Laura Ingalls Wilder Conference 2010

We are pleased to announce that a Laura Ingalls Wilder - Rose Wilder Lane conference will be held on campus of Minnesota State University at Mankato on July 15-17, 2010. An announcement will be made again here when registration opens for conference attendees.

If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please download the Call for Proposals flyer for details in how to submit your proposed paper. Feel free to print and post, or redistribute the flyer to other interested parties or groups.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Family Letters Go Online

We are pleased to share the following announcement from Michael Edmonds, head of Digital Collections at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has recently published on its website more than a dozen original letters written during the Civil War by relatives of Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), author of Little House on the Prairie and other popular books for young readers.

Wilder's famous novels are thinly disguised recollections of her childhood, and these private letters between her mother, uncles and an aunt shed light on the real-world adults whom she fictionalized. They include a four-page letter written by her mother, Caroline Quiner Ingalls, shortly after being married and others written by various uncles* while fighting in the Civil War.

The original handwritten documents are presented in color, accompanied by typed transcriptions, in the Society's Turning Points in Wisconsin History digital collection. A lesson plan based on them has also been provided for the use of elementary school teachers who use the Little House books in the classroom.

*Please note: Although the Wisconsin Historical Society website refers several times to the Civil War letters being written by Laura's uncles, these letters were actually written by the brothers of Laura's uncle, Charles Carpenter, who was married to Caroline's (Ma's) sister Martha. One of the Civil War letters is written by Laura's aunt, Nancy Quiner, who married Ma's brother Joseph.

Join Us: Online Book Discussion with Stephen Hines

Stephen Hines, author of I Remember Laura and editor of several collections of Laura's Missouri Ruralist articles, will be joining us for an ongoing book discussion of his latest publication, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist. The book discussion will take place on the Frontier Girl Message Board, beginning in January. More details will be given in the near future, but we wanted to give everyone advance notice so that all who wish to participate would have time to obtain a copy of the book before the discussion begins.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist is the most complete published collection of Laura's writings for the Missouri Ruralist. Laura wrote regularly for the Ruralist for many years prior to writing the "Little House" books, and the articles convey a wealth of information about daily life on Rocky Ridge Farm with Almanzo, the "Man of the Place", as well as afford the reader a look into the views and opinions held by Laura during these years. Anecdotes from childhood days (some of which were later included in the "Little House" series) are an occasional treat.

Stephen Hines first collected these articles and made them available to Wilder fans everywhere with the publication of Little House in the Ozarks in 1991. Since then, several other article collections have been compiled, as well as Laura Ingalls Wilder's Fairy Poems, a collection of children's verses that Laura wrote for the San Francisco Bulletin in 1915. Hines has also published long lost works of author Louisa May Alcott, and hosts the Literary Prospector website.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to read and discuss each article with Stephen Hines himself, as well as other Wilder fans and researchers who will be participating in the discussion. If you don't own the book, it can be purchased here. Stay tuned for more information!

Searching for Letters from Laura Ingalls Wilder

During her lifetime as an author, Laura Ingalls Wilder responded to every fan letter she received, until the last six months of her life. These letters were scattered to the four winds and while some have come safely to rest in museums, archives, and libraries across the country, others currently reside in scrapbooks, the backs of drawers, in musty files, and in old shoe boxes tied up with ribbon.

Please help make sure those letters aren't lost forever. In conjunction with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, Sarah Uthoff is seeking photocopies of Laura letters. These would be scholarly study copies only and will be deposited in the newly built archive room at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum. She is also seeking photos of any of the Wilder museum sites pre-1985 or photos of any special local Wilder events, such as gingerbread parties that you might have attended. You may send the photographs by mail, or scan them and send by email.

Send photographs and/or photocopies of letters to:
Sarah Uthoff
P.O. Box 111
Solon, IA 52333

Send scanned photographs to:
info@trundlebedtales.com

For more information, visit Sarah's site at Trundlebed Tales.