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Release Year: 2017

ISBN: 9781627792769

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher

Holt & Company, Henry

ISBN-10

1627792767

ISBN-13

9781627792769

eBay Product ID (ePID)

239677279

Product Key Features

Book Title

Prairie Fires : the American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Number of Pages

640 Pages

Language

English

Topic

Women, Literary, United States / General

Publication Year

2017

Illustrator

Yes

Genre

Biography & Autobiography, History

Author

Caroline Fraser

Format

Hardcover

Dimensions

Item Height

1.6 in

Item Weight

31.7 Oz

Item Length

9.6 in

Item Width

6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience

Trade

LCCN

2017-028870

Dewey Edition

Reviews

"Unforgettable... A magisterial biography, which surely must be called definitive. Richly documented (it contains 85 pages of notes), it is a compelling, beautifully written story... One of the more interesting aspects of this wonderfully insightful book is its delineation of the fraught relationship between Wilder and her deeply disturbed, often suicidal daughter. But it is its marriage of biography and history--the latter providing such a rich context for the life--that is one of the great strengths of this indispensable book." --Booklist (starred review) "At last, an unsentimental examination of Laura Ingalls Wilder's real life on the frontier. Caroline Fraser rescues Wilder from frontier myth and gives us the gritty, passionate woman who endured the harshest experiences of homesteading, loved the Great Plains, and was devastated by their ultimate ruin and loss. Elegantly written and impeccably researched, Prairie Fires is a major contribution to environmental history and literary biography." --Linda Lear, author of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature and Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature "A fantastic book. We've long understood the Little House series to be a great American story, but Caroline Fraser brings it unprecedented new context, as she masterfully chronicles the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family alongside the complicated history of our nation. Prairie Fires represents a significant milestone in our understanding of Wilder's life, work, and legacy." --Wendy McClure, author of The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie "In the twenty-first century, the tense and secret authorial partnership between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane has emerged as the most complex and fascinating psychological saga of mother-daughter collaboration in American literary history. Caroline Fraser's deeply researched and stimulating biography analyzes their controversial relationship and places Wilder's influential fiction in the contexts of other myths of pioneer women and the frontier." --Elaine Showalter, author of A Jury of Her Peers and The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe "Engrossing... Exhilarating... Lovers of the series will delight in learning about real-life counterparts to classic fictional episodes, but, as Fraser emphasizes, the true story was often much harsher. Meticulously tracing the Ingalls and Wilder families' experiences through public records and private documents, Fraser discovers failed farm ventures and constant money problems, as well as natural disasters even more terrifying and devastating in real life than in Wilder's writing. She also helpfully puts Wilder's narrow world into larger historical context." -- Publishers Weekly, Praise for God's Perfect Child "Eye-opening . . . The most powerful and persuasive attack on Christian Science to have been written in this century." --Los Angeles Times Book Review "A work of impassioned rationality . . . Important and profoundly disturbing." --Newsday "Startling . . . Fraser has an eye and ear for the kind of detail that can help readers make up their own minds about an always-controversial American religious expression." --The Boston Globe "Penetrating . . . A work of compelling skepticism and scholarship." --The New Yorker "Splendid." --The New York Times, "Unforgettable... A magisterial biography, which surely must be called definitive. Richly documented (it contains 85 pages of notes), it is a compelling, beautifully written story... One of the more interesting aspects of this wonderfully insightful book is its delineation of the fraught relationship between Wilder and her deeply disturbed, often suicidal daughter. But it is its marriage of biography and history--the latter providing such a rich context for the life--that is one of the great strengths of this indispensable book." --Booklist (starred review) "A fantastic book. We've long understood the Little House series to be a great American story, but Caroline Fraser brings it unprecedented new context, as she masterfully chronicles the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family alongside the complicated history of our nation. Prairie Fires represents a significant milestone in our understanding of Wilder's life, work, and legacy." --Wendy McClure, author of The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie "Meticulously researched, feelingly told, Prairie Fires is the definitive biography of a major writer who did so much to mold public perceptions of the Western frontier. Once again, Caroline Fraser has shown that she is a master of the careful art of sifting a life, finding meaning in the large and small events that shaped