Pioneer Girl: The Annotated
Autobiography by Laura
Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill (South
Dakota Historical Society Press, 472 pages)
If,
like me, you devoured the Little House
books when you were a kid, then you need to get your hands on this
book. Not only does it give us Wilder's unadulterated memoir, but it
also provides us with a TON of information about everything you ever
wanted to know about pioneer life and the Ingalls/Wilder experience.
Hill's
exhaustive and detailed introduction explains just how this
never-before-published memoir was the basis for all of Wilder's
subsequent books for children about frontier life. In 1929 or 1930,
after her sister Mary died, Wilder decided to set down on paper
everything she could remember about growing up on the move, living at
various times in Wisconsin, Dakota territory, Kansas, Missouri, and
Minnesota. The memoir reads like a series of vivid scenes, many of
which were adapted and expanded for the Little House
books.
