Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder The Woman behind the Legend by John E. Miller
Although generations of readers of the Little House books are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder’s early life up through her first years of marriage to Almanzo Wilder, few know about her adult years. Going beyond previous studies, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder focuses upon Wilder’s years in Missouri from 1894 to 1957. Utilizing her unpublished autobiography, letters, newspaper stories, and other documentary evidence, John E. Miller fills the gaps in Wilder’s autobiographical novels and describes her sixty-three years of living in Mansfield, Missouri. As a result, the process of personal development that culminated in Wilder’s writing of the novels that secured her reputation as one of America’s most popular children’s authors becomes evident.
About the Author:
John E. Miller is a writer and historian who taught American history for three decades at South Dakota State University. He is the author of several books, including Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little Town: Where History and Literature Meet and Looking for History on Highway 14. He resides in Brookings, South Dakota.
The Missouri Biography Series, edited by William E. Foley
Product Specifications
Published by University of Missouri Press, paperback, 2006. 320 pages.