Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" Series

[SnarkySheep]

On 4/11/2020 at 11:58 AM, Snow Apple said:

I'm going into the third week of Stay At Home. I think it's time to reread The Long Winter. LOL

I've been thinking of doing just that myself - I keep seeing references to it these days on Twitter and other places.

In case someone wants to read them but doesn't have access, you can get the e-books from Internet Archive. For the duration, they have done away with wait lists.

[Jalyn]

On 4/13/2020 at 9:22 PM, SnarkySheep said:

I've been thinking of doing just that myself - I keep seeing references to it these days on Twitter and other places.

In case someone wants to read them but doesn't have access, you can get the e-books from Internet Archive. For the duration, they have done away with wait lists.

I don't think it would matter for the Little House books, but authors have expressed that they feel that that site is copyright infringing, especially given the new policy regarding the wait list:

https://www.sfwa.org/2020/04/08/infringement-alert-national-emergency-library/

(Seeing as I replied to Snarkysheep, I want to be very clear that I'm just trying to provide information, not that I think that there is anything wrong with using the site or providing the information about the site.)

 

[SnarkySheep]

Ok, finally got around to re-reading The Long Winter...

Overall, I have to agree with those who thought Ma and Mary were kind of bitches. For starters, Mary is portrayed as this total saint, who never says or does a single thing wrong, and is always making Laura feel bad for being a mortal human being. 

I'm also not sure why, during a time period where very few people, let alone girls, went to college, the family is pushing so hard for Mary to go. Yes, I understand that it would be a good opportunity for her to learn new skills as she adjusts to being blind. But it's also rather clear that someone like Mary, during that time, would not be expected to live independently or support herself. So why put all their savings into something so extravagant when the Ingallses were getting clothing from charity barrels?

Also, Ma is kind of insane regarding chores. I totally get that she might want the family to have some comfort in maintaining routine during what was certainly a scary and uncertain year. But it's to the point of ridiculousness, where it's 40 below zero, the girls have eaten nothing more than a few slices of bread and cups of tea in weeks, and Ma is all like, "No excuses! Let's get those beds made and the floor swept!" Seriously, you're in danger of dying; who GAF?

[Starleigh]

At some point, though, iirc, Ma told the girls to just stay in bed till later in the morning. I guess to stay warm and preserve their fuel (I guess while they still had coal). 

[proserpina65]

On ‎05‎/‎03‎/‎2020 at 7:05 PM, SnarkySheep said:

I'm also not sure why, during a time period where very few people, let alone girls, went to college, the family is pushing so hard for Mary to go. Yes, I understand that it would be a good opportunity for her to learn new skills as she adjusts to being blind. But it's also rather clear that someone like Mary, during that time, would not be expected to live independently or support herself. So why put all their savings into something so extravagant when the Ingallses were getting clothing from charity barrels?

In real life there was some government or charity assistance paying for lot of the tuition.  I think they just wanted Mary to have some skills so that she wouldn't be a complete invalid, and the opportunity to send her to school arose so they took advantage of it.

[smittykins]

Yes, Dakota Territory paid Mary’s tuition to the Iowa College for the Blind because it had no school of its own, although the Ingallses still had to pay for her clothing, transportation, and possibly books/supplies.  Supposedly, Laura/Rose chose not to include this in the books to give the impression of self-sufficiency.

Edited May 6, 2020 by smittykins

[Starleigh]

9 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

 I think they just wanted Mary to have some skills so that she wouldn't be a complete invalid, and the opportunity to send her to school arose so they took advantage of it.

Yes, when Mary went to visit her friend instead of coming home, Ma told Laura she was glad Mary had the chance to travel a bit and have experiences because once she was home, she'd be home to stay.

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, smittykins said:

Yes, Dakota Territory paid Mary’s tuition to the Iowa College for the Blind because it had no school of its own, although the Ingallses still had to pay for her clothing, transportation, and possibly books/supplies.  Supposedly, Laura/Rose chose not to include this in the books to give the impression of self-sufficiency.

