The Little House Books - Volume One (collection, 2012) By Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

In a quest for a return to simpler times Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House series of American classics, seems to be having a resurgence. There were nine little house books in all, my winter reads the past few weeks have been the first four, Volume One of the Library of America’s collection of her works.

A key character in the semi-autobiographical books is a young girl named Laura and her life back in pioneer days of the country as the nation expanded west of the Mississippi River, times gone by in other words, though I’m not sure about the “simpler times” theme, other than to note they predate social media, plumbing and electricity.

The first of the novels is House in the Big Woods (written in 1932). In the story Laura is a young girl living on a farm in Wisconsin. The farm is in the stage of agriculture when “clearing” woods to make room for crops was a challenge, while hunting and trapping were the norm. It covers a one-year cycle on the farm reminding me of Aldo Leopold’s 1949 novel A Sand County Almanac which was also set in Wisconsin.

In the second novel, Farmer Boy (1933), Laura’s family is not part of the storyline, though it runs in parallel time. It’s about a young boy growing up on a farm in upstate New York. He will eventually set out on his own, moving west (think Manifest Destiny). He'll reappear in the later novels.

The third novel Little House on the Prairie (1935) is the best known of the novels. In it, Laura’s family will join the trek west relocating to Kansas, which at the time was “Indian Land” per treaty. They chose Kansas because it was treeless with rich soil and they had heard it was about to be opened up to pioneer settlers. Laura’s family along with many others, chose to arrive early and settle on it without legal standing before a new treaty had been negotiated – but it wasn’t their land to settle. Eventually the U.S. government had to evict them until such times as a new treaty was forced on the Natives.

The fourth novel, On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937) explains how Laura’s family, tired of moving, backtracked north to the State of Minnesota, near established towns founded by Norwegian immigrants to America, with such luxuries as stores, churches, and schools.

Written as childrens/young adult novels, the entire series offers folksy tales and could be used as a survivalist’s how-to guide for farming, log cabin building, and multiple other Farmer’s Almanac type information. Surprisingly, considering the time period of the novels, particularly the Little House on the Prairie, it includes different perspectives on the Native American “problem.” While total advocates of Manifest Destiny as the new nation’s birthright, Laura’s father provides at least an acknowledgement of the unfairness of the lopsided treaties formulated by Washington DC.

Wilder’s novels were the basis of the Little House on the Prairie hit television series spanning nine seasons for a total of two hundred episodes running from 1974 through 1983. It starred Melissa Gilbert as Laura with the role of her father being played by Michael Landon -- a.k.a. Little Joe of Bonanza, another hit television series from that time period. I wasn’t a Little House fan, but loved its genre equal, The Waltons.

Recommendation: Yes, they remain relevant as childrens/young adult books and are definitely necessary reads for students of American Literature.