Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

Fantastic book. I grew up in MN, and my mother's and father's families grew up in the same Southern MN area. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books always rang true with my family stories. This is a great historical book, the foot notes show the recorded history and reveal that Laura Ingalls Wilder only at times "stretched the truth". This book makes Laura's stories even more 'true'. I cannot recommend it higher. 10 stars would not due it justicve.

I bought this for my wife. She loved it. I told her I'd reviewed it on her behalf and said I'd given it five stars. She said, "Meh - I would have given it four."

So four stars it is! Turns out it was like more than love.

I love the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Only problem is this one is very large and heavy, guess I'm spoiled by paper backs or my kindle paper white, this book is large and heavy and hard to hold to read..

If I could give this ten stars, I would! Just amazing, having the original inspiration for the fiction books, and tons of backstory in the way of extensive footnotes. Well researched, academic caliber, a slow but rewarding read.

The was too much input for me to read, (the right side information, constantly having to back-check). My eyes are too old for this. I read about Laura Ingalls Wilder my Whole life. So I gave the book to my Daughter to read.

Fantastic book. I grew up in MN, and my mother's and father's families grew up in the same Southern MN area. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books always rang true with my family stories. This is a great historical book, the foot notes show the recorded history and reveal that Laura Ingalls Wilder only at times "stretched the truth". This book makes Laura's stories even more 'true'. I cannot recommend it higher. 10 stars would not due it justicve.

I bought this for my wife. She loved it. I told her I'd reviewed it on her behalf and said I'd given it five stars. She said, "Meh - I would have given it four."

So four stars it is! Turns out it was like more than love.

I love the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Only problem is this one is very large and heavy, guess I'm spoiled by paper backs or my kindle paper white, this book is large and heavy and hard to hold to read..

If I could give this ten stars, I would! Just amazing, having the original inspiration for the fiction books, and tons of backstory in the way of extensive footnotes. Well researched, academic caliber, a slow but rewarding read.

The was too much input for me to read, (the right side information, constantly having to back-check). My eyes are too old for this. I read about Laura Ingalls Wilder my Whole life. So I gave the book to my Daughter to read.

I'm glad I bought it as I have all books written by and about Laura. Having said that I found it difficult to read. The explanations and notes were too copious. With very little text on each page. This book was years in the making. Surely they could have come up with a better format

Super happy to have pre-ordered this, what with all of the demand. Really interesting to read - although, doing so will take me a long time. I get why it's not available on Kindle - I can't imagine how you'd work the annotations in that format - but this is a book that you pretty much have to read at home base, which makes it difficult for me. That said, I'll get it through it some day and be glad that I did so!

The book is heavy. If you carry it with you and are being mugged, this book will cause blunt-force trauma to the perpetrator's head if you hit him with it.

If you are a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan and an overall book junkie, this is so worth the money AND the wait.

The author did her research on every single person, place, or thing Wilder ever interacted with. I bet the author would make a great private eye...

I loved this book. I don't know why it didn't come out sooner.

My only beef is with the publisher of this book for not printing enough books.

The book looks lovely as I flip through. My criticism might be a strange one but I have yet to read it because of the sheer size of this book. It is not portable and in fact it's more the size and heft of a history textbook. I had hoped to carry it along with me on my summer travels but that proved to be a chore and I decided instead to sit with it over the winter to read. A strange criticism for sure but knowing about the heft of this book would have swayed me. This is not a book that can be carried with you on daily errands, nor can it be tucked into your bag without evoking memories of fifth grade. I will update my review as I read it. For now, I felt compelled to write a review as this book has been sitting on my shelf since May waiting for summer to be over.

It's not quite what I expected. Far from being her actual original book, it is a somewhat hard to follow version of the previous books, along with copious amounts of side notes, many of which dont seem to matter. There is also WAY too much discussion of her daughter's life and career. I understand Rose Wilder Lane was a large part of her mother's life after she was born but her life as an adult has nothing to do with Laura's own growing up. Really couldve used a lot less ofher. It's just ok. If I couldve seen it before buying, I wouldve passed.

The book you receive will not be the first printing, it will be a reprint from the 1st edition. I have since returned the book, but then again I was not buying to read, I was buying for the collectible value of it, and it has no value when it is a reprint.

I am in awe of the work that went into composing this book. There was so much detail and background that you'd have to study it for a long time to get all the information down. Census records were consulted, maps and diagrams were included. Photos of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Almanzo and other family members were included. They even discuss locust infestations and try to corroborate the stories with historical records in order to establish the sequence of many events. Lane often used some of these stories for her other writings, and all that is documented here as well.

Painstaking efforts were made to corroborate the stories told. A lot of time and effort are dedicated to why the text is the way it is (even why certain sentences are passive vs. active)...what motivated Wilder and Lane to use the wording they did. Some characters are an amalgam of a few people. Even minutiae like Wilder indicating that she is unsure about spelling are discussed.

I've often read accusations of it not being Wilder's work and that it was largely fictionalized. This book deals with those accusations head on and explains both the actual stories (where they may have been embellished) and the motivations for those embellishments. The sidebars provide political and social insight of the time to help the reader understand the background of many events.

It really is an amazing work. However, it is better suited to a more enthusiastic fan of the works, and also those who want to get to the bottom of many debates about it. This book is not for those that enjoy the romanticized tale that was published and oft-read in schools and libraries. It is truly for those who are ready to see the story dissected and put back together in an entirely new light. You won't be able to un-see or un-think the new perspective, so only read this book if you can let go of the happy tales that are in the Little House series and see something entirely new. It is definitely a journey.

I also feel that if you don't really love the Little House series, you may be very bored by this book and a number of things might be over your head. This isn't they type of book you just pick up and read cover to cover. It is a serious piece of research that requires thought and reflection.

Excellent work. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her autobiography in a no-nonsense style for her daughter Rose. Later, this memoir was tweaked into the children's stories that we all loved. What really fascinated me however, was the painstaking research done by Pamela Hill, that appears down the margins of the pages of the memoir. The details and research done by Hill answer many questions and clarify so many details about the history of Wilder's life. We find out how much Wilder left out of the Little House books to simplify them and make them into Children's books.
I would recommend this for anyone who wants to know more of Wilder's real story. This book contains much more description of the harsh life of the homesteaders in the late 1800s.
This is a very scholarly work, it is like a dissertation. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in the settlement of the West, and in Laura Ingalls Wilder specifically.

When this comes out in kindle, I will purchase it. (Have been renting the library copy in the meantime, many times over). I grew up reading the little house series, and read/gave them to my children/grandchildren. My grandson read Farmer Boy:). I LOVE seeing pictures, and finding out what happened to the people so vividly brought to life by LIW. It is NOT a read through book, though I suppose you could, stopping for annotations, which I believe most of the lower reviews were for, because they don't enjoy that sort of thing. Or read he Pioneer Girl part first, and then take your time going through it again, with annotations. But for us superfan browsers, it is a perfect book. The author did a fabulous job. I look at it as almost an encyclopedia reference, and I read all the LHBooks in order all over again, going back and forth. Lovely book! (On an aside, I ordered all the Little House books on my kindle, as my set has gone to various grandchildren, and the beautiful illustrations by Garth are all there,)

It was worth the wait! I'm reading slowly to enjoy the last time I'll read something new by Laura and am learning so much about how she developed as a writer and became confident in her work and her understanding of her readers. I'm struck by the talent needed to write for younger children initially and have the books "grow up" with the reader. The work put into this is incredible. It's almost like taking a college class all about Laura.

So many of us have grown up with the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. They are true American treasures and while they were fiction, they were also based largely on fact, painting a picture of the American frontier for millions of boys and girls. "Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography," is the definitive edition of how those books came to be and the true life and times of the young Laura Ingalls.

