Woods and I make her listen to them all the time (she’s three and way more into the Octonauts but I WILL WIN HER OVER I WILL DO IT). Thank you for the review. Now to get my hands on a copy (twirls imaginary mustache evilly)
@Redheadedgirl: Thank you for this review! I got my copy of Pioneer Girl at Porter Square Books on Friday: there was actually one on the shelf in the biography section. The man who rang it up for me said, “That’s a hot commodity!” My Laura Ingalls Wilder obsession has been going strong since I was seven, and I can’t wait to immerse myself in this book.
I *just* got my hands on a copy last night. Stayed up until 2 reading it. I love it. As a child i actually got to go to Mansfield on vacation (we’re midwestern) and tour the house and honestly, I would totally wear a sunbonnet today if I could get my hands on one. This is just so much more substantive and less dry than I expected and I love reading the original narrative. I’m annoyed but not surprised that a lot of Ma’s agency and strength were projected onto a larger-than-life “pa” character in the novels.
I am not a crafty individual but, true story, for my daughter’s second birthday, I bought her a hardbound Little House In the Big Woods and, hand to god, using a pattern printed off the Internet, hand sewed a rag doll, dress and all, and named her Charlotte as a gift. Of course, she slung that doll by the hair and I took it away. It’s on a shelf. I got a bit ahead of myself with the whole two year old thing but I have been romanticizing the chance to share these books with my daughter since long before I ever had her. Still. I felt pretty badass, making a doll on my own. Never mind her ridiculously skinny arms…it was an internet pattern. I never had home ec. Total badass.
Love the review. Love the book. XOXO
Having just begun the new book, I have to say – I don’t think it’s a rough draft. I think it’s notes, to jog the memory when she sits down to actually write. Entire scenes are a mere few sentences long, and I don’t believe, after writing already for decades, that she considered the “scenes” in Pioneer Girl to be completed scenes, even in rough draft form. When you are writing, the memories can flood at you, far faster than you can do them justice, and that’s when you get the germ of them on paper, to draw from later and fill out. It’s just a thought.