an iconic American figure. Prairie Fires is a magnificent contribution to the literature of the West." --Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West "At last, an unsentimental examination of Laura Ingalls Wilder's real life on the frontier. Caroline Fraser rescues Wilder from frontier myth and gives us the gritty, passionate woman who endured the harshest experiences of homesteading, loved the Great Plains, and was devastated by their ultimate ruin and loss. Elegantly written and impeccably researched, Prairie Fires is a major contribution to environmental history and literary biography." --Linda Lear, author of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature and Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature "In the twenty-first century, the tense and secret authorial partnership between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane has emerged as the most complex and fascinating psychological saga of mother-daughter collaboration in American literary history. Caroline Fraser's deeply researched and stimulating biography analyzes their controversial relationship and places Wilder's influential fiction in the contexts of other myths of pioneer women and the frontier." --Elaine Showalter, author of A Jury of Her Peers and The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe "Engrossing... Exhilarating... Lovers of the series will delight in learning about real-life counterparts to classic fictional episodes, but, as Fraser emphasizes, the true story was often much harsher. Meticulously tracing the Ingalls and Wilder families' experiences through public records and private documents, Fraser discovers failed farm ventures and constant money problems, as well as natural disasters even more terrifying and devastating in real life than in Wilder's writing. She also helpfully puts Wilder's narrow world into larger historical context." -- Publishers Weekly, "An absorbing new biography [that] deserves recognition as an essential text.... For anyone who has drifted into thinking of Wilder''s ''Little House'' books as relics of a distant and irrelevant past, reading Prairie Fires will provide a lasting cure.... Meanwhile, ''Little House'' devotees will appreciate the extraordinary care and energy Fraser devotes to uncovering the details of a life that has been expertly veiled by myth." -- The New York Times Book Review (front page) "The definitive biography... Magisterial and eloquent... A rich, provocative portrait." --Minneapolis Star Tribune "Impressive... Prairie Fires could not have been published at a more propitious time in our national life." -- The New Republic "Unforgettable... A magisterial biography, which surely must be called definitive. Richly documented (it contains 85 pages of notes), it is a compelling, beautifully written story.... One of the more interesting aspects of this wonderfully insightful book is its delineation of the fraught relationship between Wilder and her deeply disturbed, often suicidal daughter." --Booklist (starred review) "A fantastic book. We''ve long understood the Little House series to be a great American story, but Caroline Fraser brings it unprecedented new context, as she masterfully chronicles the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family alongside the complicated history of our nation. Prairie Fires represents a significant milestone in our understanding of Wilder''s life, work, and legacy." --Wendy McClure, author of The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie "Meticulously researched, feelingly told, Prairie Fires is the definitive biography of a major writer who did so much to mold public perceptions of the Western frontier. Once again, Caroline Fraser has shown that she is a master of the careful art of sifting a life, finding meaning in the large and small events that shaped an iconic American figure. Prairie Fires is a magnificent contribution to the literature of the West." --Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West "At last, an unsentimental examination of Laura Ingalls Wilder''s real life on the frontier. Caroline Fraser rescues Wilder from frontier myth and gives us the gritty, passionate woman who endured the harshest experiences of homesteading, loved the Great Plains, and was devastated by their ultimate ruin and loss. Elegantly written and impeccably researched, Prairie Fires is a major contribution to environmental history and literary biography." --Linda Lear, author of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature and Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature "In the twenty-first century, the tense and secret authorial partnership between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane has emerged as the most complex and fascinating psychological saga of mother-daughter collaboration in American literary history. Caroline Fraser''s deeply researched and stimulating biography analyzes their controversial relationship and places Wilder''s influential fiction in the contexts of other myths of pioneer women and the frontier." --Elaine Showalter, author of A Jury of Her Peers and The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe "Engrossing... Exhilarating... Lovers of the series will delight in learning about real-life counterparts to classic fictional episodes, but, as Fraser emphasizes, the true story was often much harsher. Meticulously tracing the Ingalls and Wilder families'' experiences through public records and private documents, Fraser discovers failed farm ventures and