Ingalls Wilder didn't start out to write a series of children's books. Instead she wrote an adult version of her life story called "Pioneer Girl." Her daughter, author Rose Wilder Lane, who at that time had a career that outshone her mother, attempted to find a publisher for it to no avail. A juvenile version was also developed (included in this book as a facsimile appendix) but that one also could find no buyer. Still the duo did not give up and ultimately the books we know and love came to be written. The Introduction of this autobiography shares this fascinating behind the scenes tale of the creation of the Little House books.

Then, the original manuscript itself is included. Truly, the word "annotated" is an understatement. Every fact is checked and explored in this hefty tome. The notes provide an interesting expanded look at the world of this time and the people who inhabited it. The work that went into this project is mind-blowing.

This is the definitive guide on the youth of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Any serious scholar studying or writing about her and anyone interested in learning more about her life will want a copy of this book to spend some quality time with.

Hardcore Laura fans will like this book. The footnotes carry a wealth of information on the series' characters, settings and publication history. Ever wonder what became of Reverend Alden or Laura's friend Ida? You'll find it here, often with photos. The manuscript itself is equal to a first draft of the "Little House" books, which is what Laura intended when she first began writing. She changed her work to historical fiction to suit market demand. If you're not interested in information from behind the scenes, or find footnotes annoying (normally I do), then this book may disappoint.

Good self-written treatise on the Little House books.

Some of my happiest childhood memories were getting to read the Little House books that we borrowed from the bookmobile in our area. I loved those books and later on my sister sent me the complete set which I cherish. I have read several biographies of Laura Ingalls Wilder and thought I knew most things about her. Pioneer Girl taught me a whole lot more than I imagined. This is a beautiful book with those lovely illustrations. In reading it, Laura Ingalls Wilder becomes even more real to me. I can picture her doing some of the things I am reading. Her memories are delightful and the annotation is so very good. I am very pleased with this book which was a gift from a friend. It made my day and reminded me of happy childhood reading time. I wonder how many people have been enchanted as I have been by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I greatly appreciate this book. Five stars definitely.

My daughter bought me this for Christmas. She and her sister are still waiting to read it, and I'm aching to talk to them about it. I am more impressed than ever with the Little House series and the collaboration of mother and daughter. When I read Ghost in the Little House the first time, I was disgusted, thinking that the author hated LIW. Then I read it again and while I was able to appreciate the value of RWL's contribution, I still felt that he demonized LIW. This book is far better. There is no sense of animosity toward mother or daughter. SPOILER ALERT: one reviewer complains that there is nothing in Pioneer Girl that isn't in the Little House series. Well, take the story of the Benders, that Laura told a group about, saying that she had left it out because it wasn't suitable for children. But the picture she paints of her father telling the family about them, pretending to have been involved in a posse hunt, sharing lurid details about a child thrown alive into a mass grave. Then he told Laura that he never realized she had been old enough to understand, but that she never needed to worry about the Benders because they'd never be found. Laura went to her grave, presumably, thinking that her father had told her mother about something that he'd participated in. Instead, we realize that this man took advantage of his family's isolation to make himself look important in their eyes. And think of the nightmares she suffered as a child because of it. I can see why some are disappointed to have to wade through the all the footnotes to read Laura's memoir. As an English major, I live for footnotes. This book and Pamela Smith Hill's biography of LIW are wonderful companion pieces.

A friend just asked how I was liking this book. This was my reply:
Fantastic! Lots of extra information, photos( Mrs. Boast!) and re- writes- did you know there was an extra family staying with the Ingalls during The Long Winter? The man was 23, and so lazy. He ate all the potatoes before Pa and wouldn't do any chores! He would try to get the warmest spot by the wood stove.
I cried when I read what happened to Cap Garland.
It is a treasure.

This is well written, very well researched book. It is a large book 9.5 by 10 inches by 1.5 inches thick. When you open the book there are 4 columns two to a page. One column is the Pioneer Girl story in normal size print and the other three are small print notes about everything Laura mentions. Every person, place,thing,song, story,game, dress etc has detailed notes about it. The book ends at the end of the book These Happy Golden years. While I understand it was about Laura's autobiography, I had hoped for more information about the rest of her life. Their lives were so much harder than the little books talked about. (less)

The Little House books are fiction, based on memory - this is the original story!
With Pictures! and Maps! (please enjoy the squee. I loved the Little House series.)

Is this for adults or kids? Well, this review is only of the first 1/4 of the book.
Further notes must wait until my teen-aged daughter lets me have the book back. ;)

Is this only for people who squee for the Little House books? No, there's a lot of historical information that is not in the Little House children's books, either because a child-narrator does not include such things or because Laura Ingalls Wilder could not find the information from her childhood 50 to 60 years ago.

The books starts a couple of chapters about Laura, her daughter Rose, and living through the Great Depression and needing money. Laura wrote her memories while in her 60s, remembering back to when she was four-sixteen. (go on, try to remember what happened when you were four.) There's information about how the manuscript went from publishing house to publishing house. Yadda yadda.

Then the real deal! The pages are arranged in 2 columns, with Laura's original text in the main column and commentary on the side. Sometimes the commentary spills over to the next page. It's all interesting! Some comments are straight history. Some show where Laura remembered one thing for her memoir, and changed it for the children's fiction books. Some was for dramatic purpose.

Some changes were made to make Pa more important: There are several places where Ma or a neighbor woman taught Laura something, and Little House attributed it to Pa-the-patriarch.

Some comments come from a book - no, article - called "Little Squatter," a commentary from the point of view of the First Nations on how the Pioneers were actually land thieves. Possibly one of these:
* http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatpl...

* http://www.dammingtheosage.com/little...

Laura wrote this autobiography in 1930, and tried unsuccessfully for many years to get it published; this is the first time it has seen print. As it’s never been through the editorial process with a publisher, one should not expect this story to be polished: it should be enjoyed as merely an initial draft. Much of the book reads like a long letter that a grandmother might write to her grandchildren (in fact, there are many personal notes to her daughter embedded into the autobiography, such as, “You probably remember the dress I’m referring to here”). Instead, one should read this primarily for the extensive and scholarly annotations by the world’s premier Laura expert, and for the historical illustrations, photos, maps, diagrams, etc.

But as an unpublished rough draft, this is surely one of the richest sources of raw material ever: it was the genesis of not only seven Little House books, but also numerous short stories and novels written by Rose Wilder Lane. Yes, while Rose was helping her mother find a publisher, she was also “borrowing” scenes, characters, and events for her own writing ventures. It’s quite shocking behavior from a daughter/editor, because publishers are less inclined to publish material that has already appeared in print. But such is the incredible richness of this material that it not only survived Rose’s poaching, but gave birth to seven separate books, four of which won the Newbery Award. (One book that Rose successfully saw published centered on characters named Charles and Caroline, who grew wheat and dealt with blizzards and grasshoppers while living in a dugout. Laura did not know of this book’s existence until it appeared in print. She was not happy.)

A scene that fills only a few short lines or a paragraph in Pioneer Girl might be fleshed out to a chapter or more in the finished Little House books. Conversely, there is material in the autobiography that was completely left out of the children’s books. And so we arrive at the unpleasant and contentious issue of the “truth” of the Little House books. Yes, Laura lied about a few things. I am deeply pained—even scarred—by a few revelations:
They didn’t keep Jack until he died of old age. Pa gave him away on the Kansas prairie; he wasn’t even with them on Plum Creek!
The Big Woods were not as lonely and massive and wild as depicted.
The Ingalls family was not alone in their house throughout the Long Winter: they were sharing their home with a young married couple with a newborn baby!

