Pioneer Girl

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Editor: Pamela Smith Hill

Genre: Historical Biography

Publisher: South Dakota State Historical Society, 2014

Pages: 400

Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Follow the real Laura Ingalls and her family as they make their way west—and discover that truth is as remarkable as fiction.

Hidden away since 1930, Laura Ingalls Wilder's original autobiography reveals the true stories of her pioneering life. Some of her experiences will be familiar; some will be a surprise. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography re-introduces readers to the woman who defined the pioneer experience for millions of people around the world.

Wilder details the Ingalls family's journey through Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, back to Minnesota, and on to Dakota Territory— sixteen years of travels, unforgettable stories, and the everyday people who became immortal through her fiction. Using additional manuscripts, diaries, and letters, editor Pamela Smith Hill adds valuable context and explores Wilder's growth as a writer.

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography also explores the history of the frontier that the Ingalls family traversed and the culture and life of the communities Wilder lived in. The book features over one hundred images, eight fully researched maps, and hundreds of annotations based on census data and records, newspapers of the period, and other primary documents.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, in 1929-1930 when she was in her early sixties. Throughout the 1930s and into the early 1940s, Wilder utilized her original manuscript to write a successful children's series. She died in Mansfield, Missouri, at ninety years of age on February 10, 1957.

Review: I'm just a little bit Little House and Laura Ingalls Wilder obsessed. My only criticism about Pioneer Girl is that it ended. It was a fascinating read and I loved the pictures. Some of what is included was a review, but there was quite a bit of new information that I found completely fascinating.

I found the best way to read this was to read the original manuscript to a logical stopping point and then go back and read the notes pertaining to what I just read. This means that I read each page twice. It's amazing to me that I finished it in just over 10 days. There's a lot of text, and I stopped a few times to reference previous notes, pages, or pictures.

I'm hoping we can visit one or two of the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in the Midwest on our trip next summer. A few things must fall into place first, but it would be a dream come true.