Reviewer #1: I don’t think the book is particularly timely, but I don’t think it needs to be, since the Little House books are such classics...I’d recommend publication if the author follows my suggestions, especially about situating the biography in the larger historical context. I could imagine other instructors using it if it is better contextualized – along the lines of fiction vs. reality.
Reviewer #2:
The author has added an emphasis on domestic history to the proposal—a welcome addition...For a course on western women’s literature or history, this would serve nicely as one of many texts; for a course devoted to the writing of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the book would be appropriate as the main text...I believe there is always a market for solid, contextual biographies...The author’s new emphasis on domesticity as gendered role of Manifest Destiny elevates the book above the standard issue biography and makes it much more attractive for use in a college/university course.
Review #3
Although the book might be written and marketed with college undergraduates as the intended primary audience, its secondary audience could be sizable, given LIW’s continuing presence in American popular culture. In my view, those in this "secondary audience" – LIW fans, those who read her books when they were much younger and are feeling nostalgic, some American history "buffs" – would be voluntary readers (buying and reading the book of their own volition and interest) rather than conscripted readers (students who have been assigned to read the book as a required text). Finally, the book (like many on LIW) has the potential to attract an interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary academic and scholarly audience from American literature, Western history, women’s and gender studies, and potentially rural, community, and/or economic history.....For a U.S. survey course that uses a standard textbook, this book would be a supplemental text. For a women’s history or Western history course, this book would be one of several books – perhaps assigned for 1-2 weeks during a semester or trimester. For a course that examines Laura Ingalls Wilder (perhaps an interdisciplinary English and History or American Studies course), this book might serve as a main text. ...
I recommend this book for publication. Although some changes were made (perhaps with the above comments in mind), I still think that the proposed biography author will need to carry through the fairytale/folklore idea more clearly throughout the book, not just in the early chapters. I also think that the author might need to engage more with how LIW "lives" today as a figure in popular culture
"I found Laura Ingalls Wilder: American Writer on the Prairie well researched. Laura Wilder's lifelong values of honesty and hard work are evident throughout the biography. … Sallie Ketcham provides us with a fair portrayal of the Laura we all knew." —Jean Coday, Director, Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum
"Students will appreciate this straightforward and highly readable biography. It situates Wilder in the broader context of decades of dramatic changes in the West. The primary sources included with the text make it an excellent classroom resource."
—Sheila McManus, author of Choices and Chances: A History of Women in the U.S. West
"Skillfully, Ketcham provides essential historical and cultural context for "Little House" fans and newcomers to appreciate Wilder's stories of Indian removal, women's paid and unpaid labor, and the frontier's psychological and physical costs."
—Andrea R. Foroughi, author of Go If You Think it Your Duty: A Minnesota Couple’s Civil War Letters
Ketcham makes use of previously unpublished archival material in this insightful introduction to the celebrated author’s life. Placing Wilder’s life and experiences in historical context, Ketcham explains her ongoing relevance to children, environmentalists, feminists, historians, literary scholars, political thinkers, and others who identify with Wilder and claim her as one of their own."
-Missouri Historical Review