But despite the upsetting revelations, I maintain that the Little House books are mostly true. Most of what’s in there exists in some form in the Pioneer Girl autobiography, and a great many scenes are identical, even down to the dialogue. Clearly, the books are slightly fictionalized versions of true stories, not outright fiction. I grew very, very weary of the annotations continually referring to the "fictional Laura” or the “fictional family,” or the “fictional Ingalls,” or “in fictionalizing this scene…” Often I thought if I read the word “fictional” one more time I would lose all patience. Why the relentless insistence that the books are fictional? They’re obviously not! I’m actually more pissed by Pamela Hill’s use of this word than I am by Laura’s indiscretions.

I already knew, from Donald Zochert’s Laura and William Holtz’s The Ghost in the Little House, that Laura exaggerated her family’s self-reliance. For example, Silver Lake readers are told that Mary’s college was paid for entirely by the family’s hard work—primarily Laura’s teaching work. The truth is that Mary went to college on a government subsidy—Dakota Territory had no school for blind children, so the territory paid the Iowa College for the Blind. All blind children in Dakota were eligible to receive this. However, Laura and her Libertarian daughter/editor felt that emphasizing the Ingalls’s independence and Laura’s self-sacrifice was critical to the books, so this fact was omitted. I came to Pioneer Girl armed with such knowledge, so I was prepared to learn of a few other similar inconsistencies here and there. This does not make the entire series fiction. Pamela Hill should be ashamed of herself for attempting to brainwash readers into reclassifying the Little House books.

Moving on: Whether or not the 1930 autobiography appeals to you, this is must-read simply for the ancillary material. Three of the photographs are worth the entire cost of the book: there’s a picture of Nellie with her family, and two photos of Clarence and Eva Huleatt, circa 1872. These were the children in the Big Woods whom Laura climbed trees with (she admired Clarence’s copper-toed shoes). The photographs are mesmerizing and the biographical details about what became of people later in life are fascinating. (Nellie’s entire family ended up moving to Portland, where they lived until their deaths. Who knew?)

Two side notes:
The cover art is ugly and misrepresents the book. This is a scholarly book and the cover should incorporate some of the original photos.
A few of the annotations it must be said are a bit silly. I didn’t need a description of what a badger is. Another reviewer complained that reading the annotations is like being accosted in a bar by a drunk history professor who won’t stop talking. I disagree that the situation is that bad, but I love the analogy.

Is this book for someone who has not read the Little House series?
Laura Ingalls Wilder herself said that the world of the high plains pioneers was “a different civilization.” Her books are a skillful and agreeable introduction to that world from someone who comes from it, as opposed to the judgmental dissection of a modern outsider. I found myself looking forward to reading the book in the same way that fans of Harry Potter or Aubrey and Maturin look forward to entering the worlds they live in.
This book is in some ways better than the series since it retains darker events not suitable for children; people are not melded into composite, fictional characters; and events are not moved around to create a better story arc.
So even though the names and references will not resonate with you the way they would to Talmudic readers of “Little House,” if you have not read the “Little House” books because they are for children, this might be the book for you.

This is a beautiful book; well researched, and almost everything you ever wanted to know about Laura Ingalls Wilder. However, I am not sure I like the format of the countless footnotes that appear throughout Laura's original text. The explanations for those footnotes are written all over the margins of the pages. It is a rather messy and overwhelming method. Each time I turn the page, I don't know if I should just concentrate on reading Laura's writings and ignore the footnotes, or try to take it all in at once. I still haven't figured out the best way to attack reading it; it's almost like a text book. I also think some of the things that are foot-noted are completely innocuous, and many of the footnotes go into very (unnecessarily) long winded tangents. I hate to complain – because on one hand, this is the most information I have seen on this (one of my favorite!) subjects in a long time – but on the other hand, I think it is presented in a very convoluted manner..I would never tell anyone not to buy the book – but I would say, be forewarned that it is not a very relaxing read (in my opinion.) It's not at all what I expected. It's a beautiful addition to my Little House collection – but I honestly don't know if and when I will ever get to read through all of it. I want to...but I feel like it would take absolutely forever. I can't even get through the endless intro without glazing over.

The original manuscript of Wilder with heavily annotated additions (but not difficult to read at all if you want to skip the annotations). All the questions you pondered as you read the novels are answered in this autobiography and more. Includes photographs of places, real people, drawings, and writing samples. Explains how the real life of Wilder was turned into the novels. This is a complete book about the life and writings of Wilder and her family. The annotations include evidence and documents from archives and historical collections. The contributors must have spent months assembling all the facts and details into the annotations. I found this extremely interesting. If you want to know more about the real life of Wilder, read this. It is worth it. Very well presented.

I rate the autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder a five. Also Pamela Hill Smith deserves an A for her effort to painstakingly research every possible aspect of Pioneer Girl.

However, the result is a Master’s Thesis better shelved in the back room of a University Library rather than a book most Laura Ingalls Wilder fans will cherish. The long introduction involves the process Laura and her daughter Rose went through to get Laura’s story published. This is interesting particularly to me who has taken up writing in my retirement.

The problem is with the main part of the book where Laura’s tale appears in one column of the page and footnotes in another column and frequently on two columns of the facing page, i.e. there are more words in the footnotes than in the autobiography. This presents the reader with a tough logistical problem of how to read this part of the book. I began by reading every footnote. When this ruined my enjoyment of the real reason I bought the book, I began to read all of the story on the page and then the footnotes on the two facing pages. When this still interrupted the flow I had to regroup again. By then I had discovered that every person Laura mentioned had been researched by Ms. Hill through the census and other public records giving birth, marriage, and death dates, number of children, etc. I decided I did not want to read around 100 obituaries of strangers to me and often bare acquaintances of Laura. In one case there was a footnote to indicate that said character encountered could not be found. Along the way I also decided I did not care when a song was written and who composed it just because it was mentioned in Laura’s book. When baseball was mentioned, a footnote described the history of baseball. There were occasional footnotes of real interest, but it was difficult to predict when it was worth turning from Laura’s words. One footnote stated that “Pa bought a pig from Uncle Henry” was replaced with “Pa owned a pig” in one version for a particular publisher.

By the end I did what my husband did from the get-go, namely not read any of the footnotes, but I was over halfway through. Only then did I appreciate the reading experience. The unfortunate part of abandoning the footnotes altogether is missing the few footnotes which add genuine context. For example the fact that Nellie Olson of the Little House Books is an amalgam of several distinct characters in Pioneer Girl is very interesting as it indicates a more general resentment of school mates who use their better clothes and more belongings to claim superiority.
I rate Ms. Hill’s selection of what to footnote and her organization of the footnotes a 2. If one must footnote to death the copy, then it should have been included at the end and separated into categories such as People in Laura’s Life, Songs the Ingalls Sang, Contradictions between Pioneer Life and the Little House Books, Edits to Pioneer Girl, Changes Made to Ready the Little House Books Fiction for Children, etc. Then those interested can easily dig in without spoiling Laura’s contribution. For the record, I read the series two or three times as a child and two or three times to my own children. I took a weekend when my children were young to travel to the Wilder Museum in De Smet South Dakota and made a scrapbook of my purchase of pictures and cards there. I consider myself a major fan of all things Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was thrilled to discover there was something she had written I had not read.

I would have to compare the main part of the book to a one inch slice of moist and flavorful carrot cake smothered with a one inch layer of dry, sugar sweet sprinkles on all sides.

I have been to West Branch, Iowa and have seen the papers of Rose Wilder Lane, who left most all of her personal and professional documents - including Pioneer Girl - to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. She was a big fan of Hoover's, in brief.

This book, with all its research notes and facts, makes for a very interesting read. Kudos to those involved. Do be aware that anyone can request a copy of Pioneer Girl if this book is beyond your budget, or if you just want an old-fashioned readable copy of the original before it was turned into the children's literary series we all know well.

