1. Why is Laura Ingalls Wilder called a late bloomer in the story
Answers
Explanation:
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Late Bloomer On The Prairie
Laura Rowley
Most people know Laura Ingalls Wilder as author of the beloved "Little House on the Prairie" children's books. What fans may not know is how late in life Wilder bloomed as a writer. After more than two decades as a farm wife, she became a newspaper columnist in her 40s. She wrote her first book, an autobiography called "Pioneer Girl," in her 60s. When Wilder couldn't find a publisher for the work, which chronicled her early life on the frontier in the late 19th century, she re-worked the material, transforming it into the first "Little House" novel.
Author Pamela Smith Hill grew up in rural Missouri, 40 miles from the farm where Wilder wrote her series. "I was fascinated by the idea that the Laura in the books went on to become the Laura who wrote them," she says. In 1980, Hill wrote a story for the South Dakota tourism bureau about a centennial celebration in De Smet, where the Ingalls family had lived. "There were several old timers who remembered the Ingalls family well -- a few had even known Laura's parents," she recalls.
Although Hill left the job, she kept the interview notes -- pulling them out nearly a quarter-century later to use in her biography of Wilder, published in 2007. Hill also quoted extensively from "Pioneer Girl," which she found in the archives at an Iowa library. Hill was besieged by Wilder fans who wanted to know how to get a copy of Wilder's unpublished autobiography. So in 2015, Hill edited and published "Pioneer Girl: An Annotated Biography," which became a New York Times Bestseller. I recently spoke with Hill about Wilder's real-life adventures and why her work is so enduring.
Wilder's autobiography covers 16 years of the Ingalls family's moves through Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakota Territory in the late 1800s. Talk about some of the major challenges she faced as a child.
The Ingalls family faced famine and economic hardships, and yet ultimately came through. What is clear in her autobiography was that the real family was just as loving and devoted to each other as the fictional Ingalls family is in the "Little House" books. Most readers of the "Little House" books would be surprised to find out "Pioneer Girl" does not open in the big woods of Wisconsin, it opens in Indian Territory in Kansas. [That's when] she began to form a real connection with the West, the idea of the prairie, and wide open spaces; but also with hard work. Later, when she was teenager, her older sister Mary lost her sight. That probably influenced Wilder's gift for description, which she uses so beautifully.
At 18, Laura married Almanzo Wilder. Talk about that period of her life, and what you admire most about the adult Wilder.
What I really admire is her grit and her grace. In the first nine years of their marriage, the hardships came fast and furious: They lost their farm; they lost an infant son; both Laura and Almanzo had diphtheria, and Almanzo never completely recovered. Wilder emerges as a young woman who was very graceful and plucky under fire. Despite the hardships that she and Almanzo endured, from all the correspondence we have between the two of them, they had a very good marriage. She worked hard beside her husband as a farm wife and took a great deal of fulfillment in the partnership that they forged. They continually struggled to make their dreams come true.