Hi Dear Folk,
Pioneer Girl the annotated autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As soon as I saw the cover I wanted to pick it up. The size is different to a regular book, leaving room for all the annotated notes.
I have snuggled up with this book over my days off , with the joy of sharing in times past, the good, the bad and the gritty. It is the first book that she wrote and her daughter Rose who was already a well established author of her time, sent this manuscript to her publisher. It was meant to be for an adult audience, it was turned down. It went the round of several publishers and all turned it down.
Pioneer Girl is written in the first person and although extremely interesting does not hold up to her later children's books. In fact it was a publisher that suggested re working the material into fictional children s books written in the third person.
Both Laura and Rose scavenged from this original autobiography for many of their fictional works.
The introduction is a bit dry with all the details about Rose Wilder's success as an author and her publishers, but all this lays the ground work for how Laura Ingalls Wilder became the writer that we know.
However this book is worth reading with so much history of the times, and all the annotated information, of photographs, maps and biographies of people that touched her life, it has a true richness.
Just one little gem of detail about the world around them from the book. An old Indian said to her father, that every seventh winter was bad, but every third seventh winter was the very worst and that held true.
The Guardian Review
Do read this you will surely enjoy this book.
Christy
Pioneer Girl the annotated autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As soon as I saw the cover I wanted to pick it up. The size is different to a regular book, leaving room for all the annotated notes.
I have snuggled up with this book over my days off , with the joy of sharing in times past, the good, the bad and the gritty. It is the first book that she wrote and her daughter Rose who was already a well established author of her time, sent this manuscript to her publisher. It was meant to be for an adult audience, it was turned down. It went the round of several publishers and all turned it down.
Pioneer Girl is written in the first person and although extremely interesting does not hold up to her later children's books. In fact it was a publisher that suggested re working the material into fictional children s books written in the third person.
Both Laura and Rose scavenged from this original autobiography for many of their fictional works.
The introduction is a bit dry with all the details about Rose Wilder's success as an author and her publishers, but all this lays the ground work for how Laura Ingalls Wilder became the writer that we know.
However this book is worth reading with so much history of the times, and all the annotated information, of photographs, maps and biographies of people that touched her life, it has a true richness.
Just one little gem of detail about the world around them from the book. An old Indian said to her father, that every seventh winter was bad, but every third seventh winter was the very worst and that held true.
The Guardian Review
Do read this you will surely enjoy this book.
Christy
I grew up reading the Little House on the Prairie books and just loved them. I agree with what you say about Pioneer book. It does not hold a candle to the series. And yet I truly did enjoy this book. I think her editor did her a favor by not going with this one. Maybe we would not have had the treasures of the Little House books. It was nice reading more of the history of the family.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, I so agree that if the publishers had not turned down her first submission we would not have the Little House on the Prairie books which were written so well and have become a part of childhood.
DeleteI have ordered this from the library. I collect all the little house books and others about the author but this is very expensive on Amazon so will see what I think. That bit about the 7 year winter is in the the Long Winter. I look forward to reading Pioneer Girl. Thank you for the review.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this book to my attention. I'm sure I have read it, but will order it from the library to make sure, being interested in all things pioneer!
ReplyDelete