I have a copy of Pioneer Girl (from a copy of the original typewritten manuscript held at the library). You simply submit a form (you can call or email the library with questions) and request any and all information. Despite other reviews, the manuscript is NOT difficult to read but is of course not illustrated, embellished upon, annotated or edited, etc.

And for that, any Laura or Rose fan will be grateful for this annotated autobiography. I have no doubt of this. Details beyond the manuscript are always interesting. The entire Iowa experience was left out of the book series, and you'll find out why if you get this autobiography or order the manuscript yourself.

You can also request copies of documents from transcribed interviews between Rose Wilder Lane and Almanzo Wilder (Rose's father), and an interview done with Helen "Troub" Boylston - who lived at Rocky Ridge Farm after the Albanian adventures with Rose. The interview with Boylston was done when she was living out her last years in a home for the elderly. Her discussions are firstly personal but also cover her travels and strong friendship with Rose, Rose's relationship with Laura (not good), Laura's personality (complex) and Almanzo's personality. All are very interesting. Even Rose's letters to and from her publishers are interesting.

If, however, you have patience, you can call and find out how to make a request for the Pioneer Girl manuscript or any other documents pertaining to Rose W. Lane or Laura Ingalls Wilder, it's worth the wait for little cost (copies cost).

Bear in mind this is a very, very small library in the middle of rural Iowa with a very small but helpful staff. Do a search for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and look around the Laura Ingalls Wilder Web Site Index at the top right of the home page. There is a form on this Web site to request various materials from the library.

Making that trip to the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa was very much worth the time and effort. Make advance plans with the Laura Ingalls Wilder historian(s) if you choose to go.

I really liked this because I was already fascinated with Wilder's books and her family history--I got misty-eyed seeing Pa's cottonwood trees out on the slight rise southeast of DeSmet in 1992. It's a good book for geeks like me, but not for someone who just wants a "good read" about life on the prairies. I'm fascinated by the progression of Wilder's work over the years, and her daughter's role in that, and this book, following my reading of *A Writer's Life,* satisfied most of my questions about these things.

Book #89 Read in 2015
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography--Laura Ingalls Wilder

I loved the Little House books and television show as a kid. This book is Wilder's autobiography, full of annotations to bring a better understanding of historical references and such. This book was an interesting look at an interesting woman. There were times while reading this that I could totally remember the parts about the same scenes in the Little House books. This was a nice read to reconnect with a childhood favorite. I borrowed this book from my town library.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Well worth the wait. I had it on order for a long time before I finally got it. The "voice" of Laura is really there, like meeting up with a childhood friend after many, many years. The research, photos, maps and details of everybody in every town that had even minor connections to the Wilder family is amazing. Read it once, picking through the annotations, notes and extras, then again just to get the feel of the story. The Little House books gave a pretty good picture of "ordinary life" at that time in history geared to children. Laura did a good job with that, giving me a life-long interest in history. Getting the rest of the story as a adult is even better.

PIONEER GIRL is an autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was a predecessor to the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE series. This edition is singular because Pamela Smith Hill edited and heavily annotated PIONEER GIRL; some pages have more annotations than original manuscript! It also contains a facsimile of the juvenile version of PIONEER GIRL. However, some of the content of the "regular" PIONEER GIRL is not intended for children; there is even the mention of an attempted sexual assault. Even so, Wilder scholars will have a feast!

This edition is very limited, so it will take additional time to arrive, but it is worth the wait.

I have always been a big Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. I received this book as a gift. I enjoyed it very much, although I was expecting more of a traditonal autobiography. Instead, it was the Little House books in their original forms, changes made, real life events described, reasons why alterations were necessary for publication, illustrations and photographs and more. LIW's daughter Rose Wilder Lane was the editor of the books, and her relationship with her mother was explored. The side-notes were quite interesting to a reader who is very familiar with the published series. The book is long, and it will take the reader a while to get through, but it will be great to have on hand a s a reference to these classic children's stories. The one thing I did not like was the cover illustration!

This book is what the original Little House books are based on. It is the collaborative efforts of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane. Rose Wilder Lane was a famous writer, in her own right. When her mother decided to write her life story, Rose helped with the editing. This collection is sometimes very different from the fictionalized Little House series. It is quite an eye opening experience for those readers who have always believed that those books were the true accounts of Laura's life. Pioneer Girl is the basic bones to all Little House stories. The autobiography itself includes incredibly interesting facts about the people and places that Laura mentions in her series. Photo's are included of all of the characters. Pioneer Girl rounds out and fills in what we know or what we thought we knew about Laura and her life.

It's a highly interesting read and a must have for collectors of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

http://grammyrosesbooknook.blogspot.com/2015/02/pioneer-girl-annotated-autobiography-by.html

This is such a wonderfully done book--exhaustively and carefully researched, well written, lively. As an American, with our very short history, and as an Army brat who grew up in nearly as many places as Laura herself did, I often feel adrift in the world--but the fact is that this IS our history, and our culture.

Kudos to the editorial team, who have done a great thing in illuminating one of our great American treasures: the work of Laura Ingalls Wilder. While she's often overlooked as a writer of "mere" YA fiction (for girls, yet!) her work is a rare chronicle of one of the most interesting chapters of our history. This edition of her first draft is grittier and more real--a perfect complement to the more artfully-shaped novels I grew up on.

I loved the book. It's an intense reading experience, trying to absorb all the historical and genealogy information provided in the side notes. Later I may go back and just read the main text of the autobiography alone so I can enjoy the flow of Wilder's writing.

This book is a treasure and fans of the Little House books or even the television series seem to have an insatiable curiosity about the real story behind the classic children's books. This satisfies with so much detail and great photos and maps.

If you loved Little House books, and love serious reading..this is for you! I had to get it from another source since it is backordered on the store, but it was worth the extra trouble. It takes a bit to get used to using the very detailed annotations, but they give the reader a deeper understanding of the Little House books, charactors, and the process of writing them. The pictures were fantastic to look at...who knew that "Nelly" was a brunette. It also gives a realistic version of the Ingalls family, and of Laura especially. I found the most interesting part was the role that her daughter played in the writing and publication of her mothers stories. Both women were strong of spirit.

Note.. this is not a book to sit down and absorb in one sitting. Think more of a text book on a subject that you love.

My husband ordered this for me Saturday after Thanksgiving for my birthday a month later. Well, it arrived today, and I wanted to let those of you still waiting it will be in soon! I spent my lunch hour turning the pages and reading the captions, saving the actual text for later. It's exactly as promised -- lots and lots of information, photos, and drawings. I've read other LIW biographies and been to the Rocky Ridge Farm museum so I've seen many of the photos before but not all of them. Beautifully printed on off-white book stock. Can't wait to get started.

I’m really enjoying this book. Wilder’s writing is less polished than I expected, but the notes are extensive and fascinating. I’m reading it at the same time as Prairie Fires, which is borderline torturous to get through.

This is a well written book. Pamela Hill has gone to great legenths i to locate a vast amount of documents, in print and out of print resources. I could not be more of an admirer of her Laura Ingalls and Rose Wilder research. However, somewhere along the line people have have lost sight of reasonably pricing this book. When this book was released to the public, it wasn't expensive. Nowadays, the money hungry have latched on and the price is gone through the roof. The original South Dakota press seriously needs to find a press company large enough to handle demand. With each passing day's delay, the price inflators are at work raising the price even higher for the public. That's a true shame. This is not a 50.00 book. It certainly isn't a almost 100.00 book either. Be wary of contributing to unfair prices.

