Beyond 40 Achievers: Laura Ingalls Wilder

My favorite books when I was a girl were the Little House...series of books, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder.   These books were part autobiographical and drew from her years living on the prairie with her sisters, brother and parents. She published her first book at age 65, Little House in the Woods. This was after years of being a homemaker, a farmer along side of her husband, and a teacher. The hardships she experienced, including the partial paralysis of her husband, and the loss of their home to a fire, only seemed to strengthen her resolve to write. Her first book, written as an autobiography and rejected by publishers, had to be re-written over several years into a novel. By the time she died, she’d written 12 books, enjoyed by millions of girls like me. Her books also which spawned a long-running popular TV show, starring Michael Landon.

So, for all you potential writers out there, consider your life stories and mine your personal experiences. I think Laura Ingalls Wilder’s special skill was being able to find the extraordinary in every day life, writer about it beautifully and realistically, engaging the reader in the story.