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Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder | |
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Directed by | Dean Butler |
Produced by | Dean Butler Robin Bernheim-Burger Trip Friendly |
Edited by | Alexander Gittinger |
Music by | Jay Asher |
Production companies | Legacy Documentaries Friendly Family Productions |
Release date |
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Running time | 56 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a documentary film about the life of American author Laura Ingalls Wilder. [1] She is best known for her Little House on the Prairie book series.
Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder was produced by Dean Butler and Robin Bernheim-Burger, and executive produced by Trip Friendly. [2] Butler, who portrayed Almanzo Wilder in Little House on the Prairie television series from 1979 to 1983, directed and narrated the documentary, which was released on DVD in February 2015.
Wilder's personal story as a writer, wife, and mother is explored through interviews with scholars and historians, passages from the Little House on the Prairie books, archival photography, paintings by frontier artists such as Harvey Dunn, dramatic reenactments, and original artwork. [1]
The DVD also examines topics relating to life and culture on the prairie. [1]
Dean Butler narrates and directs Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Visual images include frontier paintings by artist Harvey Dunn, who was born ten miles from De Smet, South Dakota, [3] five years after Charles Ingalls moved his family there. Illustrations by artist Cheryl Harness animate specific scenes and characters from the Little House on the Prairie books. Archival photographs from multiple sources provide a first-hand look at the people and places in Laura Ingalls Wilder's life.
Historians and academics provide commentary with interviews throughout the documentary. John E. Miller, historian and author of Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, adds details about Wilder's life. Pamela Smith Hill , author of Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life, comments on her development as a writer and her relationship with her daughter and editor, Rose Wilder Lane. Tanya Hart, a professor of history, puts the relationship of women to the law and the community in context with the time in which Laura Ingalls Wilder lived. Tai S. Edwards, professor of history, elaborates on the pioneers' perspective of the Osage Indians written about in Little House on the Prairie .
Re-enactors from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in De Smet, South Dakota portray the Ingalls and Wilder families, plus other characters. Robin Bernheim-Burger voices the role of Rose Wilder Lane. Katherine Cannon voices the role of Laura Ingalls Wilder and reads excerpts from the Little House on the Prairie books.
After a brief introduction, the narrative begins in 1885 with Laura Ingalls Wilder's life as a new wife and mother. It also details the hardships she and her family endure due to crop failures, debt, and crippling illnesses. Circumstances force her family to travel from South Dakota to Minnesota to Florida and then back again to South Dakota. In 1894, the Wilder family settled on Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri, where Laura and her husband, Almanzo, will live for the rest of their lives. It is during the journey to Missouri that Laura starts documenting her observations in personal journals, which become source material for her Little House on the Prairie books.
Laura Ingalls Wilder's writing career began almost by accident in 1911, when she declined to give a speech and instead had someone else read what she had written. The editor of the Missouri Ruralist magazine hears it and offers her a position as a columnist. For nine years thereafter, Laura wrote articles about farmers and farm life and, in particular, about issues important to farm women. [4] After a time, her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, now a successful professional writer, invites Laura to San Francisco to help improve her mother's writing skills, which she does—but not without pain and effort. With Rose as her editor, Laura is published in newspapers and magazines across the country.
The documentary chronicles the difficult author/editor relationship between Laura and Rose. [5] Rose moves back to Missouri to be close at hand as editor when Laura begins writing her first book Little House in the Big Woods . Both persevered together through the rejections and drafts until the book was finally published in 1932 when Laura was 65. However, Rose felt that her writing skills were superior to her mother's, and this led to conflict between the two. As Laura struggled to write a second novel about Almanzo Wilder called Farmer Boy and could have used Rose's help, Rose was busy writing her novel, Let the Hurricane Roar (reissued in 1976 as Young Pioneers ), which she based on her mother's memoirs without asking her permission. The relationship between the two becomes strained when Laura finds this out and doesn't improve until Rose volunteers to do research for Farmer Boy .
Farmer Boy is published in 1933, and Laura and Rose continue to work together on subsequent novels, but Laura began to assert herself more as she gains experience as a writer of children's books, something that Rose is reluctant to support. In many instances, Laura refuses to take Rose’s advice, such as leaving out how her sister Mary Ingalls becomes blind and is admitted to the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School. Instead, Laura follows her instincts about what should be included in the story and makes the incident a defining moment in By the Shores of Silver Lake . Conversely, there were real-life incidents that she purposely left out because she thought they were unsuitable for children, such as the death of her baby brother, Fredrick, when she was just 10 years old.
Drawing further upon her childhood experiences, she wrote Little House on the Prairie about life on the Kansas prairie, which was published in 1935; [6] On the Banks of Plum Creek about Walnut Grove, Minnesota (published 1937); [7] then four books about De Smet, South Dakota: By the Shores of Silver Lake (published 1939); The Long Winter (published 1940); Little Town on the Prairie (published 1941); and the last book of the series, about entering young adulthood, These Happy Golden Years , published in 1943.
The Little House on the Prairie book series has become known around the world. Public libraries and schools are named after Laura Ingalls Wilder. After World War II, General Douglas MacArthur had the Little House on the Prairie books translated for the Japanese people, [8] so that they could better understand and appreciate American values and culture. In 1954, the American Library Association created the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, which is awarded to outstanding authors of children's literature. [9] Laura Ingalls Wilder, at age 87, is its first recipient. In 1957, Laura Ingalls Wilder, suffering from diabetes and the loss of many loved ones, passed away at age 90.
