Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder
by Donald Zochert
List Price:
Our Price: $4.12
You Save: $3.87 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Donald ZochertEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1977-05-01
ISBN: 0380016362
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Avon
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780380016365
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Book Review: The Pioneer Girl
Summary: 5 Stars
The stories about life as a Pioneer Girl made Laura Ingalls Wilder forever famous in America. This biography tells of the world of reality behind the stories. The author used documented records as well as Laura's unpublished memoirs for the authentic story of her life. It tells about the events that were not put in the books, and the later life as a farm wife and writer in Missouri. New facts add to the memories recorded in her books.
Changes were made for her publisher's request. There is no mention of the birth and death of little Charles. Laura describes their well, but not the outhouse. Some people were simplified into composite characters. The publication during the Great Depression also meant a constraint on events. There is nothing on elections and politics, but these were written from the viewpoint of a young girl. More people learned about frontier life from her books than from a historian like F. J. Turner (p.x).
Are these books historical fiction or plain facts? Rose Wilder Lane said they are the truth as Laura remembered it (p.246). Much of it is true as it happened. But unaided memory after 50 years can be tricky. There were changes between the draft manuscript and the final published version. The truth of these books is in the outlook of the life of Laura. Life is different now, but the real things haven't changed. "It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong" (p.248). The philosophy in this seems to avoid united action, unlike some of the stories in the books. Read them for yourself: government grants (Homestead Law), charity from Back East (Christmas barrels), the college for Mary, local organizing. Overall the Ingalls go from self-sufficient owners to wage-earning workers using store--bought goods.
Chapter 1 tells about life in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, and the economics of buying land (p.18). But Pa wanted to move to Kansas, and they did. Chapter 2 tells about the long trek, and the importance of homesteading. But Pa was a squatter, he never filed a claim. Margaret Clement was able to locate their property (pp.35-36). Fevers were as common as mosquitoes. Chapter 3 tells of their return to the Big Woods. But then they left for good. Chapter 4 tells about life in Minnesota, by Plum Creek, on the flat fertile prairie. Their crops were destroyed by a hail of locusts, and they moved away. Chapter 5 tells of the Ingalls family removal to Burr Oak Iowa. Chapter 6 has the Ingalls at Walnut Grove. Laura learned that life is not always kind or nice (p.128). Pa wasn't doing well, Aunt Docia had a job available, and they moved again to Silver Lake (Chapter 7). They suffered the Long Winter. Chapter 8 has more information on the Golden Years, Laura's teenage years. Chapter 9 tells of Laura and Almanzo's life together, a time that was grim and dark with worry (p.209). Laura thought of herself as a 'Pioneer Girl' (p.212). Their problems were typical of debtor farmers. Other hardships followed (pp.213-214). They moved away to a place that was not too cold or too hot - the Ozarks (p.217). They soon had a paying farm (p.219). During this time Laura wrote for newspapers (p.229). After the death of Ma and Mary, Laura began to write her memoirs (p.233). Laura's life taught her "courage, self reliance, independence, integrity, and helpfulness" (p.239). At age ninety Laura followed the rest of her family to the days of auld lang syne.
Summary of Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Courage, Adventure, Steadfast Love
From a little house set deep in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, across Indian territory and into the Dakotas, Laura's family moved westward right along the frontier.
Their true-life saga, beloved by countless millions of TV viewers and readers of the bestselling Little House books, is one of spirit and devotion in the face of bitter-cold winters, wilderness trails, and heartbreaking personal tragedy.
Here, for the first time, and drawing on her own unpublished memoirs is the endlessly fascinating full account of Laura's life -- from her earliest years through her enduring marriage to Almanzo Wilder, the "farmer boy" of her stories.
Authors Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Authors Books
Bloomsbury Recalledby Quentin Bell
Columbia University Press; Published: 1997-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.38
Price in other shops:
William Tyndale: A Biographyby David Daniell
Yale University Press; Published: 1994-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $62.92
Neither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish Americaby Kathleen Ann Myers
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics)by Ernst Jünger
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Lifeby C.S. Lewis
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 1995-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
Roughing It (The Penguin American Library)by Mark Twain
Penguin Classics; Published: 1981-12-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.65
Price in other shops:
Life Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98by George Dawson, Richard Glaubman
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.55
Price in other shops:
Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)by Bill Bryson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
The Professor and the Madman CDby Simon Winchester
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-10-04; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $8.46
Price in other shops:
Alexander Hamilton: A Lifeby Willard Sterne Randall
Harper; Published: 2003-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Game of Silenceby Louise Erdrich
HarperCollins; Published: 2006-06-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.53
Price in other shops:
The Landby Mildred D. Taylor
Speak; Published: 2003-11-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.17
Price in other shops:
Caddie Woodlawnby Carol Ryrie Brink
Books; Aladdin; Published: 2006-12-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.44
Price in other shops:
West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco, 1915by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Harper Collins Publishers; HarperCollins; Published: 1976-10-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.38
Price in other shops:
The Birchbark Houseby Louise Erdrich
Hyperion Book CH; Published: 2002-05-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairieby Wendy McClure
Books; Riverhead Hardcover; Published: 2011-04-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.82
Price in other shops:
The Long Winter (Little House)by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Harper Collins Publishers; HarperCollins; Published: 2004-05-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.19
Price in other shops:
The Little House Guidebookby William Anderson
Harper Collins Publishers; Collins; Published: 2007-04-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.55
Price in other shops:
Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life (South Dakota Biography)by Pamela Smith Hill
South Dakota State Historical Society; Published: 2007-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography (Little House)by William Anderson
Harper Collins Publishers; Collins; Published: 2007-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.42
Price in other shops: