Winner of the Pulitzer Prize winner of the national book critics circle award winner of the Chicago tribune heartland prize for non-fiction one of the new York times book review's 10 best books of the year one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls- the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser- the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series- masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder's biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books. The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder's real life was harder.