31. RWL to Guy Moyston, March 19, 1925, Box 9, Lane Papers.
32. Mansfield Mirror, June 25, July 23, 1925, April 4, 25, 1929, November 20, 1930, April 30, June 25, 1931.
33. Ninth Biennial Report of the State Highway Commission of Missouri (1934), 37, 45; Mansfield Mirror, January 29, 1931, June 30, July 28, 1927, July 19, 1928; RWL, “Thirty-Mile Neighbors,” Country Gentleman 90 (May 16, 1925), 33.
34. LIW to AJW, September 18, 1925, Box 13, Lane Papers.
35. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 157–58; RWL to Guy Moyston, October 31, 1925, Box 9, Lane Papers.
36. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 162.
37. RWL to Guy Moyston, December 17, 1925, LIW to Guy Moyston, June 28, 1926, Box 9, Lane Papers; Mansfield Mirror, June 17, July 22, September 30, November 4, 1926, March 10, November 10, 24, 1927.
38. LIW to Guy Moyston, June 28, 1926, Box 9, Lane Papers; Mansfield Mirror, January 3, February 21, 1924, August 6, October 15, 22, November 19, 1925, May 13, 1926, January 13, May 5, June 9, 1927, January 23, 1930.
39. RWL to LIW and AJW, September 25, October 7, 1926, Box 13, Lane Papers.
40. Ibid., RWL to Guy Moyston, January 20, 1925; Mansfield Mirror, May 20, July 8, August 19, 1926, February 17, April 21, July 21, October 20, 1927, March 15, 1928.
41. Mansfield Mirror, November 26, 1925, July 28, September 1, 1927, March 8, April 5, June 21, 1928.
42. Ibid., December 30, 1926, February 17, April 28, July 21, 28, 1927, March 29, June 14, July 5, 1928, October 10, 1929.
43. Ibid., May 1, 1924, April 1, September 9, 23, November 18, 1926, March 3, April 7, June 30, August 11, December 22, 1927, January 5, 1928, April 4, 1929, October 2, 1930, February 19, 1931.
44. Ibid., January 13, February 24, 1927.
45. RWL to Clarence Day, September 3, 1927, Box 1, Lane Papers.
46. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 184–85; RWL to Guy Moyston, March 6, 1928, Box 9, Lane Papers.
47. RWL to Fremont Older, April 20, 1928, Box 10, Lane Papers.
48. RWL to Guy Moyston, August 1, 1926, Box 9, RWL to Clarence Day, June 26, 1928, Box 10, Lane Papers.
49. RWL to Carl Brandt, April 24, 1928, Box 1, RWL to Clarence Day, June 26, 1928, Box 5, Lane Papers.
50. RWL, Diary, July 31 and memorandum at end of year, 1928, Box 21, RWL to Fremont Older, October 31, 1928, Box 10, Lane Papers; Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 194–96.
51. RWL, Diary, December 22, 1928, Box 21, RWL to Fremont Older, October 31, 1928, January 23, 1929, Box 10, Lane Papers.
52. RWL to Fremont Older, June 27, 1928, Box 10, Lane Papers.
53. RWL to Clarence Day, April 8, 1928, Box 5, Lane Papers; Mansfield Mirror, August 11, 1927, April 26, 1928, March 7, July 25, October 10, 31, 1929, January 16, February 27, March 6, 20, May 15, July 17, August 21, September 25, October 30, November 13, 1930, May 7, October 8, 1931; RWL, Diary, April 19, 1928, September 27, October 9, 17, 1929, March 19, 1930, Box 21, Lane Papers.
54. RWL, Diary, January-February 1929, Box 21, RWL to Fremont Older, April 12, 1929, Box 10, Lane Papers.
55. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 197; RWL, Journal, May 28, 1929, Box 20, RWL to Fremont Older, July 28, 1929, Box 10, Lane Papers.
56. RWL to Clarence Day, April 8, 1928, Box 5, Lane Papers.
57. RWL to Fremont Older, October 7, November 3, 1929, Box 10, Lane Papers.
58. RWL, Diary, May 23–29, June 15–21, 1930, Box 21, RWL to Rexh Meta, June 7, 28, 1930, Box 8, Lane Papers.
59. RWL, Diary, January 30, 1930, May 7–17, July 31-August 5, August 15–22, August 28-September 2, 1930, Box 21, Lane Papers; Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 220.