constant money problems, as well as natural disasters even more terrifying and devastating in real life than in Wilder''s writing. She also helpfully puts Wilder''s narrow world into larger historical context." -- Publishers Weekly, "An absorbing new biography [that] deserves recognition as an essential text for getting a grip on the dynamics and consequences of this vast literary enterprise.... For anyone who has drifted into thinking of Wilder''s ''Little House'' books as relics of a distant and irrelevant past, reading Prairie Fires will provide a lasting cure.... Meanwhile, ''Little House'' devotees will appreciate the extraordinary care and energy Fraser devotes to uncovering the details of a life that has been expertly veiled by myth." -- The New York Times Book Review "The definitive biography... Magisterial and eloquent... A rich, provocative portrait." --Star Tribune "Unforgettable... A magisterial biography, which surely must be called definitive. Richly documented (it contains 85 pages of notes), it is a compelling, beautifully written story.... One of the more interesting aspects of this wonderfully insightful book is its delineation of the fraught relationship between Wilder and her deeply disturbed, often suicidal daughter. But it is its marriage of biography and history--the latter providing such a rich context for the life--that is one of the great strengths of this indispensable book." --Booklist (starred review) "A fantastic book. We''ve long understood the Little House series to be a great American story, but Caroline Fraser brings it unprecedented new context, as she masterfully chronicles the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family alongside the complicated history of our nation. Prairie Fires represents a significant milestone in our understanding of Wilder''s life, work, and legacy." --Wendy McClure, author of The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie "Meticulously researched, feelingly told, Prairie Fires is the definitive biography of a major writer who did so much to mold public perceptions of the Western frontier. Once again, Caroline Fraser has shown that she is a master of the careful art of sifting a life, finding meaning in the large and small events that shaped an iconic American figure. Prairie Fires is a magnificent contribution to the literature of the West." --Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West "At last, an unsentimental examination of Laura Ingalls Wilder''s real life on the frontier. Caroline Fraser rescues Wilder from frontier myth and gives us the gritty, passionate woman who endured the harshest experiences of homesteading, loved the Great Plains, and was devastated by their ultimate ruin and loss. Elegantly written and impeccably researched, Prairie Fires is a major contribution to environmental history and literary biography." --Linda Lear, author of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature and Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature "In the twenty-first century, the tense and secret authorial partnership between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane has emerged as the most complex and fascinating psychological saga of mother-daughter collaboration in American literary history. Caroline Fraser''s deeply researched and stimulating biography analyzes their controversial relationship and places Wilder''s influential fiction in the contexts of other myths of pioneer women and the frontier." --Elaine Showalter, author of A Jury of Her Peers and The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe "Engrossing... Exhilarating... Lovers of the series will delight in learning about real-life counterparts to classic fictional episodes, but, as Fraser emphasizes, the true story was often much harsher. Meticulously tracing the Ingalls and Wilder families'' experiences through public records and private documents, Fraser discovers failed farm ventures and constant money problems, as well as natural disasters even more terrifying and devastating in real life than in Wilder''s writing. She also helpfully puts Wilder''s narrow world into larger historical context." -- Publishers Weekly

Dewey Decimal

813.52

Table Of Content

A Note on Quotations xiii Map . xiv Introduction . 1 On the Frontier 9 Part I: The Pioneer 1. Maiden Rock . 27 2. Indian Summers . 44 3. Crying Hard Times . 66 4. God Hates a Coward 93 5. Don't Leave the Farm, Boys . 133 Part II: The Exile 6. A World Made . 179 7. As a Farm Woman Thinks 220 8. The Absent Ones 264 9. Pioneer Girl . 302 Part III: The Dream 10. A Ruined Country 327 11. Dusty Old Dust . 370 12. We Are All Here 398 13. Sunshine and Shadow . 441 14. There Is Gold in the Farm 486 Epilogue 509 Notes 517 Acknowledgments . 603 Index . 609

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls--the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser--the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series--masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder's biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books. The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder's real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children's books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading--and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters. Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder's dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day.

LC Classification Number

PS3545.I342Z6455

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