""I understand that in my own life, I represented a whole period of
American history.""
As Laura Ingalls Wilder realized they would, her widely loved
stories of her prairie childhood have become much more than a
nostalgic blend of myth, memories, and autobiography. Historically,
John Miller reveals, they have much to tell us about the realities
of day-to-day living and attitudes in the nineteenth century.
History and literature are closely intertwined, Miller contends,
and in this book he illustrates how Wilder's novels enhance our
understanding of history and how, simultaneously, a historical
perspective framed Wilder's fiction. Wilder, he shows, interwove
content and form to produce a sentimental and compelling, yet
nuanced and believable, picture of family life on the agricultural
frontier.
Focusing on Wilder's novels set in and around De Smet, South
Dakota, which include "By the Shores of Silver Lake" and "Little
Town on the Prairie," Miller compares her fictional world to
history recorded in census figures, newspaper accounts, county
records, maps, and photographs. He illustrates that, although
Wilder sacrificed some historical details for simplicity and drama,
she preserved a general accuracy of people, places, events, and
customs and depicted many facets of late nineteenth-century life,
from food and entertainment to work ethics and education.
Miller also addresses the controversy over the authorship of the
eight novels attributed to Wilder--was she the true author or were
they ghostwritten by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane? He contends
that while Lane's editorial contribution was of great value, the
voice in the book belongs to Wilder. The books are filled with her
interpretations of the truth as influenced by the time period in
which she grew up and the culture--the institutions, gossip,
informal community pressure, media, stories, songs, roles, and
stereotypes--that surrounded her.
Providing a glimpse of prairie life through the eyes of a young
girl, Wilder's novels are as historically valid as their nonfiction
cousins, Miller argues. Hers is a lived history--a sometimes
romantic, sometimes observational account of the joys and
frustrations of life on the prairie and a reflection of the
westward movement in its prime.
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