Having read Prairie Fires, I fully believe that to have been Laura's decision as much as or more than Rose's.  Laura was very attached to that image of her parents as self-sufficient even though it was far from the truth.

[Bleegerss]

I wish laura would have ran off with big jerry and left her life of slavery behind

[proserpina65]

On 6/17/2020 at 12:04 AM, Bleegerss said:

I wish laura would have ran off with big jerry and left her life of slavery behind

That simply wasn't in her character.

[SnarkySheep]

On 6/17/2020 at 12:04 AM, Bleegerss said:

I wish laura would have ran off with big jerry and left her life of slavery behind

Had Laura lived in the era of reality shows, she just might have...

[Jantaran]

I think a lot of you are confusing what Laura and Rose added to the narrative (compare with manuscript of Laura’s Pioneer Girl). For example, the details of food at the June “Thanksgiving” meal don’t match what’s in the book (far more sparse). The barrel came from “friends in Chicago,” not specically Alden. I do feel that Pa was a loser (oral history in DeSmet was also that he “was fond of his drink” and that he and Caroline showed lack of planning and foresight as well as passivity. In my mind the books are mythogizing and whitewash, but I can understand that. Poor Laura. Also, yes, there are a lot of questions about Almanzo, who also showed poor judgement.

[Seth T]

On 11/30/2020 at 10:22 PM, Jantaran said:

I think a lot of you are confusing what Laura and Rose added to the narrative (compare with manuscript of Laura’s Pioneer Girl). For example, the details of food at the June “Thanksgiving” meal don’t match what’s in the book (far more sparse). The barrel came from “friends in Chicago,” not specically Alden. I do feel that Pa was a loser (oral history in DeSmet was also that he “was fond of his drink” and that he and Caroline showed lack of planning and foresight as well as passivity. In my mind the books are mythogizing and whitewash, but I can understand that. Poor Laura. Also, yes, there are a lot of questions about Almanzo, who also showed poor judgement.

Charles Ingalls was a staunch prohibitionist; he did not drink alcohol and was known in DeSmet (to others' chagrin), in zealously enforcing the state prohibition laws in place at the time when he was the town justice of the peace. As for him being a "loser" that's hogwash. People in the 21st century need to understand and remember the context of the times. I read somewhere else that someone wondered why Caroline didn't divorce Charles. Charles wasn't a deadbeat; he didn't have any money. MOST people at that time had very little or no money. As Rose Wilder Lane said correctly later, "Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to any of us Ingallses, we're pretty much the same as everyone else." As for the divorce thing, the only grounds for that in the 19th century would be desertion owing to incarceration, like what happened with Charles' sister, Laura' Aunt Docia, whose first husband August Waldvogel shot and killed a man trying to break-and-enter their house and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. The Ingalls family were entirely typical of that era, which is why they are such good subjects for historical study. EVERYONE who traveled West had to endure bitter blizzards in winter, scorching droughts in summer, prairie fires, floods, horse thieves, hail storms, (understandably) hostile Native Americans, etc.  

[proserpina65]

On ‎12‎/‎19‎/‎2020 at 9:06 AM, Seth T said:

As for him being a "loser" that's hogwash.

I wouldn't say he was a loser.  He was, however, someone who was always looking at what was next and thinking of moving on.  He seems to have been restless by nature, and in other circumstances would've been more of an explorer than a settler.  He also made some very poor financial decisions at various points in his life, such as spending money he didn't yet have on building a house on Plum Creek; that hardly made him unique, though, then or now.  And, as certain incidents detailed in Pioneer Girl and in biographies of Laura show, he wasn't always the most honest person, being perfectly willing to stiff landlords and merchants to whom he owed money.

There was a great deal of mythologizing of her father's self-sufficiency by Laura in her books.  In real life, the family ended up dependent on the government and the kindness of others more often than she wanted to let on.  Which makes reading about her later lack of sympathy for those needing help during the Depression (including her own sisters) very interesting.

