February Not Fiction Book Discussions

For our February discussions, we move from the story of America's biggest house to one of some iconic little houses--Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are among the best-loved and most influential in American children's literature. But as Fraser notes, they are "a profound act of American myth-making and self-transformation," very different in significant ways from the life Wilder actually lived.

Fraser told her publisher,

One of the reasons why I wanted to write this book is that I came to feel that 'Laura' had almost been loved to death, sort of like a beloved doll or toy. Between the fictional 'Laura' of the books and the even more heavily fictionalized girl of the TV show, we've tended to lose sight of the fact that Laura Ingalls Wilder was a real person who was complicated and intense. She's also someone whose life opens a window on everything from frontier history and the Plains Indian wars to the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Her real life is even more remarkable than the story in her books, in some ways, which ended at age 18 with her marriage.

What do you think? Did you read the Little House books or watch the TV show as a child? What were your feelings about them then, and have they changed with time? Fraser includes a sweeping narrative of the climate, economics, politics, and culture of the late 19th and early 20th century in her biography of Wilder. How does Fraser's factual account of Wilder's real childhood and later life differ from the stories Wilder wrote, both in content and in theme? How does Fraser's more factual account affect your perception of Wilder's work? Fraser writes, "Wilder made history." How did Wilder and other women of her era make history? How did her life and the way she presented it differ from that of famous male frontier icons such as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett? Do you find it ironic that the Little House books portray a close-knit, loving family, yet her own relationships were often fraught with tension? In particular, how would you characterize the relationships Wilder had with the women in her life, including her own mother Caroline, sister Mary, and daughter Rose?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, February 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, February 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.