Little House books S/O thread

[ica171]

Has anyone read "The Wilder Life"? I went to my library to check it out about a month ago, but it was out and I haven't been back yet. It's about a woman who traces the story of the books and tries to have a pioneer experience. (That's based on the Amazon synopsis, so I might be off a little.) This thread is making me think I should stop at the library today after I pick the kids up from school.

[Firecat]

Has anyone read "The Wilder Life"? I went to my library to check it out about a month ago, but it was out and I haven't been back yet. It's about a woman who traces the story of the books and tries to have a pioneer experience. (That's based on the Amazon synopsis, so I might be off a little.) This thread is making me think I should stop at the library today after I pick the kids up from school.

It's on my desk right now in fact - I'm not very far into it, but it's very fun so far. I'll try to remember to  come back and post further comments when I've finished it.

[2littlemonkeys]

Ha!  I just put that on hold via Overdrive.  I can't wait to get it.

[ica171]

It was in this time, so I grabbed it. Hopefully I can start it as soon as I get the kids fed.

[2littlemonkeys]

I have been to Mansfield, De Smet, and Walnut Grove .  It was so cool to stand at the site of the dugout (now caved in), and to see the modern barn built with the wood from Pa's wooden house.  In De Smet, I attended the yearly play based on the books (the story changes yearly), held out on the homestead claim.  The five cottonwood trees that Pa planted are still there.  I recommend all three sites, and hope to go back myself.

I especially recommend Allison Arngrim's book, "Confessions of a Prairie (female dog)".  She is hilarious, and apparently despite the animosity between Nellie and Laura in the series, the actresses were, and are, the best of friends.  Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary) comes across as a real pill to be around.

I just read "Confessions of a Prairie [redacted]" and really enjoyed it.  She is a very strong woman.

[rose red]

I just read "Confessions of a Prairie [redacted]" and really enjoyed it.  She is a very strong woman.

That's the best of the autobiographies by the Little House actresses.  Melissa Gilberts book is good and interesting, but it's more about her life than about her time on the show.  Melissa Sue Anderson's was just plain boring.

I'm waiting for Melissa Francis' (Cassandra) book to be available in the library.  I don't expect much stories about the show since she wasn't a big part of the show, but it sounds interesting.

Melissa sure was a popular name during that era.

[MissRose]

I have been to Mansfield, De Smet, and Walnut Grove .  It was so cool to stand at the site of the dugout (now caved in), and to see the modern barn built with the wood from Pa's wooden house.  In De Smet, I attended the yearly play based on the books (the story changes yearly), held out on the homestead claim.  The five cottonwood trees that Pa planted are still there.  I recommend all three sites, and hope to go back myself.

I especially recommend Allison Arngrim's book, "Confessions of a Prairie (female dog)".  She is hilarious, and apparently despite the animosity between Nellie and Laura in the series, the actresses were, and are, the best of friends.  Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary) comes across as a real pill to be around.

I just read "Confessions of a Prairie [redacted]" and really enjoyed it.  She is a very strong woman.

I liked reading Alison's book.  Melissa Gilbert's book was okay.  I like the tv series but know its not completely based 100% on the books.

I've enjoyed reading Laura's books and books related to them since I was a child, and still do to this day as an adult.    I still have my LHOTP series in paperback, and even took them with me when I went to uni and the several moves of places I've made as an adult. 

[BB-VA]

It has been said that you can tell what kind of Little House fan a person is by the way they pronounce Almanzo's name - if you say AlMONzo, you're a TV fan; AlMANzo, you're a book fan.



PS.  Laura said AlMANzo, when she was being formal.  She called him Manly the rest of the time.

[rose red]

It has been said that you can tell what kind of Little House fan a person is by the way they pronounce Almanzo's name - if you say AlMONzo, you're a TV fan; AlMANzo, you're a book fan.

I like the books much better, but I say alMONzo because that's what I heard first.

[Sedorna]

You guys have inspired me to reread the series again. I'm in the middle of Big Woods and...this is not good for my diet. 

From memory, my favorite book is On the Banks of Plum Creek. I remember being white-knuckled when Laura fell into the creek, and disappointed when they moved from the dugout to the house. The dugout was cool. The roof had grass growing on it, and you could play on it. The house was just an ordinary house.

I also remember really wanting a penny in my Christmas stocking, just like Laura got. I never got one, but I thought that would be the most awesome thing ever. I was another one of those people who wanted to live back then. Everything seemed so much better. Ma's butter must be better then the store-bought butter I got. People were, for the most part, friendly. It would have been great living back then, I decided. Well, until I read the Long Winter. And that was because of the boredom.