[Blergh]

It's interesting to note that while Laura as a girl seemed fascinated by the artifacts and crafts of the local Native Americans (e.g. the beads she and her sisters collected), neither as a child nor as an adult did Mrs. Wilder  seemed to recognize that her Pa and Ma were squatters on what had been THEIR land- particularly in Kansas where they soon got thrown off said acreage by the US govt for doing exactly that. Moreover, she never even seemed to recognize that her Ma(who she pulled few punches in her own POV of)  in particular hadn't been fair minded to Native Americans in her judgments. One can rationalize why a child who hadn't had the chance to experience anything outside their own bubble might feel that way but it's tougher to sympathize with an older adult who had had decades to consider ALL sides of the picture but evidently refused to do so because she wanted to hang onto the myth of their parents being unfairly victimized  and losing 'their' land instead of those having been consequences for their own unfair (and illegal) actions. 

Edited December 25, 2020 by Blergh

[kathyk24]

On 12/24/2020 at 12:06 PM, Blergh said:

It's interesting to note that while Laura as a girl seemed fascinated by the artifacts and crafts of the local Native Americans (e.g. the beads she and her sisters collected), neither as a child nor as an adult did Mrs. Wilder  seemed to recognize that her Pa and Ma were squatters on what had been THEIR land- particularly in Kansas where they soon got thrown off said acreage by the US govt for doing exactly that. Moreover, she never even seemed to recognize that her Ma(who she pulled few punches in her own POV of)  in particular hadn't been fair minded to Native Americans in her judgments. One can rationalize why a child who hadn't had the chance to experience anything outside their own bubble might feel that way but it's tougher to sympathize with an older adult who had had decades to consider ALL sides of the picture but evidently refused to do so because she wanted to hang onto the myth of their parents being unfairly victimized  and losing 'their' land instead of those having been consequences for their own unfair (and illegal) actions. 

I think you are too tough on Laura. She was just a little girl when the Ingalls lived in Kansas and couldn't have known that they were there illegally . It's much easier to access public records today than when Laura was alive and even if she wanted more information the state of Kansas could refuse to share it with her. 

[Athena]

"The Science of “Little House on the Prairie" - Smithsonian magazine article about how some scientific fans of Laura and the books tracked data and records to determine weather, location, and events.

Quote

Boustead applied the tool to records at weather stations from the 1800s. Every site Boustead investigated in Laura’s region in that year falls into the “extreme” category rating on the AWSSI scale, marking it as a record year for snowfall and temperature lows. The season covered in The Long Winter still ranks in the top 10 worst winters on record for South Dakota, as well as other regions of the country.

 

[kathyk24]

On 12/23/2020 at 12:32 PM, proserpina65 said:

I wouldn't say he was a loser.  He was, however, someone who was always looking at what was next and thinking of moving on.  He seems to have been restless by nature, and in other circumstances would've been more of an explorer than a settler.  He also made some very poor financial decisions at various points in his life, such as spending money he didn't yet have on building a house on Plum Creek; that hardly made him unique, though, then or now.  And, as certain incidents detailed in Pioneer Girl and in biographies of Laura show, he wasn't always the most honest person, being perfectly willing to stiff landlords and merchants to whom he owed money.

There was a great deal of mythologizing of her father's self-sufficiency by Laura in her books.  In real life, the family ended up dependent on the government and the kindness of others more often than she wanted to let on.  Which makes reading about her later lack of sympathy for those needing help during the Depression (including her own sisters) very interesting.

I wonder why Charles chose to leave Wisconsin. It's ok to wander when you are single not if you have a wife and young children to support. Laura's respect for her father makes sense to me. Children were expected to obey their parents without question and she had no way to know how other families behaved. Children were expected to help their parents after school not play with children their own age. Laura probably felt she did her share to help Mary she was under no obligation to help Grace.

[Blergh]

20 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I think you are too tough on Laura. She was just a little girl when the Ingalls lived in Kansas and couldn't have known that they were there illegally . It's much easier to access public records today than when Laura was alive and even if she wanted more information the state of Kansas could refuse to share it with her. 