Warning: if it's been awhile since you've read the Little House series, you might want to go back and review because this 400 page Annotated Autobiography, which includes a bibliography and index, is actually two books. The original manuscript along with the accompanying footnotes make this thick volume covering the entire life of the author an unofficial "Cliff's Notes" to the bestselling series. It also includes lots of photos, maps and fascinating tidbits of information that will satisfy even the casual fan. Its only fault was leaving out Farmer Boy.
The book is a wonderful addition to the series. Thanks to the meticulous research of the editors, fans will devour this new autobiography as it clarifies the historical fact from Wilder's literary fiction.
First is a long introduction telling the origin story of how and why Laura Ingalls Wilder decided to sit down and write her life story aptly entitled Pioneer Girl. She showed this manuscript to her adult daughter, Rose, already a published author herself.
Three additional manuscripts emerged from the wealth of stories Pioneer Girl provided. Suggestions by Rose and other literary editors all contributed to what became the nine volume series of children's books celebrating the American pioneer spirit we know and love today.
The main body of Pioneer Girl consists of nine sections where the life story of Laura Ingalls Wilder is presented to the reader. Fans who have read other biographies about Wilder (I recommend Laura, the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert) will already be familiar with the sections of her life she decided to leave out or combine such as the time the family spent in Iowa before returning to Minnesota and that another family lived with them during the Hard Winter.
New insights about how difficult it was to survive, eking out a living on the unforgiving prairie back in the day, while appreciating the good times with family and friends make this book a must read for anyone who ever enjoyed the Little House series.

I agree with the person who said the marketing on this book was all wrong. For lovers of Laura Ingalls Wilder, this book is not a continuation of her stories, although I had the impression from reading articles about it that it was. There are a number of things that I find annoying in this book but the biggest one is the author's use of calling Rose and Laura by their surnames .. they are instead "Lane" and "Wilder". I don't know them by those names. They are Rose and Laura to me and using their last names is not only confusing, I find it disrespect in a way that I'm not sure how to explain. Laura never intended for her books to be 100% non-fiction ... the sole purpose of her writing the Little House books was to write down her childhood stories and her memories and those, in particular, of her father. Yet the author hammers in over and over and over again that Laura was intentionally lying and, in fact, the books were mostly written by Rose. I find this offensive and I believe Laura must be rolling in her grave if she's able to see this book in print now.

Laura's books were written nearly 100 years ago in a time that is completely foreign to us now. If you know anything at all about Laura, you will know how much it meant to her to have her stories accepted and loved by so many children. I do not believe she ever intended some "scholar" to go through the books 100 years later and rip her apart as well as the stories she wrote. They were stories for children ... written so the life Laura led would be shared with kids who, even then, couldn't imagine crossing the prairie in a covered wagon or any of the other amazing things she did in her lifetime.

If you grew up loving Laura Ingalls Wilder and you want to read more of the stories she wrote, this book is not for you. It's big, heavy, difficult to read, and a huge disappointment as far as I'm concerned. Save your money and borrow it from the library.

Apparently this is a hard-to-find book (my husband drove over two hours to find the book for me for Christmas -- yes, he is awesome!). It was worth every bit of it. Not only is it intriguing to read Little House in its raw form, it is incredible to see photos of even minor characters (Ida and Elmer, for starters).
I've been to all the Little Houses, except for Farmer Boy's place in New York and this book was a sheer delight. Thanks to those who researched and wrote about the back story.

Very well done. Everything I expected and more. If you are interested in the autobiographical aspects of Laura Ingalls Wilder, then this is the right book for you.

So that you understand my background (which may have directly influenced how much I loved this book): I adored the Little House books growing up; I later majored in history in college; and as an adult I prefer to read non-fiction. I can't decide whether the best part of this volume is Wilder's Pioneer Girl text (very interesting in its own right -- and quite different from the children's books) or the extensive annotations. Note that the target audience of this volume is not children. Even though I loved all things Little House as a kid, I wouldn't have appreciated Pioneer Girl until my late 20s at the earliest.

Is this book for someone who has not read the Little House series?
Laura Ingalls Wilder herself said that the world of the high plains pioneers was “a different civilization.” Her books are a skillful and agreeable introduction to that world from someone who comes from it, as opposed to the judgmental dissection of a modern outsider. I found myself looking forward to reading the book in the same way that fans of Harry Potter or Aubrey and Maturin look forward to entering the worlds they live in.
This book is in some ways better than the series since it retains darker events not suitable for children; people are not melded into composite, fictional characters; and events are not moved around to create a better story arc.
So even though the names and references will not resonate with you the way they would to Talmudic readers of “Little House,” if you have not read the “Little House” books because they are for children, this might be the book for you.

This is a beautiful book; well researched, and almost everything you ever wanted to know about Laura Ingalls Wilder. However, I am not sure I like the format of the countless footnotes that appear throughout Laura's original text. The explanations for those footnotes are written all over the margins of the pages. It is a rather messy and overwhelming method. Each time I turn the page, I don't know if I should just concentrate on reading Laura's writings and ignore the footnotes, or try to take it all in at once. I still haven't figured out the best way to attack reading it; it's almost like a text book. I also think some of the things that are foot-noted are completely innocuous, and many of the footnotes go into very (unnecessarily) long winded tangents. I hate to complain – because on one hand, this is the most information I have seen on this (one of my favorite!) subjects in a long time – but on the other hand, I think it is presented in a very convoluted manner..I would never tell anyone not to buy the book – but I would say, be forewarned that it is not a very relaxing read (in my opinion.) It's not at all what I expected. It's a beautiful addition to my Little House collection – but I honestly don't know if and when I will ever get to read through all of it. I want to...but I feel like it would take absolutely forever. I can't even get through the endless intro without glazing over.

The original manuscript of Wilder with heavily annotated additions (but not difficult to read at all if you want to skip the annotations). All the questions you pondered as you read the novels are answered in this autobiography and more. Includes photographs of places, real people, drawings, and writing samples. Explains how the real life of Wilder was turned into the novels. This is a complete book about the life and writings of Wilder and her family. The annotations include evidence and documents from archives and historical collections. The contributors must have spent months assembling all the facts and details into the annotations. I found this extremely interesting. If you want to know more about the real life of Wilder, read this. It is worth it. Very well presented.

I rate the autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder a five. Also Pamela Hill Smith deserves an A for her effort to painstakingly research every possible aspect of Pioneer Girl.

However, the result is a Master’s Thesis better shelved in the back room of a University Library rather than a book most Laura Ingalls Wilder fans will cherish. The long introduction involves the process Laura and her daughter Rose went through to get Laura’s story published. This is interesting particularly to me who has taken up writing in my retirement.

The problem is with the main part of the book where Laura’s tale appears in one column of the page and footnotes in another column and frequently on two columns of the facing page, i.e. there are more words in the footnotes than in the autobiography. This presents the reader with a tough logistical problem of how to read this part of the book. I began by reading every footnote. When this ruined my enjoyment of the real reason I bought the book, I began to read all of the story on the page and then the footnotes on the two facing pages. When this still interrupted the flow I had to regroup again. By then I had discovered that every person Laura mentioned had been researched by Ms. Hill through the census and other public records giving birth, marriage, and death dates, number of children, etc. I decided I did not want to read around 100 obituaries of strangers to me and often bare acquaintances of Laura. In one case there was a footnote to indicate that said character encountered could not be found. Along the way I also decided I did not care when a song was written and who composed it just because it was mentioned in Laura’s book. When baseball was mentioned, a footnote described the history of baseball. There were occasional footnotes of real interest, but it was difficult to predict when it was worth turning from Laura’s words. One footnote stated that “Pa bought a pig from Uncle Henry” was replaced with “Pa owned a pig” in one version for a particular publisher.

