Having moved several times in the last few years, I well understand Ma’s dismay in These Happy Golden Years when Pa starts talking about wanting to go West again. “I was so tired of being dragged from pillar to post,…
Are you a “fan” of Laura Ingalls Wilder, or an “admirer”? Do you need to know every detail of her life, or are you satisfied with the books and television series? Have you ever wondered whether Albert existed, or whether…
The sunlight and shadows in the woods were beautiful that morning, the sunlight a little pale and the air with that quality of hushed expectancy that the coming of autumn brings. Birds were calling to one another and telling of…
I’m pretty good at finding a “Laura” connection in ordinary things, even vacations. My husband has a business trip to Rochester, NY – woo hoo, it’s only a short 5 hour drive to Malone! I need to visit my sister…
I admit it. I’m a sucker for blizzards. I suppose that’s because I’ve never had to, you know, live through one. Tonight, I just might. Forget the sudden cloud speeding from the northwest. We’ve been hearing about a blizzard expected…
Among the earliest citizens of De Smet was its banker, Thomas Ruth. Banker Ruth receives several mentions in The Long Winter as having bought out the lumberyard and then the last bag of flour at costs higher than the Ingalls…
In my other life I’m a sometimes-magazine writer. Lately I’ve been getting my ongoing work in order, and part of that includes preparing for a trip report I’ll write on visiting the Little House sites this summer. I’ll be traveling…
“We come from the East, from New York State.” ~Nellie Oleson in Little Town on the Prairie, Ch. 11, by Laura Ingalls Wilder Nellie Oleson is finally leaving the rough country in the west, and returning to New York… oh,…
…For all that they are fiction, and children’s fiction at that, I admit that much of what I truly, deeply understand and love about American history and character comes from my early childhood reading and rereading of these books: frontier…
I’ve been getting questions about the Friendly case since the story I wrote appeared in the Homesteader, including one from an interested reader at this site. “How can this so-called Friendly group have the rights to a book title? Did Laura’s…