There were public records and MAPS available for decades  after she grew up that she could have easily consulted had she wanted to know the truth of whether or not her parents were unjustly persecuted OR whether they were squatters and lawbreakers who were justly expelled from lands that even the US government (at the time) considered to be Native American territory. Mrs. Wilder (in her 60s at the time)  seemed to have  decided to keep throwing the pity party instead of just admit that, as though as the loss of the sod they'd worked on was for the family at the time, her parents were WRONG (and unfair to the Native Americans). 

[WinnieWinkle]

2 hours ago, Blergh said:

There were public records and MAPS available for decades  after she grew up that she could have easily consulted had she wanted to know the truth of whether or not her parents were unjustly persecuted OR whether they were squatters and lawbreakers who were justly expelled from lands that even the US government (at the time) considered to be Native American territory.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wasn't writing a college thesis or a history book, she was writing about her life (fictionalized to a degree for sure, but still very much her life).  If she had written her books the way so many posting here think she should have we would not be talking about her or her books because IMO even if they had ever been published (doubtful) they'd never have become classics.

[nodorothyparker]

Expecting Wilder to be unflinchingly truthful ignores that the entire series was at least partially about mythologizing her father and her upbringing. Caroline Fraser's Prairie Fires is a great read if you really want to understand the patchwork process and varying degrees of truth that produced her books. She wrote what she remembered as she chose to remember it. We're also told she was in regular correspondence with her various relatives for details as they remembered them, and then of course her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane who was a piece of work in her own right, heavily "edited" the manuscripts by moving things around, helping her consolidate some things/characters, and leaving other things out altogether that didn't fit the narrative she was selling. The official series, for example, never mentions her brother who died in infancy, a period in Iowa when they essentially camped out in another family's field on their charity because they were so destitute, or the time they lived over a tavern and someone felt so sorry for the family they offered to "adopt" Laura. She never mentions the times they ran out on debts Charles Ingalls couldn't or wouldn't pay because it wasn't the story she wanted to tell. Like a lot of people, she may not have wanted to delve too deeply into some of those childhood memories or only wanted to recall them through the best possible spin.

There's an anecdote in Prairie Fires about a kid writing Wilder a letter to complain about her line in one of the early books about how the woods and prairies were empty, that no one lived there before the settlers came. Because obviously Natives had. Wilder conceded that of course the letter writer was correct and that the line should probably be changed for future editions of the books, but it obviously wasn't something she had concerned herself about before that.

[SusieQ]

PBS will feature an "American Experience" episode on LIW.

https://www.twincities.com. Twin Cities PBS takes a look at the woman behind the “Little House on the Prairie” books in a new documentary, “Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page.” The documentary, which focuses on the pioneer and author, will premiere Dec. 29 on PBS.

In NYC it's listed for next Tuesday.

[kathyk24]

10 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

Laura Ingalls Wilder wasn't writing a college thesis or a history book, she was writing about her life (fictionalized to a degree for sure, but still very much her life).  If she had written her books the way so many posting here think she should have we would not be talking about her or her books because IMO even if they had ever been published (doubtful) they'd never have become classics.

The Little House series were written for children. If Laura had told the truth that her Pa didn't pay his bills and had been a squatter the books wouldn't have been published. Also certain events like the death of her baby brother were too painful to include in the books. People should be more upset with the tv show which turned her life into a work of fiction. The Ingalls never adopted a son named Albert and Mary never married and had a child who died.

[nodorothyparker]

I loved the TV series as a kid before I was old enough to think critically about any of it. It turned me on to the books as a kid in a family where no one read much and so have decidedly mixed feelings about the news that a reboot of the show is apparently in the works at Paramount. But I've always found it highly interesting that with all the liberties the TV series took with the story, it did include Freddie Ingalls' birth and death and at least a version of Pa and Ma can't hack it as homesteaders and go to live over a hotel/restaurant in the city to work.

[WinnieWinkle]

11 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

The Ingalls never adopted a son named Albert and Mary never married and had a child who died.

I liked the first few years of the series and was glad they had Mary go blind, as of course she did.  But when they had her get married and have a child I was out.  When it reached a point that my favourite character was Nellie Olsen there was something deeply wrong in Walnut Grove!

