Dear Beyond Little House:
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