Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The second of five children, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born on February 7, 1867, in a log cabin in Pepin, Wisconsin. Her family moved frequently across the frontier, settling in Wisconsin twice, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and finally South Dakota by the time she was twelve.

Wilder’s father Charles was a farmer and hunter, while her mother Caroline maintained the home. She had sisters Mary, Carrie, and Grace, and a brother Charles Frederick who died in infancy. The family’s travels and hardships formed the basis for her later writings.

Wilder wrote her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, after her daughter Rose Wilder Lane encouraged her; it was published in 1932. The book’s immediate popularity led to seven more books in the series, including Little House on the Prairie 1935 and The Long Winter 1940.

The series, written in third person from Laura’s point of view, chronicled her pioneer experiences. Though she had not started writing until age 44, her stories sold millions of copies.

Wilder married Almanzo James Wilder on August 25, 1885, in De Smet, South Dakota. She called him Manly, and he called her Bess. Their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was born in 1886 and later became a well-known author.

The family moved to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894, where they established a farm. Wilder’s unnamed infant son died shortly after birth in August 1889. She lived the rest of her life on the Missouri farm, remaining a farm wife despite her literary success.

The Little House series has sold over 60 million copies worldwide and remains a staple of children’s literature. The books directly inspired the television series Little House on the Prairie 1974-1983 starring Michael Landon, which brought her stories to a new generation.

Wilder was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians in 1993 and received the Children’s Literature Legacy Award and a place in the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. Her journals and letters, discovered after her death, were published posthumously. She is remembered as the storyteller who preserved the American pioneer spirit.