60. RWL, Diary, July 31, 1930, Box 21, Lane Papers.
61. Anderson, “Literary Apprenticeship,” 319, 324; RWL to LIW, [November 12, 1930], Box 13, Lane Papers.
62. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 225; list of authors is attached to George T. Bye to RWL, February 30, 1935, Box 1, Lane Papers; quotation is from Bye to RWL, April 6, 1931, Box 13, Lane Papers.
63. Marion Fiery to LIW, February 12, 1931, Box 13, Lane Papers.
64. Ibid., RWL to LIW, February 16, 1931.
65. Ibid.
66. Anderson, “Literary Apprenticeship,” 324; Marion Fiery to LIW, March 3, 1931, Box 13, RWL, Diary, May 8, 18, 20, 1931, Box 22, Lane Papers.
67. RWL, Diary, May 21–27, 1931, Box 22, Lane Papers.
68. RWL to Marion Fiery, May 27, 1931, Fiery to RWL, September 17, 1931, Box 13, RWL, Diary, June 6, 1931, Box 22, Lane Papers; De Smet News, June 19, 1931; Anderson, “Literary Apprenticeship,” 326.
69. RWL to George T. Bye, September 25, October 5, 1931, Box 13, Lane Papers. Further indication of Rose's low estimate of the importance of her mother's book came in an undated letter to Marion Fiery written sometime in early November 1931: “I don't feel like asking [George Bye] to take on, as a favor to me, a lot of petty detail work on my mother's stuff; his time's too valuable” (ibid.).
70. Marion Fiery to RWL, November 3, December 4, 1931, Box 13, RWL, Diary, November 26, 1931, Box 22, Lane Papers; Virginia Kirkus, “The Discovery of Laura Ingalls Wilder,” Horn Book Magazine 29 (December 1953): 428–29; Anderson, “Literary Apprenticeship,” 328.
71. Virginia Kirkus to LIW, December 8, 1931, Box 13, Lane Papers; Anderson, “Literary Apprenticeship,” 328–29.
72. Virginia Kirkus to LIW, December 18, 1931, Box 13, RWL, Diary, January 20, March 28, 1932, Box 22, Lane Papers.
7. Becoming a Celebrated Author, 1932–1937
1. Book Review Digest (1932), 1021.
2. RWL, Diary, June 6, August 24, September 11, 12, 19, 1931, November 9, 26, 1931, January 1, 1932, Box 22, Lane Papers.
3. Ibid., September 9, October 15, 26, November 4, 19, December 3, 5, 1931, end of year memorandum, February 6, 7, 12, 29, March 3, 1932.
4. Ibid., end of October memorandum, November 3, 1931.
5. Ibid., March 6–11, May 9–22, 28, June 2–15, 21, August 12–16, 1932.
6. De Smet News, June 20, 1930.
7. RWL, Diary, June 6, 1931, Box 22, Lane Papers; Anderson, Laura Ingalls Wilder, 196–97.
8. Anderson, Laura Ingalls Wilder, 197–98.
9. RWL, Diary, June 15, 29, 1931, Box 22, Lane Papers.
10. Ibid., June 26–July 1, 13, 15, August 1, 6–7, 1932, February 2, 1933.
11. RWL, Journal, May 29, 31, June 8, 1932, Box 22, RWL to Guy Moyston, May 30, 1925, Box 9, Lane Papers.
12. Ibid., January 25, 1933; LIW and RWL, Little House Sampler, ed. Anderson, 200–215.
13. RWL to Jasper Crane, April 18, 1955, Box 3, Lane Papers; RWL to Eleanor Garst, reprinted in Better Homes and Gardens 12 (December 1933): 19.
14. RWL, Diary, August 12–15, September 22, 1932, Box 22, Lane Papers.
15. Richard S. Kirkendall, A History of Missouri: Volume V, 1919 to 1953 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986), 131, 133, 165; Mansfield Mirror, August 15, 1935.
