Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867 - 1957) was an American writer of children's books, made famous by the Little House series of books recounting her family's experiences homesteading in the late 19th century.

In the course of her early life, her family moved several times, establishing homesteads or making their lives in Wisconsin, Kansas, South Dakota, Minnesota, and finally, Missouri. Her books, aimed at young readers, provide a rather idealized picture of pioneer homesteading life. They have, over the years, become wildly popular with young readers (and others as well) and formed the basis for the Little House on the Prairie television series.

List of Little House books, with date of first publication):

• Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
• Farmer Boy (1934)
• Little House on the Prairie (1935)
• On the Banks of Plum Creek (1935)
• On the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)
• The Long Winter (1940)
• Little Town on the Prairie (1941) - the Little Town referred to is De Smet, South Dakota
• These Happy Golden Years (1943)
• The First Four Years (published posthumously 1971)

Bibliography

• Christine Woodside, Libertarians on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the making of the Little House Books.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pioneer Girl - an annotated autobiography edited by Pamela Smith Hill (ISBN 978-0-9845041-7-6)`
• Marta McDowell, The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder - The frontier landscapes that inspired the Little House books