The 100th anniversary of an important event in the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the "Little House" series, was celebrated in 1994. It was 1894 when Laura, her husband, Almanzo, and daughter, Rose, moved by covered wagon from their South Dakota homestead - the setting of the nine Little House books - to Mansfield, Mo., where they settled on Rocky Ridge Farm.
In her diary, Laura wrote: "We cleared the land and built our own farmhouse. Eventually we had 200 acres of improved land, a herd of cows, good hogs and the best laying flock of hens in the country. . . . For recreation we used to ride horseback or in our buggy - later on, our Chrysler. We read and played music and attended church socials. In 1949 Almanzo died at the age of 92. We had been married for 63 years."With the 1994 centennial, publishers began a new series of books answering the question of what happened to Laura and her family. Written by Roger Lea MacBride, the adopted grandson of Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, the seven projected Rocky Ridge novels continues the story that Laura Ingalls Wilder told about her own childhood.
"Little Farm in the Ozarks" (HarperCollins) is about Rose Wilder's first year at the Rocky Ridge Farm and the adventures of the children in the Missouri Ozarks.
Besides writing the Rocky Rodge series, MacBride edited "West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco 1915." This is a series of letters Laura wrote to her husband as she described a voyage to San Francisco to visit their daughter.
As part of the celebration of the Wilder era, the original nine novels in the "Little House" series have been reissued.
"The original books hadn't been touched since Garth Williams illustrated them some 40 years ago," said Mary-Alice Moore, director of marketing at HarperCollins. "After literally thousands of trips back to the press, the film had faded and the type was beginning to break, We decided they deserved to be revived."
Because of the popularity of the "Little House" series, a line of picture books that adapt chapters from the original novels has begun. "Winter Days in the Big Woods" and "Dance at Grandpas," both illustrated by Renee Graef, were available this winter.
Many more books are on the way to augment the series, including activity books, songbooks, pop-ups, anthologies, a book of paper dolls, calendars, ABC and counting books.
To further promote the new "Little House" titles, the publisher is offering teachers a free classroom kit containing a color map of the United States, a historical timeline covering the Laura Ingalls Wilder era and suggestions for activities based on the original books.
A "readers' club" will provide young readers with incentives for reading with a membership card, trivia cards and a facsimile of a letter written and signed by the author.
For information write to:
HarperCollins Children's Books
Media Distribution Services
(Little House Readers Club)
307 W. 36th St.
New York, NY 10138-0258
- "LITTLE HOUSE" TRIVIA:
- The original "Little House" series has sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, with sales in the
USA exceeding 35 million copies.
- The nine "Little House" books have been translated into 17 languages.
- Five of the nine books were named Newbery Honor Books.
- In Mansfield, Mo., there is an annual celebration of Wilder at the Rocky Ridge Farm.
- The television program, "Little House on the Prairie," starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, consistently rated in the top 15 shows throughout the 1970s and '80s.
- Nine commemorative Wilder family sites and museums in the Midwest and New York have more than 100,000 visitors annually. These are found in Mansfield, Mo.; Walnut Grove, Minn.; Malone, N.Y.; Spring Valley, Minn.; DeSmet, S.D.; Burr Oak, Iowa; Keystone, S.D., and Pepin, Wis.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867 and died in 1957.