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Summary
Summary
"If you loved Wilder's books, or if you garden with a child who loves her books, you will enjoy the read." -- San Francisco Chronicle
In this revealing exploration of Laura Ingalls Wilder's deep connection with the natural world, Marta McDowell follows the wagon trail of the beloved Little House series. You'll learn details about Wilder's life and inspirations, pinpoint the Ingalls and Wilder homestead claims on authentic archival maps, and learn how to grow the plants and vegetables featured in the series. Excerpts from Wilder's books, letters, and diaries bring to light her profound appreciation for the landscapes at the heart of her world.
Featuring the beloved illustrations by Helen Sewell and Garth Williams, plus hundreds of historic and contemporary photographs, The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a treasure that honors Laura's wild and beautiful life.
Author Notes
Marta McDowell's writing has appeared in The New York Times , Woman's Day, Country Gardening , and elsewhere . Her previous books include Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life , All the Presidents' Gardens , The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder , Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life , and Unearthing The Secret Garden . She consults for public gardens and private clients, writes and lectures on gardening topics, and teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, where she studied landscape design. She lives, writes, and gardens in Chatham, New Jersey.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
McDowell (Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life) commemorates the 150th birthday of Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957) with a captivating look at the beloved Little House on the Prairie author's relationship with nature. Mining her subject's novels and memoir for insights, McDowell traces Wilder's interest in wildlife to the beginning of her childhood in the Wisconsin woods-the setting for her first novel, Little House in the Big Woods-and then follows the chronology of the autobiographical Little House novels, providing a historical account of each book's setting. In describing the ecosystems along the prairies, McDowell catalogues the various wildflowers that Wilder likely encountered when her family traveled across country. Maps, illustrations (including the beloved Garth Williams drawings from Wilder's books), and photographs add a touch of nostalgia and aid readers in identifying the plants and geography described. McDowell's warm descriptions of the author, her times, and the plants she loved provide a wonderful companion to Wilder's books, while instructions on growing a Little House-inspired garden add an interactive component. Gardeners, botanists, and fans of Wilder will love this book. Color illus. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Laura Ingalls Wilder's famous Little House books are notable for their richly realized settings. And it is those settings the natural world that informs the Little House books that provide the subject of McDowell's own book. The author visits each of the places that inspired the eight books, giving the reader not only biographical material but also a careful examination of the fauna and, especially, the flora of each location. In the second part of her book, she offers suggestions for a tour of the Wilder gardens and tips for growing a Wilder garden, including a multipage inventory of plants that Wilder knew and grew. The book is pleasantly written, with the occasional nice turn of phrase: acorns, with their concentrated energy, are a sort of Red Bull for tree sprouts. It is also lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps, and, notably, a selection of Helen Sewell's and Garth Williams' illustrations from the Little House books. Though not for every reader, the book is a feast of opportunity for dedicated Wilder fans and enthusiastic gardeners everywhere.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2017 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Readers who fondly remember Laura -Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books will delight in this biography from McDowell, who teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, which examines the natural world from Wilder's point of view. Moving from the big woods of Pepin, WI, to the De Smet prairie in Dakota Territory to Wilder's adult home at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, MO, as well as numerous other locations in between, McDowell follows the beloved author from childhood, when she explored and chronicled plants and animals, both wild and domestic. A chapter describes the New York boyhood of Wilder's husband, Almanzo. Charming line drawings along with both color and black-and-white photographs lavishly illustrate the lives and surroundings of the Wilders and their daughter, Rose, as they settled and farmed land in wildly different landscapes. An appendix lists the plants that Laura knew and grew and identifies the books in which they are mentioned. VERDICT A well-researched, beautifully illustrated title that entwines the natural world depicted in Wilder's books with her life as a settler, farmer, and writer.-Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove P.L., IL © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Preface Some decades ago when I fit the criteria of Young Adult reader, I was Laura Ingalls. That is, when I wasn't Nancy Drew or, somewhat later, a foot-stamping Scarlett O'Hara. Laura spoke her mind, rode black ponies bareback, helped Pa with the haying, and pushed off her sunbonnet. Besides, I had the genetic creds for Laura. My mother grew up in the middle of the Illinois prairie, became a teacher, and taught in a one-room country schoolhouse, just like Laura and Ma Ingalls. Her family inspired my love of gardening and my confidence with canning jars. My father was a farm boy from Henry County, Kentucky, whose stories included the Christmas crate of oranges--the single gift shared among his family of nine--and walking to school unless the creek was too high, in which case they rode the mule. It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that I realized that the first family car of my memory, a mammoth black Hudson sedan dubbed "Old Jenny," had been named after a mule of his youth. Born in 1867, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote a bumper crop of books for young readers. Farming, gardening, and nature were backdrops and key plot elements for every volume in the series. Originally published between 1932 and 1943, the eight novels chronicle growing up in the Wisconsin woods and on the prairies of Kansas, Minnesota, and South Dakota over a twenty-year period starting in the late 1860s. It was a coming of age story for a girl and reflected the coming of age of a nation, as homesteaders spread west from the Mississippi. Beyond history, her books were about natural history. Laura discussed weather and land forms. She observed plants and the animals that depended on them. She foraged wild berries and picked wildflowers. And long before she was a writer, Laura Ingalls Wilder was a gardener and farmer, growing food for the table and raising crops for sale. She lived the farmer's covenant with the wider natural world, tending soil, plants, and animals to sustain herself and her family. For many of us, Wilder's books introduced us to a life in and dependent on nature. Never was germination so eagerly awaited or crop failure so devastating. Her stories, predating reality TV by decades, often read like some sort of Survivor: Prairie Edition . Yet despite grasshopper plague, drought, fire, twister, and blizzard, her love of nature shines through, buoyant with optimism. Nature, in her world, is its own character, one with a definite if sometimes unstable personality. It isn't too much of a stretch to group Laura Ingalls Wilder with America's nature writers. Nature was her home, as well as little houses. Readers of her books become budding naturalists. The actions of the Ingalls and Wilder families take place in different parts of the country with different ecosystems, and the stories demonstrate the results of changes to the land. The series sows a deep appreciation for the world outside one's own door. Now that I am approaching the age at which Laura Ingalls Wilder started writing her memoir and novels, I found that exploring her works became a personal time machine. She opened a portal into my own melting pot of memory as I explored the places and plants of her life. I've organized this book in two parts. After a short prologue, "A Life on the Land" follows the trail of Wilder's plant, farm, and garden interests intertwined with her life story. If you're a Wilder fan, you will find a familiar order, as it follows the sequence of the Little House books chronologically and geographically. I urge you to read or reread them alongside. Three additional chapters cover the Wilders at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri, and the other places that her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, gardened. The second part of the book, "Wilder Gardens," is for the traveler who wants to hop into the wagon and travel to Wilder and "wilder" gardens across America, and for the gardener--aspirational or experienced--who would like to grow the plants that Laura grew and knew, with a catalog of specifics including botanical names. And speaking of "Laura," I hope she would excuse the familiarity. In her day, even Almanzo did not address her by her first name until after they were engaged. After that, Miss Ingalls became Mrs. Wilder. But because she shared herself with so many who got to know her character first-hand, a chapter at a time, Laura is the name I will use when referring to her as a person, reserving Wilder for her professional name as a writer. Excerpted from The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Landscapes of the American Frontier That Inspired the Little House Books by Marta McDowell All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
Preface | p. 8 |
Prologue | p. 10 |
A Life on the Land | p. 13 |
Clearing the Land: The Wisconsin Woods | p. 15 |
Preparing the Soil: A New York Farm | p. 43 |
Harrowing: The Prairie of Kansas, Indian Territory | p. 73 |
Making a Better Garden: Creekside in Minnesota and Iowa | p. 99 |
Ripening: The Dakota Prairie | p. 135 |
Reaping: Settled Farm and Settled Town | p. 171 |
Threshing: Prom Great Plains to Ozark Ridges | p. 201 |
Saving Seed: Rocky Ridge Farm | p. 229 |
Putting Food By: The Rock House and the Farmhouse | p. 261 |
Wilder Gardens | p. 297 |
Visiting Wilder Gardens | p. 301 |
Growing a Wilder Garden | p. 329 |
Source Abbreviations | p. 336 |
Plants for a Wilder Garden | p. 338 |
Recommended Reading | p. 353 |
Sources and Citations | p. 358 |
Acknowledgments | p. 376 |
Photo and Illustration Credits | p. 380 |
Index | p. 382 |