16. Mansfield Mirror, September 6, 27, 1934, August 20, 1936; RWL, Diary, July 19, 22, 1934, Box 22, RWL to Adelaide Neall, July 20, 1934, Box 10, Lane Papers; Kirkendall, History of Missouri, 131.
17. Mansfield Mirror, November 17, 1932, November 15, 1934, November 5, 12, 1936; Official Manual of the State of Missouri (1933–1934), 214, 374; Official Manual of the State of Missouri (1937–1938), 227, 332; Robert S. Wiley, Dewey Short: Orator of the Ozarks (Cassville, Mo.: Litho Printers, 1985).
18. Mansfield Mirror, November 30, 1933, January 9, March 12, May 14, September 17, December 3, 1936.
19. Ibid., September 28, October 5, 26, November 2, 30, 1933, April 5, August 16, September 20, 1934; Kirkendall, History of Missouri, 164.
20. RWL to Mark Sullivan, August 16, 1938, Box 11, Lane Papers.
21. RWL, Journal, March 24, 1933, Box 23, Lane Papers.
22. Ibid., January 24, 1933.
23. Ibid., January 24, 27, 1933; RWL, Diary, January 13-March 2, 1933, Box 22, Lane Papers.
24. RWL, Journal,
January 25, 27, 1933, Box 23, Lane Papers.
25. Ibid., February 11, 18, March 25, April 29, 1933, RWL, Diary, end of March 1933 memorandum, Box 22, Lane Papers.
26. RWL, Journal, April 10, 1933, Box 23, Lane Papers.
27. Ibid., May 20, 1933.
28. George Bye to RWL, March 24, 1933, RWL to Bye, April 2, 1933, Box 13, RWL, Diary, June 1, 1933, Box 22, Lane Papers.
29. Book Review Digest (1933), 1016–17.
30. Anderson, Laura Ingalls Wilder, 201; Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 253; Grant Foreman to RWL, March 26, 27, 1933, R. B. Selvidge to LIW, July 5, 1933, Helen McFarland to LIW, June 19, 1933, Box 14, RWL, Journal, March 17, April 8, June 26, 1933, Box 23, George Bye to RWL, August 9, 1932, Box 1, RWL to Adelaide Neall, June 23, 1934, Box 10, RWL, Diary, June 25, 1933, March 19, June 27, 1934, Box 22, Lane Papers; John E. Miller, “Rose Wilder Lane and Thomas Hart Benton: A Turn toward History during the 1930s,” American Studies 37 (fall 1996): 83–101.
31. Mansfield Mirror, September 6, October 4, 1934, September 5, 1935.
32. RWL, Diary, April 23, September 11, 1932, January 16, February 5, 1933, September 10, 1934, February, 25, 1935, Box 22, Lane Papers.
33. Ibid., December 24, 1932, March 12, June 9, December 5, 1933, January 7, February 15, June 10, October 7, December 24, 1934, January 4, February 10, May 18, 1935.
34. RWL, Journal, December 16, 1933, Box 23, Lane Papers; Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 108–9, 184, 198, 248–49, 253–54.
35. RWL, Journal, December 29, 1933, Box 23, Lane Papers.
36. RWL, Diary, February 1, 1934, Box 22, Lane Papers.
37. Mansfield Mirror, July 14, 1927, August 2, 1928.
38. RWL, Diary, May 19–21, 27–28, 30–31, June 10, 25, 1934, Box 22, Lane Papers.
39. Ibid., July 13, 17, 20, August 27, 1934, February 26, 1935 (in memoranda section at end of year).
40. George Bye to RWL, April 26, 1935, Box 1, Lane Papers.
41. Ibid., February 19, 1936.
42. Ida Louise Raymond to LIW, July 13, August 27, 1934, Box 13, Lane Papers; Mansfield Mirror, October 3, 1935; Book Review Digest (1935), 1068–69.
43. RWL, Diary, March 29, May 10, 1936, Box 23, Lane Papers; see income tax returns, “Miss Rose Wilder Lane—Statement for Calendar Year 1936,” in George Bye file, Box 1, Lane Papers; Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 264, 268–69.
44. LIW to RWL, August 6, 1936, attached to manuscript of LIW, On the Banks of Plum Creek, folder 19, Missouri State Historical Society, Columbia.
