The Life of Laura: The Relevance of Publishing the Laura Ingalls Wilder Family Correspondence

Tammy  Garza

English 226

American   Lit  to 1855

Professor   Coronado

The Life of Laura

The Relevance of Publishing the Laura Ingalls Wilder Family Correspondence

The life and times of  the Ingall's family have captured the hearts and imaginations of many generations.  Many of us know about the pioneer story from reading the Little House books or watching the television series.  There are not many venues that have  brought history alive for so many children the way Laura Ingalls Wilder's stories did. Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in Pepin Wisconsin in 1867. Her family moved throughout the midwest. Laura started writing her books, at her daughter’s request when she was in her sixties. She wrote nine books in all  about her life as a pioneer girl (discover laura website).

These letters from the family correspondence of the Ingalls Wilder should be published,  the relevance is in that it explores our history as  a country, but also for many of us it is tied to our own personal history.  I remember reading the books, dressing up as Laura for Halloween and watching the television series.  I have done the same things with my own children and seen history come alive for them as I shared part of my childhood with them.

This much beloved author and books is still relevent and widely read and studied today. Little House sites and historic museums and fairs are all over the midwest where Laura lived.  Thousands of visitors each year come to visit and explore the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first Little House book in 1932. The series gives children an important glimpse of what pioneer life was like. It shows the struggles they faced but also shows the joys they had as well.  The books are still  extremely popular today and have spun off new series from the originally ones she wrote. The books have been around for eighty two years and they are still loved by children and grownups alike.  The television series celebrated its forty year annivesary on September 14th and it still can be seen in syndication.  The relevance of a body of literature that can inspire such a following speaks in and of itself as to why the Laura Ingall’s Wilder Family Correspondence should be published.

I also see the significance of sharing the letters to show a more realistic view of what life was like for the Ingalls family.  The Little House series is obviously a series written with children as its target audience , while it does show the hardships of frontier life it does  do it in a way that is appropriate for children.  The Ingalls Family Correspondence shows a more realistic account  of what was taking place, a less sugar coated version . In the Little House Series, we heard about Scarlet Fever but in the letters we see a vivid picture how it affects someone: “ You asked me to describe the disease Ma had, but I don't know as I can. They called it the Scarlet Dyptheria [scarlet fever]. She was of a scarlet red from head to foot and of a burning heat, and when she began to get better the skin came off all over her. She could peel it off in large pieces; all her finger nails came off and as I told you before she has not the full use of two of them yet. She suffered much. You cannot imagine nor I describe how much. “  ( Letter to Martha Quiner Carpenter, Oct. 6, 1861, The Laura Ingalls Wilder Family Correspondence). This passage shows in detail the horrors of this disease that is only mentioned in The Little House Books.

The books are still relevant to scholars today.  There was a great debate as to whether or not Mary Ingalls had become blind due to the scarlet fever as was stated in her books.  Researches studied historical documents and came to the conclusion that this was not true.  “Herein, we examine the plausibility of scarlet fever as the cause of Mary Ingalls’ blindness by systematically analyzing biographical documents, local newspapers, school registries, and epidemiologic data on blindness and infectious disease in the years when Mary and Laura Ingalls were children. We conclude that Mary’s blindness was probably caused not by scarlet fever but by viral meningoencephalitis” (Blindness in Walnut Grove: How Did Mary Ingalls Lose Her Sight?) This article was reported on by news stations, newspapers and magazines.  

The relevance of these books to readers and fans worldwide would provide a more than adequate audience for publishing of the letters from the family.  Laura Ingalls Wilder first wrote a autobiography, “Pioneer Girl” that was thought inappropriate to publish. The book was turned instead to the children’s series of books.  “The Pioneer Girl” was just released in November of 2014 by the he South Dakota Historical Society Press. This highly awaited book will arrive in book stores shorty. It has been a much publicized release. US News Today did an article on it speaking with the publisher, "In terms of scope — nothing less than the total illumination of a critical literary work that gave birth to one of the greatest and most influential classics of American literature — the project is breathtaking for us, and we hope that it will be for readers, too," said Koupal” (US News Today, Ellis).  This classic of American Literature is still relevant today as it was when the books were first published.  The interest in them as shown by the publication and excitement of this recent release has not diminished.  

The Letters are also interesting as a reference to the Little House Books. The letters bring to life characters and situations that are written about in the the series, such as Aunt Martha and Uncle Charles who lived by them in Pepin , Wisconsin in the Little House in the Big Woods.

The letters, sixty-seven of them in all covers a thirty year period which gives a snapshot of history from eyewitness points of view. I found these letters on the Recollection Wisconsin Site.  The letters are written by Aunts , Uncles and the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The letters describe hardship, war and the events that were taking place in the mid to late 1800’s. The first letter from Laura’s mother Caroline to her sister, is written on October 6, 1861, six years before Laura is born. .

The first letter from Caroline Ingalls to her sister and brother shows the hardships that the families faced.  First they are stricken by the scarlett fever, then Father Ingalls, Eliza and Peter are forced to move off their land because Father Ingalls can no longer work the land because he is too old and ill.  “Father Ingalls folks have gone up to the head waters of the Baraboo River. They started last Tuesday. They felt very bad about leaving their place and it was too bad. They were too old to be moving; but Pa did his best to save it but he could not. Peter and Eliza have gone with them” (Recollection Wisconsin, Ingalls). This letter shows a realistic view of how the family is impacted by what they face.

The historical references in the letters give personal emphasis and encounters to historical terms and situations.  The war is shown from a personal point of view, “We stayed there but a short time, when we struck tents and we marched twenty two miles south to Harpers Ferry, the place where the John Brown Tragedy was enacted. The country around Harpers Ferry is quite different country from what I expected to See, it is decidedly a hard looking place and a hard looking country around it. The armory at the Ferry has been burnt down with about half of the town, has been burnt by the Rebles who vacated that place on hearing of the aproach of our troops” (Recollection Wisconsin).  These letters give a first person account to events that happened in our history.

The Letters from the family of Laura Ingalls Wilder brings to life an important period of American History.  Like “The Little House Books” they bring relevance to a time of growth and strife in our country.   These letters also give more insight into a much beloved author’s life and personal history.  These letters would have mass appeal to generations of fans, who fell in love with the little pioneer girl. Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Works Cited

Wilder. "Laura Ingalls Wilder Family Correspondence." Laura Ingalls Wilder Family Correspondence (2011): 1-67. Recollection Wisconsin. Web. 16 Sept. 2014. <http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/quiner/id/46269>.

Allexan, Sarah S., BA, Carrie L. Byington, MD, Jerome I. Finkelstein, MD, and Beth A. Tarini, MD. "Blindness in Walnut Grove: How Did Mary Ingalls Lose Her Sight?" Blindness in Walnut Grove: How Did Mary Ingalls Lose Her Sight? N.p., 4 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.

"Laura Ingalls Wilder's Autobiography Reveals the Rough Truth." NY Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.