BONUS: Caroline Fraser’s Prairie Fires

In all of our research for this show, one of the scholars who has most influenced our thinking on Laura and her work is Caroline Fraser, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura obsessives know that Prairie Fires is the motherload when it comes to understanding Laura’s life. It provides a detailed historical account of her childhood and takes a holistic look at the fraught personal and working relationship that Laura had with her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. As we put together our final episode, we’ve been revisiting Caroline’s book and the amazing interview we did with her. Today, we wanted to share the extended interview with you, as a deeper dive into Laura’s life, and to help set the scene before Glynnis comes to some big conclusions in our series finale. Go deeper: Caroline Fraser’s Prairie Fires Follow us for behind the scenes content! @WilderPodcast on TikTok@Wilder_Podcast on Instagram We want to hear from you! If listening to Wilder has changed your thinking on Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books, send a voice memo to wilderpodcast@gmail.com. You might be featured in our final episode ;) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Jack Kerouac but make it a girl with braids. Carrie Bradshaw, but without the sex, and also braids. An American Icon. An American Odyssey. American propaganda. Violently so, in some cases. Laura Ingalls Wilder is evergreen. For better or worse. Since the first Little House book was published in 1932, generations of readers have flocked to Laura’s cozy stories of the Ingalls family settling the Western frontier. The series inspired a TV show, pageants, and entire fashion lines. Behind this franchise is a woman who experienced almost a full century of American history. She’d made her first trips in a covered wagon, and eventually flew on a jet plane. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and legacy remain as powerful, mesmerizing, controversial, and violent as the America she represents. In a country currently at odds with itself and its history could there be a better time for an exploration of this woman?