45. This and the next several notes come from mainly undated notes and correspondence between Rose and Laura as they collaborated on the writing of On the Banks of Plum Creek in June, July, and August 1936. The letters are attached to the manuscript in folder 19, Missouri State Historical Society, Columbia.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.; LIW, On the Banks of Plum Creek, 299–312.
50. LIW to RWL, July 3, 1936, attached to manuscript of LIW, On the Banks of Plum Creek, folder 19, Missouri Historical Society, Columbia.
51. LIW to RWL, June 25, 1936, ibid.; Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 264.
52. RWL, Diary, August 10, 1940, Box 23, Lane Papers.
53. RWL to LIW, September 21, 1936, Box 13, Lane Papers.
54. Book Review Digest (1937), 1049.
8. Completing the Series, 1937–1943
1. LIW and RWL, Little House Sampler; ed. Anderson, 179.
2. Ibid., 215; RWL to LIW, October 11, 1937, Box 13, Lane Papers.
3. Neta Seal interview, by the author, Mansfield, Mo., June 18, 1993; Helen Burkhiser, Neta, Laura's Friend (by the author, 1989), 8–11.
4. AJW to RWL, December 19, 1937, Box 13, Lane Papers.
5. Ibid., RWL to LIW, October 11, 1937.
6. Ibid., LIW to RWL, January 26, [1938].
7. LIW and RWL, Little House Sampler, ed. Anderson, 216–17.
8. LIW to RWL, March 22, 1937, Box 13, Lane Papers.
9. LIW and RWL, Little House Sampler, ed. Anderson, 219, 222–23.
10. Ibid., 180.
11. RWL to LIW, [late October 1937], Box 13, Lane Papers.
12. Ibid., LIW to RWL, February 5, 1937.
13. Ibid., AJW to RWL, March 12, 1937; LIW and RWL, Little House Sampler, ed. Anderson, 200–215.
14. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 272; Steven Kesselman, “The Frontier Thesis and the Great Depression,” Journal of the History of Ideas 29 (April-June 1968): 253–68. On the political assumptions that lay behind Free Land, see Holtz, “Rose Wilder Lane's Free Land: The Political Background,” South Dakota Review 30 (spring 1992): 46–60.
15. RWL, Free Land: Outline of Manuscript and Fragments, Box 33, Lane Papers.
16. New York Times Book Review, June 5, 1938, 24. Compare the story in RWL, Free Land (1938; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), 18–33, with the letter from AJW to RWL, March 20, 1937, Box 13, Lane Papers; the quotation is from Free Land, 7.
17. Saturday Review of Literature 18 (May 7, 1938): 5; letters in file titled “Saturday Evening Post Pioneer Stories,” Box 11, Lane Papers.
18. RWL to LIW, December 20, 1937, Box 13, RWL to William Allen White, January 28, February 1, 13, 1938, White to RWL, February 8, 1938, Box 12, Lane Papers.
19. LIW to RWL, [March 20, 22, 1937], Box 13, Lane Papers.
20. Miller, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town, chap. 6.
21. RWL to LIW, December 19, 1937, Box 13, Lane Papers.
22. LIW, undated response to RWL's letter of December 19, 1937, LIW, undated notes on “Silver Lake,” [ca. February 1938], LIW to RWL, January 26, [1938], Box 13, Lane Papers.
23. Ibid., RWL to LIW, January 21, 1938, LIW to RWL, January 25, 1938.
24. Ibid., LIW to RWL, January 28, February 15, 19, 1938.
25. The Mansfield Mirror reported their departure and return (May 12, June 2, 1938). The story of their trip and the places they visited is recounted in Burkhiser, Neta, Laura's Friend, 11–18; see also De Smet News, June 3, 1938.
26. Burkhiser, Neta, Laura's Friend, 18; AJW to RWL, January 15, 1939, Box 13, Lane Papers; Anderson, Story of the Ingalls, 26–29.
27. RWL, Diary, August 9, 12, 1938, Box 23, Lane Papers.
28. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 287–88.
