Little House on the Prairie

Lore & Background

Laura Ingalls Wilder was a columnist for a farm journal before writing the Little House series. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, motivated her to write and publish the first book, Little House in the Big Woods, in 1932. Lane had a heavy hand in editing the books, though Wilder's voice remains strong; the level of Lane's influence is disputed. Lane also arranged for the rights to go to Roger Lea MacBride, who led to the creation of the television show.

The books depict ethnic minorities, including a heroic black doctor, but have been criticized for negative portrayals of Native Americans and obliviousness to the occupation of their land. In 1998, an incident involving a child's reaction to a line in Little House on the Prairie prompted the American Library Association to rename the Wilder Award to the Children's Literature Legacy Award.

Wilder's work is autobiographical fiction, employing artistic license such as composite characters. It has been criticized regarding the history of government involvement in homesteading and its effect on Native American people, including the family's illegal occupation of Osage territory. Anti-governmental views held by Lane have been attributed to the books, with scholars connecting them to a myth of self-reliance that has contributed to conservative rhetoric.

Reader's Guide

The Little House series remains widely read and is considered a classic of American children's literature. Time ranked it 22 out of 100 on its list of the '100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time.' In a 2012 School Library Journal survey, Little House in the Big Woods was ranked number 19 among all-time best children's novels, with two sequels in the top 100. Five of the books were Newbery Honor Books: On the Banks of Plum Creek (1938), By the Shores of Silver Lake (1940), The Long Winter (1941), Little Town on the Prairie (1942), and These Happy Golden Years (1944). The American Library Association stated that The Long Winter is a 'resource for teaching about pioneer history.' The series has been adapted for stage and screen, most successfully as the television series Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and has spawned spin-off books, cookbooks, and licensed products. Around 60 million Little House books have been sold.

Did You Know?

• The third novel in the series is identically titled Little House on the Prairie.
• The second novel, Farmer Boy, is about Laura Ingalls Wilder's husband's childhood.
• A tenth book, On the Way Home, is Wilder's diary of the years after 1894, published posthumously in 1962 with commentary by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane.
• Roger Lea MacBride, who gained the rights to the books through Lane's will and a legal battle, was a libertarian presidential candidate and member of the Republican Liberty Caucus.