Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder

As a young girl, I read all of the books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder so naturally I watched and thoroughly enjoyed each and every episode of Little House on the Prairie. As a matter of fact, I know that this is a series, both in book and television form, which I returned to again and again and again reading the books until they were well worn and watching the shows that continue to appear in reruns even today.

It was therefore with great interest that I read the news this week about the coming of a new Laura Ingalls Wilder book called Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography. I guess I did not know much about Wilder before now as this was the first time I heard that Wilder first wrote a manuscript that was a truer documentation of her life as a child and that was meant for adults, which she later broke down into a children's story. That story or those books went on to become the books we now know as the Little House books.

On this page, read a bit more about Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, the television program Little House on the Prairie and the upcoming book, Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography. Once the book is published and I have had a chance to review it, I will be sure to come back here and add my thoughts.

Click here to order your copy of Pioneer Girl from Amazon.

There is a more basic paperback series of the Little House books available but if I were looking to present someone with a copy of these stories, I would consider gifting this handsome leatherbound volume. It includes the first five books: Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek and By the Shores of Silver Lake and retails for less than $20 on Amazon.

Laura Ingalls Wilder lived from February 7, 1867 to February 10, 1957.

Tough times in the 1930s and the loss of family members prompted her to record the story of her growing up years, which she spent on the prairies in Minnesota during the 1870s and 1880s. She decided to publish her work as a means of bringing some much-needed money into her household.

As mentioned above, her original manuscript told her real life story and was written for adults. The story that was eventually published by Harper & Brothers in 1932 was a condensed down version appropriate for children and was called when Grandma Was a Little Girl. At the request of her publisher, Wilder expanded her story and created the Little House series as we know it today.

The books tell the story of Charles and Caroline Ingalls and their family, which consisted of three girls named Mary, Laura and Carrie.

The titles in the series include:

• Little House in the Big Woods
• Farmer Boy
• Little House on the Prairie
• On the Banks of Plum Creek
• By the Shores of Silver Lake
• The Long Winter
• Little Town on the Prairie
• These Happy Golden Years
• On the Way Home
• West from Home
• The Road Back
• A Little House Sampler
• Writings to Young Women – Volumes 1 - 3
• A Little House Reader: A Collection of Writings
• Laura Ingalls Wilder & Rose Wilder Lane
• Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings
• Laura's Album

It seems like a pretty good price to me considering the fact that it is for the complete series, making it an excellent gift choice for a woman you know who grew up with and loved the series as well as for someone you would like to introduce to it.

The television version of the Little House stories was called The Little House on the Prairie. It launched with a two-hour pilot move in 1974 and was followed that same year by the series that would eventually run until 1984. Young girls like me literally grew up with this television program that shared Wilder's story as the books did, in a family friendly manner.

To me and to many others, the five main actors that appeared in the program (Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush) as well as numerous others who played supporting roles, literally became the characters they played, the Ingalls.

The series was so popular that the episode called "I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away" made it to number 71 on TV Guide’s 1997 list of the Top 100 Episodes of All Time.

You can buy your copy of Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography from Amazon, which was released on November 20, 2014.

The real childhood story of children's author Laura Ingalls Wilder.

According to various news sources, Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography tells the unedited story of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life. The real story. That is, one that has not been altered to protect the innocent or the children who are going to be reading it.

According to The National Post, this uncensored autobiography will reveal that "sex, booze and wife beating (were) a part of the real Little House on the Prairie." It will share Wilder’s true childhood story, blemishes and all. It is a non-fiction work that will also include all of Wilder's original misspellings and peculiarities.