Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life (South Dakota Biography Series) Paperback – September 1, 2007

I love all things Laura Ingalls Wiler. I can't find enough information on her life to make me completely satisfied. Therefore I have read more than a few biographies about the American Icon. I found "LIW: A Writer's Life" to be a detailed and interesting biography. It is one of the most comprehensive ones that I have come across. So many of her biographies are written for children and go over the same information. I want more than that. I want the 'boring' details of her life. I want to know how she spent those last years at Rocky Ridge. I want to know everything I can about her relationship with her parents and sister, with Almanzo, and with her daughter Rose.This biography is a little more dry reading than other LIW biographies have been. In fact I gave up reading this book after the first couple of chapters quite awhile ago and recently picked it up again as I was hoping to freshen my memory in preparation for my first trip to a LIW homesite. (Mansfield MO, an amazing experience by the way.) The details that I crave are here. The historical information appears to be factual and coincides with the other information I have previously learned of Laura and her family. None of the pictures in the book were new to me nor was most of the chapters detailing Laura's childhood days. The book probably would have been an average book in my opinion but it manages to stand out due to the in depth information about Laura's book writing years. I found the information about Laura, Rose, and the literary agents/publishers to be relatively new to me and extremely interesting. The book references Laura's manuscript "Pioneer Girl" quite a bit and I enjoyed that as well.The author does touch upon the greatest of Laura Ingalls Wilder controversies...The Laura/Rose connection. Who was really the genius behind the LIW books. I agreed with Smith Hill's premise that the books wouldn't have been the same if only one of these fantastic authors had been involved. Laura was the heart and soul of the series, Smith Hill claims. Rose Wilder Lane cleaned the books up and made them readable with her gift of editing. Rose also had a really great gift of knowing what would make a piece of writing marketable. Together mother and daughter made these books the timeless works of art that they are.I love Laura so of course I want to think she was as wonderful a person as she appears at the surface. At first I was afraid of digging too deep and finding out less than flattering things that might destroy some of my views of her. What I have found instead is that I am even more intrigued by Laura because she was a real person. She had faults and failings just like anyone does. That said, this biography definitely is more pro-Laura than pro-Rose. Pamela Smith-Hill doesn't paint a very pleasant picture of Laura's daughter Rose. She claims Rose was mentally unstable and depressed. (There is quite a bit of source material that agrees with these claims.) Every time the biography discusses a feud of some kind between Laura and Rose the author is quick to suggest that Rose was the one always in the wrong. I believe that Rose was depressed. I believe the life she was born into never was one she wanted for herself. I think she was very different from her mother in many ways but in some things the two were very alike. Laura surely wasn't always innocent but Rose was unlikely the bad guy this biography makes her out to be."A Writer's Life" probably isn't for the casual LIW fan, but I do recommend it if you are especially interested in LIW's writing days and/or her relationship with her daughter. I just wish someone would find and publish more information about Almanzo.

I've read a few Wilder biographies and recently reread the Little House series. In addition, I've been deep into looking for Wilder information on-line. Wilder had a lovely and elegant prose style that brought her characters and scenes into vivid relief. So when I began to learn of the collaboration between Wilder and her daughter, writer Rose Wilder Lane, I became very curious. Who was responsible for the elegant prose and the characterization? What part did Rose play in getting the books written and published? How can we tell where Laura begins and Rose ends?All biographies of Wilder discuss the writing and editing relationship between Wilder and her daughter. There are varying degrees of detail about it. What I liked about this particular biography was its focus on how a writer crafts a novel. Smith Hill breaks down paragraph after paragraph of Wilder prose, she discusses dialog, characterization, decisions that were made to include or omit various events from Ingalls family life. She compares sections written by Wilder, unedited, to the Rose Wilder Lane edited versions. You'd think a book of this type would be boring -- too much information -- but the way Smith Hill has written about this process and how these classic books emerged from that -- is utterly fascinating. I highly recommend this biography to anyone who is thinking about writing historical fiction. There is a wealth of information here for any beginning writer.As for my initial question -- whose writing are we reading in the Little House series, is it Laura's or Rose's? -- my question has been answered. But certainly the Little House series would never have been written, crafted into a classic work, or published, without Rose Wilder Lane's sustained efforts and editing gifts. This was a peculiarly intense mother-daughter collaboration with many twists and turns. Smith Hill writes compellingly about that as well. At times I think she is a bit too hard on Rose, but for the most part, she gives credit where credit is due and sticks to a fairly balanced portrayal of her.Between this biography and Pamela Smith Hill's annotated version of Pioneer Girl, a reader can get a very complete picture of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the writer and human being. This is a terrific biography and a must-read for any Little House fan.

While I did learn a few new things in this biography of my favorite children's author, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life is an academic look at Wilder's life and work, making it a bit dry, like Donald Zochert's Laura. The author does a fine job of showing how Wilder developed her writing and business savvy through the years.Critical in her opinions of Rose Wilder Lane (Laura and Almanzo's only child who lived to adulthood), Hill accuses Lane of blurring the values of truth, honesty, and moral courage in her quest for publication and success and of trying to diminish her mother's reputation as a writer. At least she doesn't shy away from the complex relationship the two women carved out while they lived and worked together.The author discusses controversies surrounding Wilder's famous children's books: such as her depiction of Native Americans and the role Lane played in the writing of her mother's books. These controversies don't come as any surprise to Laura fans. They have been addressed by others.There is a section of historical photos between the end of Chapter 10 and the beginning of Chapter 11. I've seen these before, but they mean more to me now that I visited some of the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites last summer.A book such as Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life should be huge hit for the South Dakota State Historical Society Press. Thoroughly researched, Wilder fans should consider adding this to their collection. Hill's insights might not be for everyone, but if you're like me, you want to own all the books about Wilder that you can.

I loved all the Ingalls Wilder books as a child; now as an adult Im enjoying reviewing the material from an adult perspective. This study of Wilder as a writer focuses on her life as she lived it as opposed to the somewhat fictionalized version in the Little House books is fascinating as it attempts to show how Wilder arrived at being a writer progressively over her long life and through her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, a reporter and author, who is no longer known. A must read for those who love the books and are interested in the real woman behind the stories; but its also an important bridge in the academic work that has grown around Wilder and the Little House materials.

I just wanted to know a little more about LIW's life and this book fills in all the blanks. Nicely written.

very interesting!

she was just unreal. so much drive

Great book