[nodorothyparker]

It really went off the rails by the time everyone started adopting random kids, in Mrs. Olsen's case for seemingly no other reason than her replacement kid resembled her bratty original recipe. It couldn't seem to take the hint from the books that while everyone enjoys plucky kid heroines, it's not nearly as much fun watching those kids get ground down by poverty and tragedy after tragedy as adults. There's a reason a lot of people don't care for The First Four Years.

[Blergh]

I didn't say that Mrs. Wilder was writing any kind of thesis or doctorate about her family's life. However,  just because it was a fictionalized retelling doesn't mean that she couldn't have been 'sad as a child that we got kicked off the land   but  (having seen easily available maps,etc.) understanding as an older adult that it never was ours in the first place and that we were unfair to the Indians (now known as Native Americans) to the point of illegality'.

 

It seems that they had planned to put off if not ignore Mary going blind on the TV series via her falling for the totally fictitious character of John, Jr. but the performer Melissa Sue Anderson wasn't enthralled with the other performer so they had to scuttle the romance and, as a result, she went blind as her historic counterpart did (albeit via a very different set of circumstances to say nothing of reactions that the historic person appears to have had  when it happened). 

[kathyk24]

11 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

I liked the first few years of the series and was glad they had Mary go blind, as of course she did.  But when they had her get married and have a child I was out.  When it reached a point that my favourite character was Nellie Olsen there was something deeply wrong in Walnut Grove!

I was reading the books while the tv was airing. They could have aged up Carrie and Grace and made these new characters their classmates. Nellie's maturity made sense you can't be a spoiled brat forever. I stopped watching the show when they ignored the books especially Mary's storyline.

[smittykins]

According to Pioneer Girl, the Ingallses stopped at a German beer garden on their way to Walnut Grove, and Laura and Mary were each allowed a sip.  I thought that was odd given their later involvement with temperance groups in DeSmet.

[Starleigh]

I was rereading These Happy Golden Years recently, and she did have a character (Uncle Tom) admit he and a group of white settlers were wrong for trying to take Indian land (they were forced off by the American army and all their belongings confiscated). Who knows if that really happened, or Rose stuck that in or changed the dialogue as Laura wrote it.

Reality is, Laura wrote these books in the 30s and 40s. We are looking back through a modern perspective and it just isn't realistic to expect her to have had such radical changes in the way she viewed these things. If we had been living back then and read these books when they were first published, I don't think any of us would have given these parts to her book a second thought.

[tres bien]

PBS is airing an episode of American Masters on Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page tonight (12/29)

[nodorothyparker]

The American Masters piece seems particularly relevant to this conversation.

In promoting the “myth of white self-sufficiency,” the “Little House” books rewrite history

 

[proserpina65]

On 12/26/2020 at 2:19 AM, kathyk24 said:

Laura probably felt she did her share to help Mary she was under no obligation to help Grace.

I wasn't talking about her unwillingness to help either sister herself; I was referring to her very harsh criticism, in letters to one sister, of the other sister and her husband taking New Deal payments for not planting despite the desperate straits they were in during the Depression.  (I'd need to check Prairie Fires to remember which sister was which in that situation and I'm not at home.)  Laura was disappointingly lacking in empathy towards those affected by the economic and financial collapse, especially considering how much her parents depended on government assistance when she was a child.  Although how aware she was of her parents' frequent reliance on handouts from others is debatable.  Her father was never actually successful as a farmer, despite her portrayal of him as providing a comfortable existence for his family in the later DeSmet years.

[proserpina65]

On 12/26/2020 at 12:19 PM, Blergh said:

There were public records and MAPS available for decades  after she grew up that she could have easily consulted had she wanted to know the truth of whether or not her parents were unjustly persecuted OR whether they were squatters and lawbreakers who were justly expelled from lands that even the US government (at the time) considered to be Native American territory. Mrs. Wilder (in her 60s at the time)  seemed to have  decided to keep throwing the pity party instead of just admit that, as though as the loss of the sod they'd worked on was for the family at the time, her parents were WRONG (and unfair to the Native Americans). 

