little house on the prairie complete series amazon

MARY INGALLS PROBABLY DIDN'T HAVE SCARLET FEVER.Įveryone knows the story of how Mary Ingalls contracted scarlet fever and lost her sight permanently. When writing the book, Laura decided to have Jack die peacefully in his sleep-perhaps in a way she could control, as opposed to the uncertain fate of her real-life dog. JACK, LAURA'S DOG, DIDN'T LEAVE KANSAS.Īw, Jack! Laura’s happy little puppy pal! Though faithful Jack tracks the fictional Laura through the books until she becomes an adolescent, Laura revealed in Pioneer Girl, the original autobiography that formed the basis for the books, that he was actually left behind in Kansas when Pa traded him for some horses and ponies. The result is a sense of wanderlust and movement that gives the series its structure. Nonetheless, Laura and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, who heavily edited and helped develop the first books, decided that the fictional Ingallses should always move West. The Ingallses then backtracked to Walnut Grove, where Mary lost her vision, then went west again and eventually settled in what is now South Dakota. Then they continued on to Burr Oak, Iowa, where they ran a hotel. They went to visit family elsewhere in Minnesota, but while there, Laura’s 10-month-old brother, Freddie, died after a sudden illness. Then, financial difficulties, illness, and a plague of locusts forced them to move on. Next, they went west again, this time settling near Walnut Grove, Minnesota. It’s not entirely clear why the Ingalls family left, but instead of continuing west they went back to Wisconsin.

But the land was not theirs to settle: It was owned by the Osage people and the Ingalls family, like thousands of other settlers, were squatters waiting for the Osage to be driven out so that the United States could take it over. The Ingalls family’s first stop after Wisconsin was Independence, Kansas (with a possible stop in Missouri), where they built a “little house” on the open prairie. Real life and Manifest Destiny don’t always line up, though, and in fact the Ingalls family tracked back and forth several times before setting down in De Smet, South Dakota. THE INGALLS FAMILY DIDN'T ALWAYS HEAD WEST.įrom the moment the Ingalls family sets out in their wagon and leaves the Little House in the Big Woods, the Little House books show an unceasing push West. Where does history end and fiction begin? 1.

After all, the books are based on real events-but events that are also largely fictitious. For the thousands of devoted fans of the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (who was born on February 7, 1867), that problem is particularly acute. There’s nothing weirder than learning that one of your favorite stories didn’t really happen that way.

Little house on the prairie complete series amazon