Laura Ingalls Wilder

Writer

Laura Ingalls Wilder is the author of Little House on the Prairie and the six other novels that make up what is known as the "Little House" series. She grew up in the midwestern frontier of the United States, married Almanzo Wilder in 1885 and settled in Missouri. Late in life she began to write about growing up on the midwestern plains, urged on by her daughter, Rose, a writer and editor; Wilder was 65 when her first "Little House" book was published. Her books, which describe her family's life as it was in the 1870s and 1880s, have been continually reprinted since publication and have spawned a number of spin-offs by other writers. The books in the series are: Little House in the Big Woods (1932); Little House on the Prairie (1935); On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937); By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939); The Long Winter (1940); Little Town on the Prairie (1941); and These Happy Golden Years (1943).

Extra credit: Based on Wilder's books, the TV series Little House on the Prairie ran from 1974 to 1983 and starred Michael Landon and, as Laura, Melissa Gilbert.