29. LIW, “To American Mothers,” [1938], LIW to RWL, September 26, 1938, Box 13, Lane Papers.
30. Ibid., LIW to RWL, April 2, 10, May 23, 1939, Ida Louise Raymond to LIW, April 6, 1939.
31. Book Review Digest (1939), 1044.
32. LIW to RWL, May 23, 1939, Box 13, Lane Papers.
33. Ibid., June 3, 1939; Mansfield Mirror, June 22, 29, 1939; De Smet News, June 8, 15, 29, 1939; Laura Ingalls Wilder Lore 15 (spring-summer 1989): 1, 5.
34. LIW to RWL, January 6, February 15, 1938, March 17, 1939, Box 13, Lane Papers.
35. Ibid., March 12, 1937, January 12, 1938; Burkhiser, Neta, Laura's Friend, 18.
36. Burkhiser, Neta, Laura's Friend, 18–19.
37. LIW to RWL, February 5, March 22, 1937, May 4, 1938, April 2, 10, 1939, Box 13, Lane Papers.
38. Ibid., February 5, 1937, March 17, 1939, AJW to RWL, January 15, 1939; Burkhiser, Neta, Laura's Friend, 18.
39. Mansfield Mirror, December 16, 1937, March 17, 1938, January 19, 1939, February 15, 1940.
40. Ibid., March 25, September 16, 1937.
41. Ibid., January 26, 1939, October 10, 1940, December 24, 1942, March 4, 1943; LIW to RWL, January 27, 1939, [March 17, 1939], Box 13, Lane Papers.
42. Mansfield Mirror, February 15, 1940, August 26, 1943.
43. LIW to RWL, response to latter's letter of December 19, 1937, Box 13, Lane Papers. See also LIW to RWL, [ca. February 1937], August 19,1937, May 4, 1938, February 20, 1939, Box 13, Lane Papers.
44. Mansfield Mirror, April 15, June 3, July 8, 1937, April 25, 1940, September 18, 1941.
45. Ibid., January 14, 1937, April 25, 1940.
46. Ibid., May
16, 1940.
47. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 308.
48. LIW to RWL, [early February 1938], February 19, March 15, 1938, Box 13, Lane Papers.
49. Ibid., January 27, May 23, 1939.
50. Ibid., February 5, March 12, 1937, February 20, March 17, April 2, 1939.
51. Ibid., [December 29, 1937, on back of recipe for dandelion wine], January 6, 1938, Carrie Ingalls Swanzey to LIW, attached to letter from LIW to RWL, May 24, 1939.
52. Laura Ingalls Wilder Lore 16 (spring-summer 1990): 3.
53. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 302.
54. LIW to RWL, February 15, 19, 1938, Box 13, Lane Papers.
55. Ibid., March 7, 1938.
56. Ibid., March 15, August 17, 1938.
57. Ibid., March 17, 1939; Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 275, 279, 292; LIW, Draft No. 2 of By the Shores of Silver Lake, Missouri Historical Society, Columbia; compare this draft with the published text of the book on page 67.
58. LIW, Draft of The Long Winter, Missouri Historical Society, Columbia; compare LIW, The Long Winter, 302–7.
59. On the social history of the United States during World War II, see Geoffrey Perrett, Days of Sadness, Years of Triumph: The American People, 1939–1945 (New York: Coward, McCann and Geohagan, 1973); William L. O'Neill, A Democracy at War: America's Fight at Home and Abroad in World War II (New York: Free Press, 1993); John M. Blum, V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture during World War II (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976).
60. Mansfield Mirror, October 10, 1940, June 18, July 9, August 20, November 12, December 10, 17, 1942, February 18, March 11, June 24, July 8, August 12, 1943, May 25, July 6, 1944.
61. Ibid., January 22, June 11, 1942.
62. Book Review Digest (1941), 958.
63. Ibid. (1943), 869.
9. Basking in the Glow of Her Readers’ Affection, 1943–1957
1. Nava Austin interview, by the author, Mansfield, Mo., August 19, 1995; Stephen W. Hines, I Remember Laura (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 121–22.
2. LIW, The First Four Years, 133–34.
3. Holtz, Ghost in the Little House, 313–14.
4. Grace Stevenson to LIW, May 27, 1942, Katherine Afonin to LIW, May 28, 1949, Robert Neuman to LIW, May 13, 1948, Dorothy Allen to LIW, May 13, 1948, Box 14, Lane Papers.
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