Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Aw yeah this is my JAM! I grew up loving the Little House books but as an adult I have come to realize that they are #problematicfaves and yet...still compelling. This book digs up a lot of details about how Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood was even MORE intense and also even MORE problematic than it's depicted in the books. But where things REALLY go off the rails is with her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. I've read a fair amount of other books/articles about Laura Ingalls Wilder so I was definitely aware that Rose had helped her mother edit the books, and also that she was a libertarian and had influenced the stories to make the pioneers seem more self-reliant and less desperately in need of government handouts (which they definitely 500% needed) but like, omg, what a bonkers woman. (And it seems like, though Fraser correctly doesn't speculate on a diagnosis, that she was suffering from some untreated mental illness?) The whole time I was reading this I kept yelling aloud at my roommate new outrageous things Rose Wilder Lane did.

Highly recommended for adult Little House fans!