My favorite read for August 2021

Book Review

My favorite read for August of 2021 is Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, a biography of the author written by Caroline Fraser in 2018.  Since I have read so much about Wilder, I picked this up out of obligatory devotion to my idol, rather than to get information.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned. While this is a biography of Wilder, it’s more than that. It’s the story of an entire generation of pioneers that shaped our country. Not only did I learn information about the Ingalls and Wilder families; I learned a great deal about the lives of all western pioneers.  Historical biographies can be tough reads. Sometimes authors are so caught up in the factual information that the biographies read more like a professional journal than a narrative. However, Fraser interweaves the history of American Frontier and Wilder’s life in an engaging manner which kept turning the page. The book shows deep respect for Wilder, while also presenting her as a real person who has flaws.

My Tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder

Aside from people I’ve actually met, Wilder is arguably the greatest influence in my life. She’s the writer I credit with making me a lifelong reader. That being said, I completely understand why she has come under criticism in recent years. Even as a little girl growing up in the 1980’s, I could see the racial insensitivity of her books. In addition,  it’s now been proven that, despite her insistence that the books were true, certain parts simply could not have happened the way she wrote them.   Then there’s the debate over how much of the novels were actually written by Rose Wilder Lane. There are many cracks in my idols image, but I accept them while still appreciating her contributions to the world. Reading Prairie Fires made me look closer at what those accomplishments were.

Little House in the Big Woods was first published in 1932. As a child, that date wouldn’t have met much to me, other than it was a long time ago. But, what I now realize is that, in the middle of The Great Depression, she became a successful children’s author.  People were struggling to put food on the table, and still chose to buy her books. Those books took an otherwise nonconsequential family and made them as familiar as the world leaders, inventors and celebrities of the same time period.

I still remember exactly where I was sitting the day my American History professor pointed out that Charles Ingalls was a failure. It wasn’t so much that he was a failure that hit me, as the fact that I hadn’t seen it. His crops failed year after year,  he kept moving his family from place to place and never seemed to quite make ends meet. I knew this, but somehow it never occurred to me that he never really did get ahead. He was Laura’s hero, and therefore mine. Charles Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder worked hard their entire lives, with minimal return. (This is no fault of their own, Prairie Fires clearly explains that the farmers were doomed to fail).They were both good people, who treated their wives and daughters with respect rarely given to women in their time. They deserve to be heroes.  But, chances are not one person living today would know either name if Laura hadn’t become a writer. The Ingalls and Wilder families are the faces for every forgotten pioneer who devoted their lives to God, the land and their families. Laura Ingalls Wilder gave her beloved family immortality. That is the power of books.

If you liked this book I also recommend:

The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder Edited by William Anderson

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure