Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life (South Dakota Biography Series) - Softcover

Pamela Smith Hill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 097779556X ISBN 13: 9780977795567

Publisher: South Dakota State Historical Society, 2007

Synopsis

In Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life, Pamela Smith Hill delves into the complex and often fascinating relationships Wilder formed throughout her life that led to the writing of her classic Little House series. Using Wilder's stories, personal correspondence, a previously unpublished autobiography, and experiences in South Dakota, Hill has produced a historical-literary biography of the famous and much-loved author. Following the course of Wilder's life, and her real family's journey west, Hill provides a context both familial and literary, for Wilder's writing career.

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life is the first book in the South Dakota Biography Series, which highlights some of the state's most famous residents. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends and Seth Bullock: Black Hills Lawman are also a part of this series. More information about this series can be found on the South Dakota Historical Society Press website.

About this title

About the Author:

Pamela Smith Hill is the editor of Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography (2014) and three historical novels for young adults Ghost Horses, The Last Grail Keeper, and Voice from the Border. She has taught creative and professional writing at universities in Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, as well as a course on Laura Ingalls Wilder through Missouri State University. She grew up forty miles from Rocky Ridge Farm, launched her writing career not far from De Smet, and now lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Review:

A fascinating and remarkable book that deserves a place on the shelf of every Laura fan. --The Homesteader

Pamela Smith Hill has [created] a work of considerable scholarship and insight. . . . She has dealt along the way with numerous issues raised by critics and by the general readership, together with other matters that few have previously thought to discuss. In all of this, her extensive research, her careful scholarship and her measured style, combined with her obvious enthusiasm for her subject, have produced a work which we believe adds in substantial measure to the critical literature involving Wilder and Lane. --The Little House Heritage Trust

I vote for Pamela Smith Hill s book. I ve read all of the Bio s about Laura and felt that this one was one of the best. It gave a very clear portrait of the relationship Laura and Rose had while writing the books. It pointed out very clearly that even if Rose had some participation with editing/story development, the stories were Laura s. Smith points out that Rose s experience with writing fiction was limited, that she wrote for magazines and was not generally considered a fiction writer. Only short stories. --Lori Berg, Beyond Little House

About this edition

• Publisher: South Dakota State Historical Society
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 097779556X
• ISBN 13: 9780977795567
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254