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 13: National History Day in Missouri – Maggie Mayhan
Episode 12: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum – Raymond Doswell (Going to Kansas City, Part 5)
Episode 11: "Wide-Open Town" – Diane Mutti Burke & Jason Roe (Going to Kansas City, Part 4)
Episode 10: Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum – Mark Adams (Going to Kansas City, Part 3)
Episode 9: SHSMO Kansas City Research Center — Lucinda Adams (Going to Kansas City, Part 2)
Episode 8: Public History in Kansas City and Beyond — Sandra Enriquez (Going to Kansas City, Part 1)
Episode 7: Missouri's Bicentennial – Michael Sweeney
Episode 6: A How-to Guide to Genealogy – Bill Eddleman
Episode 5: "Degrees of Allegiance" – Petra DeWitt (Missouri and The Great War, Part 3)
Episode 4: The National World War I Museum and Memorial – Jonathan Casey (Missouri and The Great War, Part 2)
Episode 3: "Love and Death in the Great War" – Andrew J. Huebner (Missouri and The Great War, Part 1)
More Missouri Moments: Rose Wilder Lane – Caroline Fraser
More Missouri Moments: February 5, 1911 – Bob Priddy
Episode 1: "The Art of the Missouri Capitol" — Bob Priddy
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