Pioneer Girl Perspectives

by Nancy Tystad Koupal (Other)

Overview

Published over eighty years after its inception, "Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography" edited by Pamela Smith Hill gave readers new insight into the truth behind Wilder's fiction. "Pioneer Girl Perspectives" further demonstrates the importance of Wilder as an influential American author whose stories of growing up on the frontier remain relevant today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941813089
Publisher:	South Dakota Historical Society Press
Publication date:	05/28/2017
Sales rank:	716,245
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.20(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction Exploring Laura Ingalls Wilder Nancy Tystad Koupal 1

Working Writers

1 Speech for the Detroit Book Fair, 1937 Laura Ingalls Wilder 9

2 The Strange Case of the Bloody Benders: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and Yellow Journalism Caroline Fraser 20

3 "Raise a Loud Yell": Rose Wilder Lane, Working Writer Amy Mattson Lauters 52

Beginnings and Misdirections

4 Pioneer Girl: Its Roundabout Path into Print William Anderson 79

5 Little Myths on the Prairie Michael Patrick Hearn 103

6 Her Stories Take You with Her: The Lasting Appeal of the Little House Books Noel L. Silverman 135

Wilder's Place and Time

7 Laura Ingalls Wilder as a Midwestern Pioneer Girl John K. Miller 145

8 Women's Place: Family, Home, and Farm Paula M. Nelson 177

Enduring Tales and Childhood Myths

9 Fairy Tale, Folklore, and the Little House in the Deep Dark Woods Sallie Ketcham 209

10 The Myth of Happy Childhood (and Other Myths about Frontiers, Families, and Growing Up) Elizabeth Jameson 231

11 Frontier Families and the Little House Where Nobody Dies Ann Romines 264

Contributors 301

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

05/08/2017
Published in 2014, Pioneer Girl, the handwritten memoir that was the basis of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s widely popular Little House on the Prairie series, emerged as a surprise bestseller. Editor Koupal (Our Landlady), director of the South Dakota Historical Society Press, here gathers essays that reflect on Wilder’s work, focusing on Pioneer Girl but including the finished novels. The essays discuss the writing process of both Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane, Wilder’s daughter and editor; the publication history of the Little House books; their historical context; and the books as myth and literature. There’s some overlap, but the essays offer a rich diversity of subject matter. The stronger pieces include those by Elizabeth Jameson, who highlights the harrowing context of child labor, violence, and sexual threat in Pioneer Girl, and Paula M. Nelson, who examines Wilder’s now outmoded understanding of women’s place in society. The essays strike a balance between hagiography and exposé; all are even-handed in their treatment of Wilder’s life and writing, not glossing over views she held that clash with modern sensibilities. These informative essays will be of considerable interest to Wilder fans and scholars. (May)

Publishers Weekly