Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie Legend
Laura Ingalls Wilder did not publish a book until she was 65 but became one of our nation’s most popular and influential writers. Her Little House series is easily among the most beloved children’s novels of all time, selling over 35 million books to four generations of Americans and prompting stage adaptations and a hit television program. Since their publication more than eighty years ago, the nine autobiographical novels detailing her girlhood on the American frontier have become a literary and cultural phenomenon. In 2014, Wilder's previously unpublished memoir Pioneer Girl was released and immediately rose to the NY Times
Bestseller list. In 2018, Caroline Fraser's definitive biography of Wilder, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. That same year, the American Library Association removed Wilder's name from their "lifetime achievement" award in children's literature because of her problematic portrayals of Native Americans. With principal funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, this co-production with Twin Cities Public Television explores the complicated legacy of the woman whose rags to riches story has been embraced by millions worldwide. Produced and directed by Mary Murphy.