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Like many other girls growing up in suburban Illinois, Wendy McClure fantasized that she was actually sharing the little prairie homestead of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As an adult, she followed that dream in ways by becoming a busy children's book editor, but in this loving pilgrimage of a memoir, she goes even further, indulging her fascination and love for The Little House on the Prairie by seeking out its continuing presence in the lives of readers. These "snapshots from a Little House life" have been described as "deeply human, darkly hilarious" and imbued with a touch "as light as Max's best biscuits, but the results still sticks to your ribs." A Discover Great New Writers selection; now in a trade paperback and NOOK Book.
— Edward Ash-Milby
BUST magazine columnist and children's-book editor McClure (I'm Not the New Me, 2005, etc.) takes an engaging road trip in search of a remembered "Laura World."
"I was born in 1867 in a log cabin in Wisconsin and maybe you were, too." Like millions of other young readers, mostly girls, the author had lived the dream and then—possibly impelled by the disappointing way the series peters out—moved on. Hoping to recapture the magic after glimpsing that world years later in a re-reading Little House in the Big Woods (1932), McClure checks out the LHOP canon's continuing role in online communities, lines of commercial products, the perpetually-in-syndication TV series and a steady stream of literary and other cultural spinoffs. The author also tries her hand at butter churning and farm cookery, and sets out with an obliging companion on a Midwestern pilgrimage. McClure presents a merry travelogue that features stops at Pepin, Wisc. (where Wilder was born), Rocky Ridge Farm (where she died) and most of the other widely scattered sites the peripatetic Ingalls clan set down in between, as well as meetings with fellow pilgrims, a wade in Plum Creek, a weekend at a self-sufficient farm (made scary by a group of "end times" survivalists) and even a later jaunt to the upstate New York farm where Wilder's husband Almanzo grew up. McClure also ruminates on the qualities that give Wilder's fictionalized but oh-so-evocative memoirs their enduring appeal. In the end, she moves on once again—coming to recognize the beguiling joy and simplicity of Laura World, but at a slight remove brought on by years and other experiences.
Many others have made the same pilgrimage, but not, perhaps, with such a winning mix of humor and painless introspection.
Wendy McClure holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of I’m Not the New Me and the creator of the online journal Pound, as well as the humor site Candyboots. She is a columnist for Bust, a regular contributor to the website Television Without Pity, and her writing has also appeared in Glamour, The Chicago Sun-Times, and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications. She lives in Chicago.
1 Our Past Life 1
2 Whose Woods These are 28
3 Going to Town 50
4 Good Girls and Golden Curls 74
5 There is a Happy Land Far, Far Away 100
6 The Way Home 141
7 There Won't Be Horses 179
8 Fragments of a Dream 209
9 Anywhere East or South 249
10 The Road Back 281
11 Be It Enacted 299
12 Unremembered 321
Acknowledgments 329
Selected Bibliography 333
The description of this book reads: "story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones-and find that our old love has only deepened" and this couldn't be more true. The Wilder Life is a compelling read that will resonate with anyone who read through the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a child, potentially looking to better understand the world where they lived by contrasting it with a world gone by... only to return as an adult in an even more confusing world to remember reading about a simpler world during a simpler time in one's own life.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 11, 2011
A perfect book for all ages and I am only 9 and watch the movies and read the books they are all good this book is perfect for your child to read and it will teach your child about the olden days too!
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 1, 2011
This was a great book: touching, fun, and funny. Butter churning for the modern reader. If you loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when you were a kid (or maybe still) AND don't mind a few of your youthful beliefs about pioneer living correctetd, then you should give this a read.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 9, 2012
Fresh and enlightening! A must read for any Little House fan!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 13, 2012
Like the julia child book/movie
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 22, 2012
Im only nine and i enjoyed these books when i was very young love them
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Posted April 21, 2012
Sj euxnuuxuvn
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Posted February 10, 2012
Chees fries haha lol
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 26, 2011
I grew up reading the Little House books and wanting to live Laura's life. Following the author on her 'pilgrimage' made me laugh and cry, at times.
Her approach to the deeper sense of meaning the Little House books had for her was touching and accessible.
Anonymous
Posted November 26, 2011
I loved this book! There are a lot of funny
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Posted June 5, 2011
Not bad
0 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 15, 2011
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Overview
Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder—a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she’s never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She traces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family— looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House—exploring the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura’s hometowns. Whether she’s churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of “the Laura experience.” The result is an incredibly