OT, OOPRe: In defense of Little House (was SC - Big birds on the medieval plate)

[Bonne of Traquair]

>From: Mary_HallSheahan at ademco.com
>
><<a very good politically correct and inaccurate show >>
>Hi Ras--
>Yes, most television is sloppy--but have you read the books the show was
>based on?  They're a wonderful resource for anyone who is at all interested
>in 19th century frontier life.  The books are first-hand
autobiography.
>Not much on plot perhaps but who cares when you get instructions on maple
>syruping, cheesemaking, chip-carving, sewing bedsheets, etc.
>
>Mmmmm, primary sources!  Wish we had one of these for 14th century
>Windsor...
>Emme

The usefulness as references on cheesemaking etc is limited, after all it's 
her memories from childhood, not exact instructions.  Laura's writings for 
local newspapers re: chicken raising and other farmwoman tasks are probably 
more useful for these purposes, though of course they reflect the turn of 
the century research from the land-grant Universities and a secondary source 
to the works published and I'm sure still available through those same 
Universities.

As for being non-political: The books were published 1931-43 and Laura was 
greatly instructed and edited by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who also 
served as her agent. The books clearly reflect Rose's politics and there is 
evidence in their letters of Laura objecting to this but losing the battles. 
   For instance, the books give the impression that Laura studied hard to 
become a teacher in order to help her parent's pay for Mary's special 
training at the school for the blind.  Not so, at that time in the Dakota 
territories and later after statehood, blind students were entitled to free 
training, didn't cost her parents, or Laura, a penny. Rose retired to her 
farm in 1938 and refused to do any work which generated money that she would 
have to pay income taxes on which would support state socialism such as 
Roosevelt's New Deal.

(Of course, this does not eliminate the possibility of elminating personal 
bitterness.  On re-reading the book as an adult, I get the impression that 
ensuring Mary could keep up appearances (so to speak) by dressing fasionably 
and affording trinkets etc as could other girls was important.  It may be 
that Laura was paying for THAT, and herself or Rose was resenting it all 
those years later.)

Rose and Laura's correspondence and papers relating to the writing of the 
series are collected at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library:  
http://www.hoover.nara.gov/research/wilder/index.html

Also, read: "The Ghost in the Little House, A Life of Rose Wilder Lane"; 
William Holtz; Missouri Biography Series, William E. Foley, Editor 1995. 448 
pp. 6 1/8 x 9 1/4. Index. Appendix. Illus. ISBN 0-8262-1015-5. $18.95t 
paper.

Other Works by William Holtz: Dorothy Thompson and Rose Wilder Lane: Forty 
Years of Friendship, Letters, 1921-1960


Bonne



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