Laura Ingalls Wilder FAQs

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube.

Why was the winter so long?  And do we still have long winters in the same pattern that the old Indian described?

Kathrine

Dear Kathrine:

This question is best answered by Barbara Mayes Boustead in this episode of Trundlebed Tales radio, a radio show by Sarah S. Uthoff. Barb works for the National Weather Service and was a presenter at last summer’s LauraPalooza, where her topic was the real-life weather of that winter 1880-1881. She also maintains the blog “Wilder Weather.”

As a long-time lover of the books AND someone who is interested in foreign languages, I have always been intrigued by the many translated versions, but have had little luck finding them. Some years ago I was able to locate and purchase most of the series in German, a few in Hebrew and one in French. Are they still in print/available in any other languages? Any tips on where to find them (ideally without spending an arm and a leg or traveling to Europe to scour the bookstores)? I’m particularly interested in Slavic languages and Italian.

Thanks,

Naomi Pardue

Dear Naomi:

I have assembled a list of thirty-seven languages and dialects in which at least one of the books appeared. Sometimes they don’t translate the entire series, but just individual books. Some languages such as Spanish and French are readily available from places such as Amazon.com, but many were limited runs and now are out of print. I troll Ebay for these, to add them to my list. I do know for sure that Mansfield and De Smet have in the past offered a section of books in the various languages in their gift shops. They don’t list them in the online stores as a rule, but if you call and talk to someone working there, they would probably be able to tell you what they currently have available as well as the prices. I bought a Japanese edition the last time I was in De Smet, which was about two years ago. It has been a lot longer since I’ve been to Mansfield, but the gift shop was offering them at that time. I am not sure about the other gift shops.

Sarah S. Uthoff

I hope you might be able to help. I am looking for a set of the books but with specific cover art. I think the reprint was around 1982/83.  This is the set my mum bought me when I was young, but unfortunately I no longer have them and want to give a set to my daughter. Silly or not, I would like these books to be the same ones that I had.  I live in the UK but am happy to pay whatever it takes to have a full set shipped.

Thanks,  Sian

Dear Sian:

Were you living in Great Britain then?  Were they paperback or hardcover? The common paperback set at the time had Garth Williams illustrations in full color like the yellow edition at left. The books from Harpers had a yellow border as in the example, those from Reader’s Digest had a blue border, and in those from Scholastic the image was slightly enlarged, with no border.

During this same time period in the UK, Puffin produced a paperback version of the set. Those books looked like the example on the right.

Are either of these the sets for which you are searching?  I am not sure about any hardback British editions.  I don’t think I have seen any hardbacks that were British, although living in the US, I might easily have missed them.

Sarah S. Uthoff

UPDATE: The original poster was actually looking for the set below. Check out some follow up information in the comments. I don’t have a United Kingdom edition specific source for online books if anyone does please share. SSU 4-21-2011

UK edition

“Once you begin being naughty, it is easier to go and on and on, and sooner or later something dreadful happens.” ~Laura Ingalls

I am trying to find the source of this quote by Laura Ingalls. Do you have any idea from where it is taken?

Thanks so much,

Gail A. Krahenbuhl

Hi Gail,

This is from On the Banks of Plum Creek. Laura, in fact, does not actually say it. At the end of the chapter “Strange Animal,” when Laura confesses to her parents that she started to go to the swimming hole but the badger stopped her, and then Laura has to be “watched” all the next day, Ma says this to Laura.

Incidentally, Melissa Gilbert quoted this recently in her book, A Prairie Tale.

I was wondering whether you would be able to help me. I have been looking around for a biography about Laura Ingalls Wilder, but there seem to be so many. I was wondering if you would be able to recommend one (or two) that I should definitely read?

Also, I have read here and there that Laura wrote an autobiography that was rejected by publishers. Do you know if there are any plans to publish this now, as this is something I would dearly love to read?

Many thanks for your help.

Kind regards,

Estelle

Dear Estelle,

Many biographical accounts of Laura’s life have been written, from booklet to book form. Gift shops at Laura’s homesites sell various William Anderson-penned booklets relating to different aspects of Laura’s life, among them “The Story of the Ingalls” and “Laura Wilder of Mansfield.”

The first book-length biography was Donald Zochert’s Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, published in the early 1970s. It contains a lot of previously unknown details about her life behind what she revealed in the Little House series and is heavily based on the “Pioneer Girl” manuscript.

Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend, by John Miller (who will be speaking at 2010′s LauraPalooza), investigates Laura’s emergence as a writer in Mansfield, Missouri, where she lived from age 27 until her death.

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life by Pamela Smith Hill (also a keynote speaker at this year’s LauraPalooza) is the most recent biography published about Laura. It takes a literary standpoint, exploring the writer-editor relationship between Laura and her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, as Laura began to make a name for herself in children’s fiction.

Although somewhat dense and academic, William Holtz’s The Ghost in the Little House, a biography of Rose, is exhaustively researched and contains quite a bit of information about Laura that hadn’t been previously published.

“Pioneer Girl” is the unpublished manuscript you’ve heard about that was rejected by publishers (though at one point The Saturday Evening Post considered publishing it in serial form). A version of it is available for research and study purposes at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa. You can go to the Hoover’s research center yourself to read it (and reams of other Wilder/Lane documents housed there) or you can contact them and they can copy it and mail it to you. This is not cheap: the copy fees alone will run you over a hundred dollars.

Given the expense, you may want to wait. We’ve recently learned of definite plans for an official publication of “Pioneer Girl” at last. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more

As for which published biography is better than the others, I think it’s best to leave it to the readers.

LIW fans, let’s help Estelle out. What’s your opinion on Laura’s biographies? When you really feel like sitting down and reading about Laura, which one do you pick up? Make sure to tell us why.

Do you know when the first paperbacks were printed on the series of Little House books?  I found a set that says 1953 newly illustrated uniform edition printed 1953 by Harper and Row.

I can’t find anything to verify that the first ones in 1953 were paperback…. just wondering as I would love to buy them if they are from 1953 as I don’t need another set as I have one from the seventies.

Thanks for your help.

Linda

This set isn’t any (or much) older than your set from the 70s (nor do paperbacks hold much value anyway, even if they were the first paperbacks printed).

Even currently printed paperback Little House books will have the statement “newly illustrated, uniform edition printed 1953″ on them. This does not mean that the book you hold was printed in 1953, but that 1953 is when the newly illustrated uniform edition was first printed. 1953 is the year that all of the books came out in a set with new illustrations by Garth Williams. Prior to that, the books were illustrated by Helen Sewell, with Mildred Boyle for some books, and of course each book was printed in a different year.

The clue that tells me this set of paperbacks was not printed in 1953 is that they call themselves Harper & Row. I have several first edition 1953 hardback books with the Garth Williams illustrations, and these books say Harper & Brothers Company for the publisher. It was not until 1962 that Harper & Brothers became Harper & Row following a merger with another company. Since around 1990, it has been known as HarperCollins.

According to Sarah Sue:  The paperback set came out in 1971. They were published simultaneously by Harpers (Yellow set) and Readers Digest (Blue set).  Full color, full image covers were Scholastic.