A) How readily available were they to someone who lived in another state, and whom wasn't exactly financially comfortable at the time?  & B) The important thing is how much she may or may not have wanted to know if it contrasted with her ideal of her family as self-sufficient pioneers.

[WinnieWinkle]

6 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I wasn't talking about her unwillingness to help either sister herself; I was referring to her very harsh criticism, in letters to one sister, of the other sister and her husband taking New Deal payments for not planting despite the desperate straits they were in during the Depression.

IN the last few years I've come to find how many people were actually opposed to the New Deal and hated Roosevelt.  I admit it was a bit of a shock!  Especially finding this out about people I had respected and cared about through their writings.  Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

[Starleigh]

IIRC, it was Grace who reached out to Carrie to see if she could get some old hand me downs from Laura to pass along to her. It's not like she was even asking for money, but she was scared of Laura getting mad at her.

TBH, as fascinating as Prairie Fires was, I found it a depressing read. The poverty, the struggles, the less than close family ties once Laura moved away. 

[kathyk24]

On 12/26/2020 at 10:09 PM, SusieQ said:

PBS will feature an "American Experience" episode on LIW.

https://www.twincities.com. Twin Cities PBS takes a look at the woman behind the “Little House on the Prairie” books in a new documentary, “Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page.” The documentary, which focuses on the pioneer and author, will premiere Dec. 29 on PBS.

In NYC it's listed for next Tuesday.

I thought this program was great. I think Laura and Rose clashed because they were so alike. I was surprised that Rose wanted to omit Mary's blindness from the books. Almanzo loved Laura so much and she returned his feelings and I think it impacted her later life. I wonder why Charles would leave Wisconsin with a pregnant wife? Rose seems more like an English teacher than a daughter while she was helping Laura write the series.

[Blergh]

19 hours ago, Starleigh said:

IIRC, it was Grace who reached out to Carrie to see if she could get some old hand me downs from Laura to pass along to her. It's not like she was even asking for money, but she was scared of Laura getting mad at her.

TBH, as fascinating as Prairie Fires was, I found it a depressing read. The poverty, the struggles, the less than close family ties once Laura moved away. 

Yes, finding out that within a very short time of Charles's death that that their   Mary and 62-year-old mother  Caroline were advertising to make men's shirts to sustain themselves was rather disconcerting. I mean, I know that Laura, Carrie and Grace weren't Vanderbilts but did they not at least try to see if they could pool their resources to help their blind sister and aging mother out?  It sure didn't seem so. 

On another note, the documentary unearthed recordings of Mrs. Wilder that I didn't know existed (which is odd in retrospect since she was famous the last quarter century of her life long after audio recordings had been invented). Anyway, I was struck with how 'folksy' her accent sounded and the fact that she pronounced her husband's name 'Al-MAHN-zoeh' NOT the Spanish way of 'Al- MOHN-zoeh (which makes her nickname for him' Manly' seem to have been more naturally evolved). So the series (plural) got that wrong! 

Edited December 30, 2020 by Blergh
recording addendum

[OtterMommy]

9 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I thought this program was great. I think Laura and Rose clashed because they were so alike. I was surprised that Rose wanted to omit Mary's blindness from the books. Almanzo loved Laura so much and she returned his feelings and I think it impacted her later life. I wonder why Charles would leave Wisconsin with a pregnant wife? Rose seems more like an English teacher than a daughter while she was helping Laura write the series.

I quite enjoyed this show as well...and it seemed like the producers/writers had been reading this thread!

From what I've read elsewhere, Rose and Laura had an interesting relationship.  Actually, Rose was more of a self-important pill and clashed frequently with her mother.

[nodorothyparker]

I liked it a lot even if I did think at points that it was hewing dangerously close to the same mythologizing that it accuses Wilder and the series of doing. It's interesting to me that while they recognized that there's enough of an issue with the books to include talking heads with Louise Erdrich and Roxanne Gay (the Gone With the Wind of children's series, indeed), the showrunners relegated discussion of Dr. Tann, Pa's foray into minstrelry which was a real WTF for me as a kid, and the black Buffalo soldiers stationed through the Dakota Territory that made the settling of places like De Smet even possible to an accompanying article on the PBS site.

