Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Warning: do not read if you want to keep your illusions about Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House Books.

Caroline Fraser has written an extremely comprehensive portrait of Laura and Rose's lives from birth to death, and set them in a historical context so that we can more easily understand the factors that determined their fates and the choices they made. It's a long book but it reads quickly, especially the first part (Laura's early life) and third part (how the Little House books came into existence).

Most of us know by now that not everything in the books was true, or rather that the books didn't tell the whole story. Most of us also knew that LIW got a lot of editorial assistance from her daughter Rose. But did you know that Rose was either a manic-depressive or borderline personality, fan (and rival) of Ayn Rand, and anti-Semitic to boot? The twisted relationship between mother and daughter was fascinating and horrifying, and although LIW comes across as a nice conservative lady who wanted everyone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, I wouldn't have wanted to dig too far into her psyche to get her views on Jews, blacks, and other minorities.

Thank goodness there are no long hidden secrets about Laura and Almanzo's marriage - she really loved him and was very attached to him, despite her fiery temper and his occasional financial missteps.

I will never look at the books in the same way again, but I will still read them with great fondness and affection. They were such an important part of my childhood and ultimately I think I can separate them from both author and history, and just enjoy them for the great stories that they are.