The Literary Apprenticeship of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Copyright © 1984 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. The Literary Apprenticeship of Laura Ingalls Wilder WILLIAM T. ANDERSON* Fifty years after the publication of Laura Ingalls Wilder's first book. Little House in the Big Woods (1932), that volume and eight succeeding volumes of the author's writings are American classics. The "Little House" books have been read, reread, trans- lated, adapted, and admired by multitudes world-wide. Wilder's books, which portray the frontier experience during the last great American expansionist era, "have given a notion of what pioneer life was like to far more Americans than ever heard of Frederick Jackson Turner."' Laura Ingalls Wilder's fame and the success of her books have been spiraling phenomenons in American publishing history. In I *The author wishes to acknowledge the many people who have contributed to the groundwork that resulted in this article. Among them are Roger Lea MacBride of Charlottesville. Va., whom I thank for years of friendship and favors—particu- larly the unlimited use of the once restricted Wilder papers; Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey Sherwood of De Smet, S.Dak., for loyal support and information exchange; Vera McCaskell and Vivian Glover of De SmeL, for lively teamwork; Dwight M. Miller and Nancy DeHamer of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, for research assistance; Dr. Ruth Alexander of South Dakota State University, for valuable sug- gestions and criticism; Alvilda Myre Sorenson, for encouragement and interest; and Mary Koltmansberger, for expert typing. 1. Charles Elliott, review of The First Four Years, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, in Time.
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