By the end I did what my husband did from the get-go, namely not read any of the footnotes, but I was over halfway through. Only then did I appreciate the reading experience. The unfortunate part of abandoning the footnotes altogether is missing the few footnotes which add genuine context. For example the fact that Nellie Olson of the Little House Books is an amalgam of several distinct characters in Pioneer Girl is very interesting as it indicates a more general resentment of school mates who use their better clothes and more belongings to claim superiority.
I rate Ms. Hill’s selection of what to footnote and her organization of the footnotes a 2. If one must footnote to death the copy, then it should have been included at the end and separated into categories such as People in Laura’s Life, Songs the Ingalls Sang, Contradictions between Pioneer Life and the Little House Books, Edits to Pioneer Girl, Changes Made to Ready the Little House Books Fiction for Children, etc. Then those interested can easily dig in without spoiling Laura’s contribution. For the record, I read the series two or three times as a child and two or three times to my own children. I took a weekend when my children were young to travel to the Wilder Museum in De Smet South Dakota and made a scrapbook of my purchase of pictures and cards there. I consider myself a major fan of all things Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was thrilled to discover there was something she had written I had not read.

I would have to compare the main part of the book to a one inch slice of moist and flavorful carrot cake smothered with a one inch layer of dry, sugar sweet sprinkles on all sides.

I have been to West Branch, Iowa and have seen the papers of Rose Wilder Lane, who left most all of her personal and professional documents - including Pioneer Girl - to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. She was a big fan of Hoover's, in brief.

This book, with all its research notes and facts, makes for a very interesting read. Kudos to those involved. Do be aware that anyone can request a copy of Pioneer Girl if this book is beyond your budget, or if you just want an old-fashioned readable copy of the original before it was turned into the children's literary series we all know well.

I have a copy of Pioneer Girl (from a copy of the original typewritten manuscript held at the library). You simply submit a form (you can call or email the library with questions) and request any and all information. Despite other reviews, the manuscript is NOT difficult to read but is of course not illustrated, embellished upon, annotated or edited, etc.

And for that, any Laura or Rose fan will be grateful for this annotated autobiography. I have no doubt of this. Details beyond the manuscript are always interesting. The entire Iowa experience was left out of the book series, and you'll find out why if you get this autobiography or order the manuscript yourself.

You can also request copies of documents from transcribed interviews between Rose Wilder Lane and Almanzo Wilder (Rose's father), and an interview done with Helen "Troub" Boylston - who lived at Rocky Ridge Farm after the Albanian adventures with Rose. The interview with Boylston was done when she was living out her last years in a home for the elderly. Her discussions are firstly personal but also cover her travels and strong friendship with Rose, Rose's relationship with Laura (not good), Laura's personality (complex) and Almanzo's personality. All are very interesting. Even Rose's letters to and from her publishers are interesting.

If, however, you have patience, you can call and find out how to make a request for the Pioneer Girl manuscript or any other documents pertaining to Rose W. Lane or Laura Ingalls Wilder, it's worth the wait for little cost (copies cost).

Bear in mind this is a very, very small library in the middle of rural Iowa with a very small but helpful staff. Do a search for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and look around the Laura Ingalls Wilder Web Site Index at the top right of the home page. There is a form on this Web site to request various materials from the library.

Making that trip to the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa was very much worth the time and effort. Make advance plans with the Laura Ingalls Wilder historian(s) if you choose to go.

I really liked this because I was already fascinated with Wilder's books and her family history--I got misty-eyed seeing Pa's cottonwood trees out on the slight rise southeast of DeSmet in 1992. It's a good book for geeks like me, but not for someone who just wants a "good read" about life on the prairies. I'm fascinated by the progression of Wilder's work over the years, and her daughter's role in that, and this book, following my reading of *A Writer's Life,* satisfied most of my questions about these things.

Book #89 Read in 2015
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography--Laura Ingalls Wilder

I loved the Little House books and television show as a kid. This book is Wilder's autobiography, full of annotations to bring a better understanding of historical references and such. This book was an interesting look at an interesting woman. There were times while reading this that I could totally remember the parts about the same scenes in the Little House books. This was a nice read to reconnect with a childhood favorite. I borrowed this book from my town library.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Well worth the wait. I had it on order for a long time before I finally got it. The "voice" of Laura is really there, like meeting up with a childhood friend after many, many years. The research, photos, maps and details of everybody in every town that had even minor connections to the Wilder family is amazing. Read it once, picking through the annotations, notes and extras, then again just to get the feel of the story. The Little House books gave a pretty good picture of "ordinary life" at that time in history geared to children. Laura did a good job with that, giving me a life-long interest in history. Getting the rest of the story as a adult is even better.

PIONEER GIRL is an autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was a predecessor to the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE series. This edition is singular because Pamela Smith Hill edited and heavily annotated PIONEER GIRL; some pages have more annotations than original manuscript! It also contains a facsimile of the juvenile version of PIONEER GIRL. However, some of the content of the "regular" PIONEER GIRL is not intended for children; there is even the mention of an attempted sexual assault. Even so, Wilder scholars will have a feast!

This edition is very limited, so it will take additional time to arrive, but it is worth the wait.

I have always been a big Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. I received this book as a gift. I enjoyed it very much, although I was expecting more of a traditonal autobiography. Instead, it was the Little House books in their original forms, changes made, real life events described, reasons why alterations were necessary for publication, illustrations and photographs and more. LIW's daughter Rose Wilder Lane was the editor of the books, and her relationship with her mother was explored. The side-notes were quite interesting to a reader who is very familiar with the published series. The book is long, and it will take the reader a while to get through, but it will be great to have on hand a s a reference to these classic children's stories. The one thing I did not like was the cover illustration!

This book is what the original Little House books are based on. It is the collaborative efforts of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane. Rose Wilder Lane was a famous writer, in her own right. When her mother decided to write her life story, Rose helped with the editing. This collection is sometimes very different from the fictionalized Little House series. It is quite an eye opening experience for those readers who have always believed that those books were the true accounts of Laura's life. Pioneer Girl is the basic bones to all Little House stories. The autobiography itself includes incredibly interesting facts about the people and places that Laura mentions in her series. Photo's are included of all of the characters. Pioneer Girl rounds out and fills in what we know or what we thought we knew about Laura and her life.

It's a highly interesting read and a must have for collectors of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

http://grammyrosesbooknook.blogspot.com/2015/02/pioneer-girl-annotated-autobiography-by.html

This is such a wonderfully done book--exhaustively and carefully researched, well written, lively. As an American, with our very short history, and as an Army brat who grew up in nearly as many places as Laura herself did, I often feel adrift in the world--but the fact is that this IS our history, and our culture.

Kudos to the editorial team, who have done a great thing in illuminating one of our great American treasures: the work of Laura Ingalls Wilder. While she's often overlooked as a writer of "mere" YA fiction (for girls, yet!) her work is a rare chronicle of one of the most interesting chapters of our history. This edition of her first draft is grittier and more real--a perfect complement to the more artfully-shaped novels I grew up on.

I loved the book. It's an intense reading experience, trying to absorb all the historical and genealogy information provided in the side notes. Later I may go back and just read the main text of the autobiography alone so I can enjoy the flow of Wilder's writing.

This book is a treasure and fans of the Little House books or even the television series seem to have an insatiable curiosity about the real story behind the classic children's books. This satisfies with so much detail and great photos and maps.

If you loved Little House books, and love serious reading..this is for you! I had to get it from another source since it is backordered on the store, but it was worth the extra trouble. It takes a bit to get used to using the very detailed annotations, but they give the reader a deeper understanding of the Little House books, charactors, and the process of writing them. The pictures were fantastic to look at...who knew that "Nelly" was a brunette. It also gives a realistic version of the Ingalls family, and of Laura especially. I found the most interesting part was the role that her daughter played in the writing and publication of her mothers stories. Both women were strong of spirit.

Note.. this is not a book to sit down and absorb in one sitting. Think more of a text book on a subject that you love.

