#Laura Ingalls Wilder

[fictionadventurer]

I think I underestimated how cool it is that Little House books are a "woman remembers her childhood" children's classic by an author from a working-class and rural background. Most working-class books of the genre have urban settings, and most rural girlhood classics come from a family that's in a fairly stable community--maybe not rich, but comfortable enough that they don't have to worry about whether they'll make it through a winter.

Laura Ingalls grew up dirt poor in a family that knew how to grow or build or hunt or make everything that they needed, because they had to. Yet when she grew up, she got into a position where she could publish about it. Which is pretty astounding, because people in her situation are usually too busy doing the farmwork to write about it--they don't have connections to the publishing industry. Yet she did, so we get to hear from someone who knows that farm and small-town setting intimately, and not because she grew up and and ran off to the city as soon as she could escape, but because she still lives it and loves it and advocates for it.

She knows the details of that life and loves it. Like, she genuinely cares about raising the chickens, not as a housewife's hobby, but as an important source of meat, eggs and money for the family. It's grounded, earthy, sensible, but also romantic, because she while she's doing farm work or house work she's noticing the little moments of beauty or thinking about the big issues of life. But it took a long series of coincidences to get this ordinary farm wife into a position of wanting to write, being able to write, and having a national audience for her writing, so I just want to appreciate how amazing it is that it happened.

#little house #laura ingalls wilder #of course now that i've said this i'll think of 157 other authors with similar backgrounds #but it's something that comes to mind a lot while reading her columns #especially in the '20s it's like reading her blog #specifically my blog #in the sense of the entries being 'here's an interesting thing i saw/heard about and here's the bigger issues it made me contemplate' #and her background means that she shouldn't have had an outlet for this but she did and that's pretty cool

[key-cat]

If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere. 心の底から自然を愛していれば、美しさはあらゆる所にあります。

Laura Ingalls Wilder ローラ・インガルス・ワイルダー

#Laura Ingalls Wilder #梅 #花 #landscape

[haveyoureadthisseries-poll]

#tumblr polls #little house on the prairie #laura ingalls wilder

[best-childhood-book]

Round 2, Poll 5: Little House vs The Immortals Quartet

#best childhood book #poll #little house #laura ingalls wilder #the immortals quartet #tamora pierce

[princesssarisa]

Some thoughts on "Little Women" and the "Little House" books

In the endless discussions by Little Women fans of the issue of "Jo vs. Amy," I've noticed a slight recurring theme, both when Amy's defenders discuss Jo and when certain Jo fans put Amy down. It's the idea that the books' narrative inherently favors Jo and is biased against Amy. That Jo is the character whom readers are clearly "supposed to identify with," as if Louisa May Alcott expected most of her young girl readers to be free-spirited, ambitious tomboys who struggle with gender expectations. And that Amy's portrayal is "negative," or at least that we're supposed to view her femininity and love of refinement as slightly silly and annoying.

Not too long ago, I found similar sentiments in an essay by a woman writing about her childhood experience of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. She wrote that she never identified with spunky, tomboyish Laura, but as a girly girl and as an eldest daughter who felt pressured to be "the responsible one," she related more to Mary. Then she complained that the books seem to expect readers to identify with Laura, and that we're "not supposed to like Mary."

I'm not sure those claims ring true for either of these literary works.

Both Little Women and the Little House books are autobiographical. Louisa May Alcott based the March family on her own family and Jo on herself, while Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote explicitly about herself and her family without changing the names.

In Little Women, I don't feel as if Alcott expected readers to identify more with Jo than with the other three sisters. Yes, Jo gets the most emphasis of them all, but that's because Alcott personally identified with her. Likewise, in the Little House books, Laura is the protagonist because she was the author. It's only natural that she wrote about her childhood from her own viewpoint, not because she thought readers would relate more to her than to her sisters.

Nor do I think Little Women is overly biased against Amy. Is her portrayal complex, and does it reflect Alcott's complex relationship with her sister May? Yes. Does Alcott use Amy to make fun of May's childhood foibles? Yes. Does she make it clear that May often drove her crazy when they were young, and does her envy of May's charms and social life sometimes bleed through the text? Of course! But none of it seems really mean-spirited; her affection and respect for May also come through clearly. Besides, she's just as willing to use Jo's foibles to make fun of herself.