Rose also came off comparatively sane and normal in this telling even with Caroline Fraser who won a Pulitzer for Prairie Fires sitting right there.

[smittykins]

On 12/25/2020 at 6:42 PM, Athena said:

"The Science of “Little House on the Prairie" - Smithsonian magazine article about how some scientific fans of Laura and the books tracked data and records to determine weather, location, and events.

 

Ms. Boustead was a regular contributor to the “Beyond Little House” blog, which unfortunately seems to be offline now(I keep getting an error message).  There were readalongs for The Long Winter on down, including Prairie Fires, which were humorous and witty.

[WinnieWinkle]

 

36 minutes ago, smittykins said:

Ms. Boustead was a regular contributor to the “Beyond Little House” blog, which unfortunately seems to be offline now(I keep getting an error message).  There were readalongs for The Long Winter on down, including Prairie Fires, which were humorous and witty.

I don't know if there's a connection (I think there is but I never went to the original blog so really not sure) but anyway there is a FB page called "Beyond Little House" - for some reason I can't link to it here but if you search FB with that term you should find it.

[smittykins]

Thank you!  There is a connection, and apparently the website has changed its address to liwlra.org.

Edited January 1, 2021 by smittykins

[Growsonwalls]

I was thinking of something ... I wonder how much the emphasis on Mary Ingalls' looks (blond, blue-eyed, which actually didn;t match Mary Ingalls' actual real-life appearance) was a literary device of sorts. In that the sister who most prizes her personal appearance in a cruel stroke of fate ends up blind? 

I never thought of it as a literary device until today.

Here is Mary Ingalls in real life. She seems to have very dark hair. Her face is somewhat plain.

[Starleigh]

I think she looks plain mostly because her hair is pulled back severely. 

 

 

[nodorothyparker]

In the few pictures that exist of her with Laura or the other sisters, Mary's hair does look a little lighter than theirs. It's always hard to be certain from black and white photos, but if I had to hazard a guess I'd think she was probably blonde as a child and her hair darkened to a dirty blonde or light brown as she got older. It happens to a lot of kids. Grace as a young child is also described as blonde and she's obviously not in family pictures of her as an adult. My oldest was so blonde and fair when he was little he could have been the poster boy for Aryan childhood and now that he's in his teens his hair is also that darker color. While I have no doubt that Laura played up the difference in the books, I've also read that the Ingalls parents made much of her being their golden girl, which made her infirmity so much more crushing to them when it happened. It's probably not a stretch to think that profoundly shaped how Laura remembered it.

I also vaguely recall reading that Mary had some nerve damage from the viral meningoencephalitis now thought to have been what caused her blindness that somewhat twisted her features. But if you look at the one picture of the family where all the girls are adults, all of Laura's sisters sort of look like that.

 

[WinnieWinkle]

Mary was probably like a lot of us growing up - blond hair that darkened but also a pretty child who maybe wasn't so pretty when fully grown.  I look back at pictures of my siblings and I and we were all attractive kids.  I wouldn't say we grew up homely by any means but like most others we grew up to become adults who wouldn't scare the birds but also wouldn't be winning any beauty pageants!

Edited January 28, 2021 by WinnieWinkle

[EtheltoTillie]

I’m so excited to find out about the PBS show. I will watch it in the next few days. They didn’t promote it at all in our area back in December. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I got to watch the documentary yesterday.  I think they did a good job of balancing the modern take on the difficult content and still maintaining respect for what is compelling about the storytelling.

[catlover79]

On 8/30/2019 at 4:46 PM, Snow Apple said:

I feel bad Mary went blind but why does she always get the warmest seat in the house while the others are out there working hard and/or walking to and from school in the cold? The one time she shared was when Laura and Carrie almost got lost in the blizzard and she still made sure it was known as *her* seat.

This post makes me think of Sheldon Cooper and his spot. 😉🤣😂