Once upon a time, sixty years ago (now nearly 150 years ago), a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs. With that opening scene, Laura Ingalls Wilder launched the Little House book series that eventually became a key piece of American culture. But, did you know, that despite her stories of little houses on the prairies of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and the Dakota Territory, Laura Ingalls Wilder actually spent a majority of her life in the tiny town of Mansfield, Missouri? This episode features Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caroline Fraser talking to us about her recent book, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. In her award-winning book, Fraser provides a stunning account of the events that not only shaped Laura Ingalls Wilder's life but also inspired her later literary masterpieces.
About the Guest: Caroline Fraser holds a PhD in English and American Literature from Harvard University. She is the author of God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church and Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution. Additionally, she served as editor of the Library of America edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. Her work has also appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and Outside Magazine, among others. Her most recent book, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, Plutarch Award, and the Pulitzer Prize in Biography.
Episode 65: “A River in the City of Fountains” – Amahia Mallea (Water & Waterways, Part 5)
Episode 64: Imagining the Mississippi River – Thomas Ruys Smith (Water & Waterways, Part 4)
Episode 63: Farmhouses – Susan Sundermeyer (Water & Waterways, Part 3)
Episode 62: Living Waters/Healing Waters – Loring Bullard (Water & Waterways, Part 2)
Episode 61: Life and Work on the Mississippi – Bonnie Stepenoff (Water & Waterways, Part 1)
Episode 60: Plattdeutsch, Hochdeutsch, & the Germans in Missouri – Walter Kamphoefner (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 20)
Episode 59: ”Gender & the Jubilee” – Sharon Romeo (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 19)
Episode 58: The Civil War on the American Middle Border – Christopher Phillips (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 18)
Episode 57: ”Lorenzo Greene and Lincoln University” – Antonio F. Holland & Gary R. Kremer (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 17)
Episode 56: ”A History of Missouri” – William Parrish (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 16)
Episode 55: ”The Genesis of Missouri” – William Foley (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 15)
Episode 54: ”Missouri‘s Black Heritage” – Antonio F. Holland & Gary R. Kremer (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 14)
Episode 53: ”On Slavery‘s Border” – Diane Mutti Burke (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 13)
Episode 52: "German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era" – Alison Clark Efford (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 12)
Episode 51: "Bridging Two Eras" – Virginia Laas (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 11)
Episode 50: "Mr. Missouri" (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 10)
Episode 49: "Prairie Fires" – Caroline Fraser (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 9)
Episode 48: "Celia, A Slave" – Melton McLaurin (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 8)
Episode 47: "American Confluence" – Stephen Aron (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 7)
Episode 46: Louis Houck and "the Histories" – Joel P. Rhodes (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 6)
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