Expanding on the subject material covered in the documentary, five DVD bonus features provide additional information relating to Laura Ingalls Wilder, her world, and the making of The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The bonus features are divided into two categories: Laura’s World and Behind the Scenes.
Native Americans & African Americans: Scholars and historians discuss the relationship between Native Americans and African Americans in the real and fictional worlds in which Laura Ingalls Wilder and the characters in her books grew up.
Harvey Dunn: American Artist: A Look at the Life of Harvey Dunn, a South Dakota-born artist known for his paintings inspired by a love of the prairie. Laura Ingalls Wilder, a contemporary of Harvey Dunn, kept one of his paintings above her writing desk.
The Morgan Horse: The versatile Morgan horse appears throughout the Little House on the Prairie books. This distinctive breed of horse could be used as both a show horse and for general labor—qualities much appreciated by their owners.
Art & Illustration: Cheryl Harness, artist, and illustrator, describes her process for creating her original sketches and paintings used in the documentary and shares how she was inspired by the Little House on the Prairie books.
Director Travel & Conversation: Dean Butler, director of The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder, recounts the locations he traveled to and the people he interacted with while constructing the documentary. He pays particular attention to members of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in De Smet, South Dakota, who re-enacted the roles of the main characters from the Little House on the Prairie books.
Scholars and historians interviewed for the documentary and bonus features include:
Organizations and locations used for research materials and film production, including (but not exclusive to) re-enactors, archival photos, supplemental film footage, and more, include:
De Smet is a city in and the county seat of Kingsbury County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,056 at the 2020 census.
The Little House on the Prairie books comprise a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the American Midwest between 1870 and 1894. Eight of the novels were completed by Wilder, and published by Harper & Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s, during her lifetime. The name "Little House" appears in the first and third novels in the series, while the third is identically titled Little House on the Prairie. The second novel, meanwhile, was about her husband's childhood.
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American writer. The Little House on the Prairie series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, were based on her childhood in a settler and pioneer family.
Almanzo James Wilder was the husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the father of Rose Wilder Lane, both noted authors.
Caroline Celestia Ingalls Swanzey was the third child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls, and was born in Montgomery County, Kansas. She was a younger sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who is known for her Little House books.
Mary Amelia Ingalls was born near the town of Pepin, Wisconsin. She was the first child of Caroline and Charles Ingalls and older sister of writer Laura Ingalls Wilder, known for her Little House book series.
Grace Pearl Ingalls Dow was the fifth and last child of Caroline and Charles Ingalls. She was the youngest sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, known for her Little House on the Prairie books.
Caroline Lake Ingalls (; née Quiner (later Holbrook); December 12, 1839 – April 20, 1924) was an American schoolteacher who was the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House books. She is depicted as the character "Ma" in the books and the television series.
Charles Phillip Ingalls was an American pioneer, farmer, government official, musician, and carpenter who was the father of Laura Ingalls Wilder, known for her Little House series of books. He is depicted as the character "Pa" in the books and the television series.
De Smet Cemetery is a cemetery located southwest of the town of De Smet in Kingsbury County, South Dakota, United States. Numerous family members from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books are buried there.
Nellie Oleson is a fictional character in the Little House series of autobiographical children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was portrayed by Alison Arngrim in the NBC television show Little House on the Prairie, where her role is much expanded. Three different girls from Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood — Nellie Owens, Genevieve Masters and Stella Gilbert — were the basis for the fictional Nellie Oleson.
The Long Winter is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1940, the sixth of nine books in her Little House series. It is set in southeastern Dakota Territory during the severe winter of 1880–1881, when she turned 14 years old.
By the Shores of Silver Lake is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1939, the fifth of nine books in her Little House series. It spans just over one year, beginning when she is 12 years old and her family moves from Plum Creek, Minnesota to what will become De Smet, South Dakota.
Little Town on the Prairie is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1941, the seventh of nine books in her Little House series. It is set in De Smet, South Dakota. It opens in the spring after the Long Winter and ends as Laura becomes a school teacher so she can help her sister, Mary, stay at a school for the blind in Vinton, Iowa. It tells the story of 15-year-old Laura's first paid job outside of home and her last term of schooling. At the end of the novel, she receives a teacher's certificate and is employed to teach at the Brewster settlement, 12 miles (19 km) away.
These Happy Golden Years is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1943, the eighth of nine books in her Little House series – although it originally ended it. It is based on her later adolescence near De Smet, South Dakota, featuring her short time as a teacher, beginning at age 15, and her courtship with Almanzo Wilder. It spans the time period from 1882 to 1885, when they marry.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder House is a historic house museum at 3060 Highway A in Mansfield, Missouri. Also known as Rocky Ridge Farm, it was the home of author Laura Ingalls Wilder from 1896 until her death in 1957. The author of the Little House on the Prairie series, Wilder began writing the series while living there. The house, together with the nearby Rock Cottage on the same property, represents one of the few surviving places where she resided. Shortly after her death local residents initiated legal steps to acquire the house through the incorporation of a non-profit organization to preserve her legacy. Owned by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association, the house is open to the public for tours. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991.
William Anderson is an American author, educator and lecturer.
A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America is a collection of early writings by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House series of children's novels. It consists of three parts: On the Way Home, a diary originally published in 1962; West from Home, a collection of letters from Wilder to her husband Almanzo Wilder written in 1915 and published in 1974; and The Road Back, a previously unpublished diary.