And in the Little House series, do we really think Wilder set out to insult the memory of her beloved and by then deceased sister Mary? Just because she was honest about their childhood sibling rivalry and made readers feel for her envy of her "perfect" sister doesn't mean she wanted the readers to dislike her.

Maybe I'm giving these authors too much benefit of the doubt. But "An author writes about her own family, makes herself the protagonist, and honestly portrays both her closeness and her sibling rivalry with a sister who was very different from herself" doesn't inherently mean "The author expects all readers to identify with her self-insert and dislike her sister."

#little women #little house on the prairie #the little house books #louisa may alcott #jo march #may alcott nieriker #amy march #laura ingalls wilder #mary ingalls

[detroitlib]

Pen and ink drawing for "These happy golden years" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Stamped and handwritten on back: "From 'These happy golden years.' Please return to Harper & Brothers, Juvenile Dept." Handwritten on back: "No. 2. Laura set herself lessons." From a collection of twenty-four original pen and ink drawings by Helen Sewell and Mildred Boyle used in the first editions of books from the "Little house" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1943.

Rare Book Collection, Detroit Public Library

#laura ingalls wilder #wilder #mildred boyle #helen sewell #drawing #illustration #book #books #old books #book illustration #these happyu golden years #reading #1943 #vintage #detroit public library

[kiinghanalister]

50 Years of the Ingalls Family ❤️

#lhotp #little house on the prairie #lhotpedit #lhotpgifs #laura ingalls wilder #1980s television #1980s tv #1970s tv #1970s television #classic tv #mary ingalls #charles ingalls #caroline ingalls #michael landon #melissa gilbert #karen grassle #melissa sue anderson #i had to get these from a fanvid and only just realized some of the gifs still have the fanvid watermark #oh well #damn liz back at it again with those gifs

[andallshallbewell]

#laura ingalls wilder #quote #inspiration

[wowbright]

Me: "I'm getting toward the end of reading all the Laura ingalls Wilder books, hmm this one is called These Happy Golden Years, sounds like it'll be a nice relaxing one like Little House in the Big Woods and not terrifying like most of the others."

Laura ingalls Wilder: "Laura almost dies in a snowstorm. Attempted murder occurs. There's a good chance murder will be attempted again. You aren't even a quarter way through the book."

#laura ingalls wilder #the happy golden years #little house on the prairie #little house in the big woods

[danafoss]

damn why does this middle aged prairie man have pretty puppy eyes

#little house on the prairie #nels oleson #70s tv series #old west #michael landon #lhotp #laura ingalls wilder #70s tv shows

[gamingtimewarppumpkin-blog]

did you hear about the collaboration between Bon Jovi and Laura Ingalls Wilder? it's called Livin' on a Prairie

#bon jovi #laura ingalls wilder #little house on the prairie #living on a prayer #puns #bad puns #terrible puns

[fictionadventurer]

If there's one thing the Little House books have taught me, it's that anyone's life can become legendary if you write it down. This random farm girl has at least seven museums devoted to her family and a branch of literary scholarship devoted to studying her family history just because she decided to turn her memories into children's stories. Like, yeah, her childhood had a lot more crazy disasters than most people's, but that doesn't change the fact this was a family of ordinary people whose life events became legendary just because someone told the stories well.

#this is what happens when you read half of 'these happy golden years' #and then watch the wingfeather saga trailer #that talks about how legends are just day-to-day life when people are living them and they only become legendary when you're looking back #the parallels i see them #little house #laura ingalls wilder

[nobeerreviews]

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.

-- Laura Ingalls Wilder

(Locarno, Switzerland)

#simple things #simple life #real #laura ingalls wilder #travel photography #locarno #switzerland #quote

[citizenscreen]

“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life that are the real ones after all.”

– Laura Ingalls Wilder ✍️ #botd in 1867

#laura ingalls wilder

[best-childhood-book]

Round 1, Poll 9: Little House vs A Snicker of Magic

#best childhood book #poll #little house #laura ingalls wilder #a snicker of magic #natalie lloyd

[bellesdiaries]

Laura and Almanzo being adorable [2/?]

#little house on the prairie #lhotp #lhotpedit #laura ingalls wilder #almanzo wilder #laura x almanzo #this show is so wholesome #my stuff #my gifs #my edits