Troubles of Biographers: W is for Wild Wilder, Part I

In preparation for "W" on my A-Z List, The Troubles of Biographers, I administered a survey addressing the cultural impact of The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Here are the results. I will address Laura Ingalls Wilder and related Troubles in two upcoming posts.

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40% of readers read the Little House series "now and again." 30% have read them multiple times and 30% at least once.

57% of readers associate the series with their childhood. 29% associate it with their adulthood, and 14% with both.

42% of respondents admire the series while 26% feel nostalgic about it and 21% love it (respondents could check more than one answer). At least one respondent forgot about the series until receiving the survey.

Regarding the television show with Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, 33% have mixed feelings about the show, 25% like the show, 25% dislike the show, and 17% feel nostalgic about the show. (The show is available on DVD. Many local libraries carry seasons.)

83% of respondents stated that the show has had no impact on their relationship to the book series. At least two respondents were struck by the gap between "Pa" of the show and "Pa" of the series.

There are many books associated with the series, including cookbooks, gift books, children's picture books, and Roger Lea McBride's series based on Rose Wilder's life. 27.3% of respondents have experience with the first items on the list, only 18.2% with Roger McBride's series.

54% of respondents have read a biography or autobiography associated with Laura Ingalls Wilder. (The autobiography is Pioneer Girl. Her diary, On the Way Home, was edited and published posthumously.) 27% have read something about Laura Ingalls Wilder outside of the series.

43% of respondents feel that reading the biography or autobiography had no impact on their appreciation of the series. 21% feel that reading the biography or autobiography enhanced their appreciation of the series while 14% feel that it had a negative impact.

54% of respondents feel that the series is "accurate in all the ways that count." 15% feel that the series is "somewhat inaccurate" while 15% selected "The books are based on someone's life?"

43% feel that the accuracy of the series is unimportant. 29% feel that it is important. Some respondents feel that accuracy depends on how the series is read, as fiction or as history.

33% of respondents at one time wanted to live in Laura Ingalls Wilder's world while 27% did not. One respondent declared, "I think I would enjoy and thrive in the farm aspect but would hate the dark frigid cabin life." Others agreed that "no, absolutely not--I would never survive."

However, 40% expressed no desire to live in the nineteenth century with an additional 20% choosing the "no--a thousand times, no!" option. 27% chose, "Yes, if I could leave."

Regarding perception of the series, 45% see Wilder's world as "a fascinating historical period." 33% see it as a world from a child's point of view with one respondent stating, "Laura never wrote about the period when the family lived in a hotel and her baby brother died."

Perception of the series may be linked to the overwhelming desire of respondents (that is, the kinds of people the survey taker knows) to not associate themselves with either right-wing fundamentalists or leftist hippies. 54% "prefer not to associate with either group." 46% responded "Other."

The survey questioned who respondents would sell the series to. "Sell it to everyone" received the highest responses (33%) with "to history lovers" as the second highest (19%). Children and armchair explorers both received 14%.

As to why the series remained popular for so long (its popularity may be waning), many respondents associate the series with a particular event, such as reading the series aloud to children who "still remark [on the incident] fifty years later." 

Others referred to the series' portrayal of the "family unit," as well as the series tackling "a by-gone era where traditional roles were challenged by traditional means, the weather, finances and beginnings of political America." 

One respondent suggested that the nostalgia is less for the nineteenth century and more for "adult women who remember reading [the series] as children and watching the TV show, and who then give it to their grandchildren!"  

A few respondents commented on the writing itself: "easy to read" and "the experiences described are memorable, as are her characters." Readers become invested in the characters. One respondent commented, "We all like a story of survival." Another stated, "Laura is a very strong female character with a lot of spunk (which saves it from sappiness)." And one wrote, "The story is told from the perspective of a child which makes the narrative innocent and simple and accessible to all people. The books were published at the right time in American history to serve as a definitive story and celebration of America's frontier 19th century culture, just as that culture was vanishing."

Under "Additional comments," a few respondents connected the series to their own experience: growing up "in rural Maine in the 1950s," during the Depression, and in Orderville, Utah pre-World War II.

A few respondents discussed the political nature of the books: "I'd say the books portray a traditional view of frontier living, which is inherently libertarian and conservative," wrote one respondent. Another wrote, "[T]he books glorify a myth of self-sufficiency...LHITBW does portray a rugged bootstrap kind of family, but the rugged bootstrapping adults are working all the time. It's a rosy-toned world filled with practical specifics."

The series' "meaning" (beyond its plots and characters) will be addressed in the posts that follow on Monday, March 21st and Thursday, March 24th.