NEWS

Laura Ingalls Wilder still resonates with readers

Christine Temple
News-Leader

Pamela Smith Hill admits she has had a "life-long love affair with Laura Ingalls Wilder."

As a young girl living in Springfield, the "Little House" books gave Smith Hill inspiration for her own writing career.

"I always assumed that writers lived in New York City and lived really sophisticated lives," she said. "To know there was a well-known author who had lived in this part of the world, that gave me great hope."

Smith Hill later lived in South Dakota, a location Wilder used as the setting for five of her books. "My real respect for her began when I was in my 20s and I was a working writer myself. As a kid, you're just kind of fascinated with the stories. When you get older, you really begin to understand the writing craft and what Wilder brought to those books."

This fall, Smith Hill will teach a free online course "Laura Ingalls Wilder: Her Work and Writing Life" through Missouri State University, where she is part of the English department.

The course will explore Wilder's writing life and first four books in the "Little House" series. The course will also use Smith Hill's 2007 biography of Wilder, "Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life," as part of the course material.

The News-Leader's original story on the course generated tremendous interest online, with readers keeping it at the top of the most-read list for four days last week.

To date, 3,218 people have enrolled and interest in the course has sparked national attention.

We sat down with Smith Hill during a visit to Springfield from her home in Portland, Oregon.

N-L: Why do you think people love Wilder so much?

Smith Hill: I think Wilder's books touch people on a very universal level. She has a very unique way of expressing what it is like to grow up as a child and it doesn't matter if you're a girl or a boy, although I think girls tend to read Wilder more, her perspective on childhood touches a chord in so many people and it's timeless. Her work isn't dated. The other thing that I think is unique about Wilder is that almost all of her readers feel a very personal connection with her in some way. Readers may have different favorite books, but they always feel that after reading the "Little House" books they know something about Laura Ingalls Wilder herself. I think that's a real gift and not many writers, whether they write for young readers or adults, have that kind of talent and emotional connection with their readers.

Certainly there are a few select children's book writers from the 1930s and 1940s that are still in print, but not many. She's kind of a giant in children's literature.

N-L: What are some of the lessons Wilder has taught you?

Smith Hill: One thing I like about Wilder is that although she writes for young readers and young adults, she doesn't preach to her readers. I think there's a real temptation, and I think this comes from the television series more than it comes from the books, that Wilder's works are instructive. I think she lets readers make up their own mind. ... That is a gift of a really talented children's book writer. She trusts her readers. But I think Wilder's books also explore the dynamics of family, hard work, the beauty of the natural world, living with adversity and never losing optimism despite that adversity. I think that's a really important theme in Wilder's books.

N-L: What are some of the misconceptions people have about Wilder from watching the TV show based on her life?

Smith Hill: Michael Landon was a very different Charles Ingalls than the real Charles Ingalls was. The little house on the prairie was actually on the Osage Diminished Indian Reserve in Kansas, it was not in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. The Ingalls family did not settle in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, they settled in De Smet, South Dakota. Mary did in fact go to college and graduated from the college of the blind, but she didn't marry as she does on the TV show. In many ways I think the TV show was trying to put the Ingalls family into a more modern mold and to give them a more optimistic story. Wilder's books are all about a frontier family, and almost a mythic frontier family, coping with the hardships of the frontier and also learning to embrace them and to live optimistically with them.

N-L: If you could meet Wilder, tell me under what circumstances you would like to meet her, what you would do and what you would discuss.

Smith Hill: I would like to meet her walking on the trail at Rocky Ridge Farm between the rock house and the farm house. I'd just like to have a discussion with her about her day-to-day life as a writer and talk about the writing life together and find out about her writing process.

Smith Hill's favorite things about Wilder

• The strong character of Laura Ingalls.

• The deceptively simple writing style she uses.

• Her descriptions of the natural world.

• The voice of the novels. Because the voice of the novel ages with the character. So the first books have a very simple direct, childlike voice. By the time she gets to the end, it's a more mature young adult. That's a really hard thing to do.

• The way she ends the series. She builds from one book to the next and each story gives us a new and different view of Laura Ingalls, but she ends the series well. Her last book is beautifully crafted.

• Favorite book? "The Long Winter"

Visit Wilder's home

Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum is tucked away in the small town of Mansfield, about an hour from Springfield. It's the home where Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her "Little House" books.

The 1,200-square-foot home of Wilder, her husband Almanzo and daughter Rose, sits almost untouched, with furniture, dishes and rugs still in place. The home is on Rocky Ridge Farm, where the Wilder family moved in 1894. Wilder still lived on the farm in 1957 when she died at age 90.

Want to go?

Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum is at 3068 Highway A in Mansfield; 417-924-3626; lauraingallswilderhome.com. It's open March 1-Nov. 15. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m Monday-Saturday, 12:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Cost: Children younger than 6, free; 6 to 17, $6; 18 and older, $10; 65 and older, $8

Want to take the course?

Lacey Geiger, Missouri State University's open-course coordinator, said she has received calls from people worldwide with interest in the online course.

"The provider we're working with is the Canvas Network and they've been running these courses for a few years now," she said. "I believe the word they used to describe this (response) was blockbuster."

She said the subject — Laura Ingalls Wilder — has a wide appeal that spans generations. And, she added, it is rare for a literary course to be offered in the massive open online course format.

The course can have up to 10,000 people enroll, but Geiger said if more people want to enroll, the college will make it happen.

Go to outreach.missouristate.edu/180450.htm to enroll. Anyone can register. You do not need to be a student at MSU. The online course is free and does not provide college credit. Interested participants can enroll at any point during the eight weeks of the class.

The first part of the course will start Sept. 22, the second part of the course begins in early 2015. You do not need to take both courses.