My husband ordered this for me Saturday after Thanksgiving for my birthday a month later. Well, it arrived today, and I wanted to let those of you still waiting it will be in soon! I spent my lunch hour turning the pages and reading the captions, saving the actual text for later. It's exactly as promised -- lots and lots of information, photos, and drawings. I've read other LIW biographies and been to the Rocky Ridge Farm museum so I've seen many of the photos before but not all of them. Beautifully printed on off-white book stock. Can't wait to get started.

I’m really enjoying this book. Wilder’s writing is less polished than I expected, but the notes are extensive and fascinating. I’m reading it at the same time as Prairie Fires, which is borderline torturous to get through.

This is a well written book. Pamela Hill has gone to great legenths i to locate a vast amount of documents, in print and out of print resources. I could not be more of an admirer of her Laura Ingalls and Rose Wilder research. However, somewhere along the line people have have lost sight of reasonably pricing this book. When this book was released to the public, it wasn't expensive. Nowadays, the money hungry have latched on and the price is gone through the roof. The original South Dakota press seriously needs to find a press company large enough to handle demand. With each passing day's delay, the price inflators are at work raising the price even higher for the public. That's a true shame. This is not a 50.00 book. It certainly isn't a almost 100.00 book either. Be wary of contributing to unfair prices.

Warning: if it's been awhile since you've read the Little House series, you might want to go back and review because this 400 page Annotated Autobiography, which includes a bibliography and index, is actually two books. The original manuscript along with the accompanying footnotes make this thick volume covering the entire life of the author an unofficial "Cliff's Notes" to the bestselling series. It also includes lots of photos, maps and fascinating tidbits of information that will satisfy even the casual fan. Its only fault was leaving out Farmer Boy.
The book is a wonderful addition to the series. Thanks to the meticulous research of the editors, fans will devour this new autobiography as it clarifies the historical fact from Wilder's literary fiction.
First is a long introduction telling the origin story of how and why Laura Ingalls Wilder decided to sit down and write her life story aptly entitled Pioneer Girl. She showed this manuscript to her adult daughter, Rose, already a published author herself.
Three additional manuscripts emerged from the wealth of stories Pioneer Girl provided. Suggestions by Rose and other literary editors all contributed to what became the nine volume series of children's books celebrating the American pioneer spirit we know and love today.
The main body of Pioneer Girl consists of nine sections where the life story of Laura Ingalls Wilder is presented to the reader. Fans who have read other biographies about Wilder (I recommend Laura, the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert) will already be familiar with the sections of her life she decided to leave out or combine such as the time the family spent in Iowa before returning to Minnesota and that another family lived with them during the Hard Winter.
New insights about how difficult it was to survive, eking out a living on the unforgiving prairie back in the day, while appreciating the good times with family and friends make this book a must read for anyone who ever enjoyed the Little House series.

I agree with the person who said the marketing on this book was all wrong. For lovers of Laura Ingalls Wilder, this book is not a continuation of her stories, although I had the impression from reading articles about it that it was. There are a number of things that I find annoying in this book but the biggest one is the author's use of calling Rose and Laura by their surnames .. they are instead "Lane" and "Wilder". I don't know them by those names. They are Rose and Laura to me and using their last names is not only confusing, I find it disrespect in a way that I'm not sure how to explain. Laura never intended for her books to be 100% non-fiction ... the sole purpose of her writing the Little House books was to write down her childhood stories and her memories and those, in particular, of her father. Yet the author hammers in over and over and over again that Laura was intentionally lying and, in fact, the books were mostly written by Rose. I find this offensive and I believe Laura must be rolling in her grave if she's able to see this book in print now.

Laura's books were written nearly 100 years ago in a time that is completely foreign to us now. If you know anything at all about Laura, you will know how much it meant to her to have her stories accepted and loved by so many children. I do not believe she ever intended some "scholar" to go through the books 100 years later and rip her apart as well as the stories she wrote. They were stories for children ... written so the life Laura led would be shared with kids who, even then, couldn't imagine crossing the prairie in a covered wagon or any of the other amazing things she did in her lifetime.

If you grew up loving Laura Ingalls Wilder and you want to read more of the stories she wrote, this book is not for you. It's big, heavy, difficult to read, and a huge disappointment as far as I'm concerned. Save your money and borrow it from the library.

I have waited a long time for this book, ordered it last year and it went out of stock after I ordered it waited a few months and nothing so canceled order tried again and same thing,, finally a year later I was finally able to get this book.. Good read especially if you like the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Glad I have finally got it

For the price, am disappointed in format of book. Seems you need to research side-bars to understand content. Just wanted a complete book documenting all the bits/pieces not included in Laura Ingall series.

I discuss Laura Ingalls Wilder on pages 13-14 of my book, Your Aging Body Can Talk: Using Muscle -Testing to Learn What Your Body Knows and Needs After 50, and recommend her book, “Pioneer Girl,” in the Learn More section of Chapter 2: Build Your Niche, Define Your Path.

very dissapointed..purchased 2 for christmas gifts for elderly ladies, hard to read and no color pictures..we just had our christmas and I find out, its too late to return or exchange..just heart sick over this.

Big waste of money, a long time to get it, physically cumbersome & far too confusing for my 82 yr old mother to navigate. Her mind is fine and she reads many books, so I thought she would enjoy the simple but honest nostalgia of the true story behind the "Little House" books, which she read aloud to us as children. But this corpulent mess of a book turned out to be an enervating, endlessly distracted, seemingly OCD driven, footnote festooned homage to the bloated and self-serving intellect of everybody involved with its publication ... except Laura Ingalls Wilder. After a ridiculously lengthy introduction in which I feared they would run out of Roman page numbers, the first brief and simple paragraph of Ms. Wilder's actual text contains no less than 3 mostly irrelevant, long-winded professorial interruptions, written with all the passion and thrill of a Yahoo news robot. Thanks for so quickly and efficiently ruining my appetite for this long-awaited and much-ballyhooed book. Be forewarned that throughout it, the footnotes are longer than the original text, and the typeface of Wilder's story is visually nearly inseparable from the endless, banal, and basically useless sidebar commentary. Reading this book as a novel is practically impossible, as I continually lost my place due to all the nattering and inconsequential diversions. It's not writing, it's manufacturing. It's like watching a movie with distracting pop-up trivia on cable TV. Or getting cornered at a bar by a drunken history buff. Did this book not have an editor? News flash to the would-be "authors" scamming off a cherished name: nobody cares what you think. You didn't write the original books that people still love and adore, you're just riding on a famous author's coattails and trying to sound intellectual. But this isn't a doctoral dissertation, it's just an unpublished manuscript weighed down by an unbelievably huge pile of random footnotes. Sadly I'm going to have to outline the entire original text with yellow highlighter in order to make any sense of it for Mom.

Very disappointed in this book! Nothing new that was not in the Little House series. In fact, I was disappointed to learn that many of the stories were "edited" by her daughter based on what she thought readers would like. Would not recommend this for any Little House fan!

Full disclosure: I haven't read this yet. My review is strictly about the size of the book. It's the size of a coffee table book and honestly, I am going to return it and wait for paperback. I know the dimensions are included in the product details, but I am quite certain I am not the only one who doesn't look at size dimensions before purchasing. While it is hardback, I thought it would at least be compact enough to read on a commuter train or on a plane trip. Disappointed.

This "annotated autobiography" is more annotations, less autobiography. I was very disappointed in it.

I have loved the Little House books since I was a child, and I'm in my 50s now. When I read about Pioneer Girl, I was eager to read it. Unfortunately, the book did not fulfill expectations.

The first FIFTY-NINE PAGES were full of the editor's introduction and explanation of her creative processes. A bit interesting, but not that many pages worth. A summary of what each separate manuscript was, took up four more pages. Six more pages covered the "editorial procedures," as described by the "director and assistant editor." All in all, nearly 80 pages and three days before I could even begin to read Laura Ingalls Wilder's own words.

