Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968)

Rose Wilder Lane was a born pioneer woman. From early childhood she was groomed by her parents to have courage, resilience, and faith in order to survive anything the Midwest wilderness could throw at her. So it was easy for Lane to fictionalize her life in the character of Molly Purl. In Young Pioneers Molly becomes a wife to David at sixteen and a mother by seventeen on the long journey out west via the settler's trail. These are the days of trading goods for essentials and being resourceful while the transcontinental railroad was being built. Once in South Dakota, in quick succession, Molly learned about the harsh countryside, motherhood, and survival. Her first challenge was to give birth safely in their new sod shanty hundreds of miles from family, friends or medical care. With a newborn on her hip and her husband, David, away for months at a time looking for work, Molly encountered events that tested her courage, resilience, and faith. If it wasn't a plague of grasshoppers, it was blinding blizzards, or starving wolves. While she wasn't exactly alone on the prairie, she was without help once the grasshoppers forced her nearest neighbors to move back east. Her faith in her husband's return kept her going.… (mer)

Rose Wilder Lane's 1932 novel, LET THE HURRICANE ROAR, is another book recovered from my late mother's stash stored in her closet. Mom's yellowing 1968 reprint of what was perhaps Lane's most popular and enduring book gave me some insight into the controversy over the authorship of the popular LITTLE HOUSE books, written by Lane's mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first book in that series, LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS, was published about the same time as this one, and it is well known that Lane (already a prolific writer) was a close collaborator and editor of her mother's work. And what I saw here was a short (152 pages), adult novel about Lane's grandparents, Charles and Caroline Ingalls, that contained elements of that first Little House book, as well as ON THE BANKS OF PLUM CREEK, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, and THE LONG WINTER. And yes, the style is very, VERY similar to that which made her mother's books so endearing and popular. I read the whole thing in just a few hours after dinner last night. A most enjoyable read. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (mer)