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 45: Michael Fellman's "Inside War" – Joseph M. Beilein Jr. (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 5)
Episode 44: Understanding Civil War Missouri – Louis Gerteis (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 4)
Episode 43: "Gateway to Equality" – Keona Ervin (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 3)
Episode 42: "Across Our Wide Missouri" - Bob Priddy (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 2)
Episode 41: Labor & Fortune on the Missouri Border – Jarod Roll (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 1)
Episode 40: William Monks & "A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas" – John Bradbury (Border Wars, Part 7)
Episode 39: "Slavery on the Periphery" – Kristen Epps (Border Wars, Part 6)
Episode 38: The Border War of 1960-61 (Border Wars, Part 5)
Episode 37: "Bushwhackers" – Joseph M. Beilein Jr. (Border Wars, Part 4)
Episode 36: Joseph Smith, Lilburn Boggs, & the "Kingdom of Nauvoo" - Benjamin E. Park (Border Wars, Part 3)
Episode 35: "The Border between Them" - Jeremy Neely (Border Wars, Part 2)
Episode 34: "Commonwealth of Compromise" - Amy Laurel Fluker (Border Wars, Part 1)
Summer Series 2020: Voda Curtis: Suffrage & Civil Rights - Keely Doll (Show-Me Suffragists, Part 4)
Summer Series 2020: Carrie Lee Carter Stokes & The WCTU - Janet Olson (Show-Me Suffragists, Part 3)
Summer Series 2020: The Clark Family - Ethan Colbert (Show-Me Suffragists, Part 2)
Summer Series 2020: Alma Nash & the Maryville Milieu – Elyssa Ford (Show-Me Suffragists, Part 1)
Episode 33: Life, Death, & Coroner's Inquests – Sarah Lirley McCune (Meet Me in St. Louis, Part 9)
Episode 32: "Baseball in St. Louis" – Ed Wheatley (Meet Me in St. Louis, Part 8)
Episode 31: "Groping Toward Democracy" – Priscilla Dowden-White (Meet Me in St. Louis, Part 7)
Episode 30: "Gateway To Equality" – Keona Ervin (Meet Me in St. Louis, Part 6)
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