Well, some were her words, but the majority were the editor's words. Almost every sentence had a footnote, so that some pages were half Laura's text and half teeny-size footnotes; some pages were ENTIRELY footnotes. It was exhausting to read. It went something like this:

1. Read a sentence or two by Laura, which ended in a footnote.
2. Read the footnote, which averaged 6-8 sentences per footnote.
3. Return to Laura's paragraph, unable to remember the story line where I left off, start over again.

I stopped by page 25. Mind you, the main body of the book is 324 pages long. If I had to read it a sentence and a footnote at a time, it would have taken me the rest of the year. I conceded defeat, and I'm not a reader who typically gives up on a book.

I counted myself fortunate to have checked this book out of my local library. I would have hated to have spent $39.95, tax, shipping on it.

When I take it back to the library, I'll check out the first few Little House books, and read books that actually flow, and provide pleasure to the reader. Isn't that why we all read? Sadly, Pioneer Girl was no pleasure.

The annotations are not written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 2/3 of the book is written by someone who's sole purpose is to insist that Laura's memories of her childhood are fiction. I've read the word "fictional" more than I've read anything written by Laura. You can't get through one sentence before their's an entire paragraph refuting what Laura said as if the nasty editor was there in the 1860's to see what really happened. The introduction is ridiculously long and is written just as disrespectfully as the rest of the annotations. The nasty accusations of her childhood memories being "fictional" are the entire reason this book is so unnecessarily bulky. Barely any of this book is written by Laura as promised. It's some nasty editor who put Laura's book notes into the editor's book insisting Laura lied about her whole life.

I did not like this book. After reading the book's description, I expected an autobiography about Laura Ingalls but instead found a first draft of the remembrances that lead to the Little House series. And pages of footnotes! The notes were well researched but mostly meaningless; I would have preferred a separate section in the back for the footnotes - for those that care that Laura's Uncle Peter lived 12 miles north of the cabin in the pseudo big woods. I didn't finish the book, only about halfway through.

I think that I will read again the wonderful Little House book series. I can enjoy their adventures without caring about who or when, a word or sentence was marked through.

I did enjoy seeing the pictures.

I've loved the Little House books for 40 years, and eagerly read anything about Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was dying to get this book, checking it out from the library while waiting to get my copy.

I won't be buying this book.

An impressive amount of research went into the annotations, but this doesn't change the fact that "Pioneer Girl" was a terrible manuscript. It's easy to see why it was rejected by editors.

Unlike the Little House books, it's written in a tone you'd expect to see in a boring letter. LIW's writing becomes more descriptive by pg. 158 ("Dakota Territory"). Imagine a fifth-grader writing a summary of all the Little House books--that's Pioneer Girl. For an author who boasted of her academic prowess in school, her grammar is poor, and she doesn't just make the occasional typo, but consistently makes glaring spelling errors; I think the poor woman went to her grave, never learning to spell the word mosquito (Misqueto?).

Here is a prime example of how perfunctory and emotionless LIW's writing was. She describes an incident that occurred while she lived with a family to help care for a baby and its mother, Nannie, who was prone to fainting spells:

"I hadn't stayed with Nannie very long when one night I waked [sic] from a sound sleep to find Will leaning over me. I could smell the whiskey on his breath. I sat up quickly. 'Is Nannie sick?' I asked. 'No,' he answered. 'Lie down and be still.' 'Go away quick,' I said, 'or I will scream for Nannie.' He went and the next day Ma said I could come home.

Laura came that close to being raped, and this was all she wrote about it. She didn't convey one iota of dread or terror in that scene. This is how bad LIW's writing was, and I'm sorry to say that I'm now convinced that her daughter Rose was most likely the one who gave the Little House books the descriptive flair we've grown to love.

Pioneer Girl ends just as poorly, with LIW writing the lyrics to several songs that the townspeople sang at the singing school. Talk about anti-climactic!

The annotations are often fascinating, but many of them are unnecessary. In the age of the internet, readers really don't need long descriptions of the badger or Western mockingbird (complete with a photo).

Far more interesting are the revelations of the interactions between Laura and her daughter Rose, as they worked on this story and her later children's books. There is far more detail about how the Ingalls family took Mary to doctors, hoping to save her sight.

While the Little House stories were fictionalized accounts, these annotations reveal that many of the scenes were flat-out untrue. For instance, Pa didn't get lost and hide in a snow den, as in On The Banks Of Plum Creek. It was a man unknown to the Ingalls family, who got lost during a blizzard and died. Nellie Oleson (a composite of various mean girls from Laura's school days) did not flaunt a fur cape before Laura got one from the Christmas tree. Ma didn't object to Laura's helping Pa make hay, because Ma was also helping him with this task. And so on, ad nauseum.

This book, which is supposed to be a thick slice of Americana, is printed in Canada. Many photos are small, yet there are large areas of blank white space which could have accomodated larger versions of these images. And the pages have a strong, unpleasant odor, rather than that pleasant "new book" scent.

Most of "Pioneer Girl" was covered in the Little House books. Therefore, I would only recommend this book for the most die-hard Laura Ingalls Wilder fan.

I gave it five stars because I am assuming it will be awesome, but I don't actually know because I have been waiting since before Christmas to get my copy! Seriously, did anyone even remotely consider that this would be a much sought after book and plan the first printing accordingly?? It's very annoying having to wait for a second printing, this book better damn good. I've never had to wait 2 months for a Christmas present before!

Took me a while to develop a good system for reading this book because it is so HEAVILY footnoted. But I persevered and did find that I liked it a lot. I learned a lot about the editing process, Rose Wilder's involvement in her mother's writing and many other interesting things that were going on during the times these books were drafted/revised/published. I especially enjoyed all the pictures. A book I'll read again and again.

This is a wonderful book. I actually went to the library and originally found this book. I kept trying to get the book read in the two weeks allotted by the library, and couldn't get it all finished. I had all of Laura Ingalls other books at home, and still love them even as an adult. I have read and re-read them and love the tv series based on Laura's life also. So instead of rushing and really not wanting to, I just decided to purchase this book. I really love the book, it has a lot of detailing and pictures and the book is in the authors words. I am so enjoying it and am happy that I purchased it. It's one of the few books I have actually purchased lately with the Internet and digital media everywhere, this is still an actual book I wanted for my home collection. The book is gorgeous and thick full of information that hasn't been read before. I love the style of writing in this book which is sweet and honest and transports me back to a more gentle time where life were life was different than today's fast paced world. Laura was an amazing author with immaculate detail to times, places, names, etc. It's not a book you can rush through because of the amount of detail on every page. I am enjoying hours of being transported to another time and era, and can't endorse it strongly enough. If you are a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, or even love books from this era, you will immensely enjoy this book.

I read it about a year ago and it still lingers on my mind. Huge book with so much juicy stuff in the sidebars and everywhere. Corraborating evidence based on old newspapers and the census etc. I have now visited the Little House site in Kansas, as well as the Mansfield, Mo. house where she wrote the books, and then went to the re-enactment play they host there about 6 weekends a year. All were wonderful. At the Kansas house (the cabin where they saw the Indians as well as were saved from illness by the black doctor fresh from the Civil War battlefield) there was a huge RV with grandparents bringing their kids to all the Little House sites. Friends of mind visited the museum by the home where she wrote the books and said little girls were there from around America dressed in pioneer garb. To think that this woman captured such real memories. So sad that her daughter Rose had no children. But then Laura would have been busy with them, not writing her memoirs. I had never known Almanzo had had illness that forced them to move to more southern winters early in their marriage, or that they had lost a baby before the move. And that Ma had lost a baby boy. And that the long cold winter actually had another couple in their home eating up the food and not contributing to their survival, yet Pa didn't kick them out. This book is quite amazing for sure. I am now ordering a gift copy for a friend.