The book wasn't boring. Far from it. But the part where Laura sits in front of a fire and braids hay all day long, over and over again, struck a cord with me. I was too used to the comforts of modern life. I couldn't live back then.

Does anybody else like Garth Williams' illustrations as much as the actual text? When I think about my favorite scenes, his pictures are  just as important as Laura's texts? Laura cutting her hair, Laura playing blind-man's bluff, Almanzo sitting on a haystack, Laura rocking the school bench, young Nellie pulling Laura's hair, Mary dressed up in her going-away-to-college outfit. And so on.

[Redsoil]

The illustrations capture the spirit of the moments perfectly, to my way of thinking!

[Hillia]

For those interested in historical artifacts, Almanzo's homestead claim has been scanned and posted:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/01/07/laura_ingalls_wilder_husband_claimed_homestead_in_1884.html

[Elfmama]

There's a bit in By the Shores of Silver Lake (I think) where one of their female relative is complaining about her husband being stiffed on his pay after he 'worked like a nailer'.  That phrase didn't make much sense to me as a child; it wasn't until years later that I realized it was probably a euphemism.

I believe that the original was not a euphemism, but the actual 'n-word.'  And lacking access to pre-1960's versions, I can't check to see.  However, I've been re-reading a lot of the stuff that I read as a child, that is now in public domain and on Project Gutenberg, and cringing at the casual racism that flew right over my head as a child. The episode in Little Town, and the blackfaced minstrel show for instance.  A lot of blacks were portrayed very similarly in pre-'60's books; shuffling, childlike primitives who spoke nothing but ... well, lacking a PC term, I'm going to call it "Mammy-speak" after the GWTW character.  (Abject apologies to anyone I've inadvertently offended!) "Dese chillun ain' nebbah gonna pay yo' no min'," when "These children ain't never gonna pay you no mind" would have done just as well.

I remember being totally shocked that the aunt and uncle in the episode stole everything that they could lay their hands on, and it was somehow okay because the uncle had been stiffed.

[Elfmama]

With the baby boys- I did know that Caroline and Laura and Rose had all lost sons. When my son was born in 2011 I thought of them. I found myself crying over the loss of Laura's two month old, when my DS was two months, and again over Freddie when my DS was 10 months old. I can imagine their pain now and it's horrible. 
I found an interesting snippet though- although Laura & Almanzo apparently never named their baby boy, Grace kept a diary now and then when they were in South Dakota. There's an entry that reads "Laura's baby died, he looked just like Almanzo."  Poor little boy.

According to the Zochert book, Laura's son was born in August of 1889 and lived for 12 days.  He was unnamed, and died of convulsions. 

Zochert stated that Laura "hadn't thought to pick a name for him," making her sound uncaring.  I doubt that was the case at all.  I suspect that whatever killed the poor little baby was apparent from birth, and that the family didn't name him because they didn't think that he was going to live.

And she may have wanted to name her son after her husband and/or father, so she had no other names picked out.  It was considered unlucky to give subsequent children the name(s) of a child who had died.  She probably expected that she would have other sons, since they were both young.  And if there was something significantly wrong with this child, she didn't want to waste the names.

I think even so, they should have named the poor baby something.   

[guihong]

With the baby boys- I did know that Caroline and Laura and Rose had all lost sons. When my son was born in 2011 I thought of them. I found myself crying over the loss of Laura's two month old, when my DS was two months, and again over Freddie when my DS was 10 months old. I can imagine their pain now and it's horrible. 
I found an interesting snippet though- although Laura & Almanzo apparently never named their baby boy, Grace kept a diary now and then when they were in South Dakota. There's an entry that reads "Laura's baby died, he looked just like Almanzo."  Poor little boy.

According to the Zochert book, Laura's son was born in August of 1889 and lived for 12 days.  He was unnamed, and died of convulsions. 

Zochert stated that Laura "hadn't thought to pick a name for him," making her sound uncaring.  I doubt that was the case at all.  I suspect that whatever killed the poor little baby was apparent from birth, and that the family didn't name him because they didn't think that he was going to live.

And she may have wanted to name her son after her husband and/or father, so she had no other names picked out.  It was considered unlucky to give subsequent children the name(s) of a child who had died.  She probably expected that she would have other sons, since they were both young.  And if there was something significantly wrong with this child, she didn't want to waste the names.

I think even so, they should have named the poor baby something.   

I don't think naming the baby after her father or husband (not that I think he wanted a son named after him) would be "wasted".  In my family tree are plenty of babies who died young, and if the parents had a child of the same gender later, they tried again with the same name  .