Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Nov 2017 · Sold by Metropolitan Books
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16 reviews
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368
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About this ebook
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books
Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls—the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser—the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series—masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books.
The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder’s real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading—and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters.
Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder’s dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day.
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books
Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls—the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser—the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series—masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books.
The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder’s real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading—and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters.
Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder’s dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books
Millions of readers ...
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Ratings and reviews
16 reviews
Paul Demetre
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October 4, 2026
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser is an impressively researched, clear-eyed biography that dismantles the cozy myths of the Little House books to expose the gritty realities of frontier life. Fraser masterfully weaves together poverty, environmental devastation, and political ideology, showing how Laura and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, reshaped family history into enduring cultural myth. The book shines brightest when placing the Ingalls family's struggles against the broader backdrop of 19th-century homesteading failures and financial panics. Fraser’s analysis of Rose’s libertarian influence on the series adds a fascinating layer of literary history. The narrative occasionally drags under the sheer weight of historical detail, particularly during lengthy deep-dives into local agricultural policy and Rose's political beliefs. However, this meticulously crafted work remains an essential, unvarnished read for fans of the original series.
Gayle Baker
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August 21, 2018
There are so many factual errors in it that I no longer trusted it. Please don't waste your money.
6 people found this review helpful
mike dufour (mikebob321)
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August 3, 2019
bought by mistake
4 people found this review helpful
About the author
Caroline Fraser is the author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Plutarch Award, and the Heartland Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. She lives in New Mexico.
Caroline Fraser is the author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Plutarch Award, and the Heartland Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, t...
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