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Minnesota Humanities Commission

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Biographical Notes

Date of birth: February 7, 1867, Pepin, Wisconsin
Date of death: February 10, 1957, Mansfield, Missouri

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder. Author, editor, and columnist. Homesteaded with parents and sisters in Pepin, Wisconsin, 1867-69 and 1871-73; Montgomery County, Kansas, 1869-71; Plum Creek (near Walnut Grove) and Walnut Grove (Redwood County), Minnesota, 1874-76 and 1877-80; Burr Oak, Iowa, 1876-77; Silver Lake (later DeSmet), South Dakota (Dakota Territory), 1880-90; Spring Valley (Fillmore County), Minnesota, 1890; and Florida, 1891. Worked as seamstress in DeSmet, 1891-94; farmed at Rocky Ridge Farm, Mansfield, Missouri, 1894-1957. Columnist for periodicals, 1911-32, including as household editor of the Missouri Realist, 1911-23. Author of nine children's books, most based directly on her life experiences; all were immensely popular chronicles of frontier life on the prairie in the 1870s-80s. Received the Newbery Honor Book award, 1940, 1941, and 1942, and the Henry Hartman Young Readers Award from Pacific Northwest Library Association, 1939. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was established by the Children's Library Association in 1954. The popular television series "Little House on the Prairie," 1974-84 (now in syndication), was based on her stories of growing up in Walnut Grove. Married Almanzo J. Wilder and had one daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who was also an author. Her family genealogy can be traced back through her father, Charles P. Ingalls, to the early 1500s (see the book The Pepin Story of the Ingalls Family).

Selected Works

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Additional Resources

Sources used to prepare this author entry

The following bibliography may include links to Web sites that are no longer operable or have changed location. The sources are shown as they existed in the fall of 1999 when the entries were compiled.
  • Anderson, William. The Horn Book's Laura Ingalls Wilder. Boston: Horn Book, 1987.
  • Horn Book Magazine. Dec. 1953, Vol. 29, no. 6, p. 386.
  • Kitzmiller, Jacquelyn A. "Laura Ingalls Wilder: Her Life and Work." Masters Thesis, University of Minnesota, 1963.
  • Lichty, Irene. The Ingalls Family from Plum Creek to Walnut Grove via Burr Oak, Iowa. Mansfield, Mo.: Laura Ingalls Wilder-Rose Wilder Lane Home and Museum, 1970.
  • "Little House on the Prairie Episode Guide," 8 July 1996. Online. Accessed 11 Jan. 2000. http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/1340/LHOTPepisode_guide.html
  • "Little House on the Prairie: The Homepage," 27 June 1996. Online. Accessed 11 Jan. 2000. http://www.angelfire.com/tx/LittleHouse/index.html
  • Mooney-Getoff, Mary J. Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Bibliography. Southold, N.Y.: Wise Owl Press, 1980.
  • Notable American Women: The Modern Period. Cambridge, Mass. Belknap Press of Harvard Unviersity Press, 1980.
  • The Pepin Story of the Ingalls Family. Mansfield, Mo.: Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association, 1967.
  • Preview. Sept. 1974, Vol. 8, no. 9, p. 9. Collegeville, Minn.: Minnesota Public Radio, 1974.
  • St. Paul Pioneer Press, 24 June 1973, Family Life Section, p. 1.
  • Smith, Dorothy. The Wilder Family Story. Saranac Lake, NY: Currier Press, Inc., 1972.
  • Who Was Who in America. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1951-1960.
  • Zochert, Donald. Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1976.
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