Oh yes Prairie Fires! I read it from the library, and was very interested indeed. I go through cycles of reading every Wilder bio I can get my hands on, in that attempt to sort of reconstruct as much fact as possible from all the angles, I guess.
Have you read Pioneer Girl? This was Wilder's original first attempt at autobiography, but wasn't reshaped and aimed at children, and it includes more grownup stuff like violence and tragedy and whatnot (plus a bit where an older boy gets young laura alone and tries to make her kiss him iirc, in an alarmingly molestation-like attack, but she fights him off).
It existed for a long time just as her archival manuscript, but finally a few years ago the South Dakota Historical Society actually had it published as "Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography", with TONS of marginal annotations, delving into facts, giving sources, explaining things. It is fantastic, HIGHLY recommended, and I wish I could pop over and loan you my copy. I own it in hardback, for better perusal of the huge amount of margin notes. :D
And hey, thank you so much for the reminder of that blog! I remember the link on Metafilter, and was like 'oh nice I will read this later, and then Events happened and I forgot all about it. It is definitely right up my alley!
no subject
Have you read Pioneer Girl? This was Wilder's original first attempt at autobiography, but wasn't reshaped and aimed at children, and it includes more grownup stuff like violence and tragedy and whatnot (plus a bit where an older boy gets young laura alone and tries to make her kiss him iirc, in an alarmingly molestation-like attack, but she fights him off).
It existed for a long time just as her archival manuscript, but finally a few years ago the South Dakota Historical Society actually had it published as "Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography", with TONS of marginal annotations, delving into facts, giving sources, explaining things. It is fantastic, HIGHLY recommended, and I wish I could pop over and loan you my copy. I own it in hardback, for better perusal of the huge amount of margin notes. :D
And hey, thank you so much for the reminder of that blog! I remember the link on Metafilter, and was like 'oh nice I will read this later, and then Events happened and I forgot all about it. It is definitely right up my alley!