Laura Ingalls Wilder

Author —

IN JULY 1894, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s young family packed its belongings in a wagon and headed from the Dakotas to the Missouri Ozarks, which they had learned about from advertising brochures and friends.

They purchased a 40-acre farm a mile east of Mansfield that produced lumber, apples, strawberries, chickens and other products. Wilder began writing articles for the ”Missouri Ruralist,“ slowly at first, but by 1916, on a regular basis.

Even though health problems, including a heart attack, eventually slowed her down, Wilder published her first book, ”Little House in the Big Woods,“ in 1932. By the time she finished her last one, ”These Happy Golden Years,“ 11 years later, she had become one of America’s best-loved children’s writers. Sometimes referred to as an untutored genius, Wilder had actually been preparing for the task of novel writing for two decades, publishing articles in farm papers and other outlets on topics relating to her own experiences as a housekeeper, farmer’s wife and community citizen in the Missouri Ozarks.

Children around the world will always remember Wilder for her ”Little House on the Prairie“ books and the television show based on them.