Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser or how the best and worst of America inspired school children and funded right-wing conservatives. So many stories in one volume. One: the true story behind the Little House literary empire. Two: how said empire funded isolationist, small government, libertarian causes. Three: one hundred years of Midwest history and how the people most needing government came to hate it. Four: how people came the believe the myth of the American farm.
One: the true story behind the Little House (LH) literary empire.
In her late fifties Laura Ingalls Wilder (LIW), an avid reader, but barely educated, wanted to record the story of and stories by her father. To her aid came her daughter Rose Wilder Lane (RWL), a writer of fictionalized “true stories” and a libertarian. The RWL and LIW were opposites, spend and save, dramatic and thoughtful, privileged and poor, world-traveler and stay at home, lost and found. Together they crafted an enduring American myth from LIW’s life of deprivation and RWL’s flair for sensational fiction. Fraser researches the true story behind the LH. The bulk of this book is LIW’s biography prior to writing the LH books starting her late 50s. LIW’s story is one of hope, deprivation, a failure. Growing up, her family searches for the impossible dream—a self-sufficient small farm. The LH books celebrate this dream…myth…nightmare.
Two: how said empire funded isolationist, small government, libertarian causes.
When LIW died she wanted her legacy to support her daughter and then pass to her favorite library. Her daughter used the resources to support her libertarian philosophy. Over her lifetime, RWL “adopted” a number of young men. The last was Roger McBride, forty years her junior, who ended up owning the LH books, authorized the TV shows, and ran for president as a Libertarian candidate. His heirs still own the books.
Three: one hundred years of Midwest history and how the people most needing government came to hate it.
In the Midwest frontier, pioneers had a love-hate relationship with government. When the government supported them against the native Americans, they loved it. On the other hand, even when they were starving, they hated government assistance and regulation. These ideas opposed to taxes and bureaucracy began in the 19th century and continued today. These ethics fought the New Deal and accepting Jewish refugees. Throughout this history, self-sufficiency trumped self-interest and even survival. The LH myth of the small farm has supported these ideas for over 150 years.
Four: how people came the believe the myth of the American farm.
The various Homestead Acts, the railroads, and the LH books celebrated the small farmer, while LIW’s family tried time and time again to achieve this dream, but always failed. Why? Statistics reveal that the average income of an American family farm is negative. Growing up, LIW’s family alternated between working in town to save money, and homesteading until they were starving. Regardless of this reality, with the help of the LH books, the myth survives.
P.S. for writers: Since these LH books were the collaboration of two distant authors and before computers, multiple versions of the books, plus the correspondence has been preserved. LIW wrote without thought of literary conventions, from memory. She was responsible for the vivid descriptions and sympathetic characterizations. RWL acted as editor (chapters, paragraphs), but also contributed (fabricated) dramatic scenes as she thought appropriate. LIW wrote with fond personal nostalgia, while RWL thought of the reader and the market.
P.S. for scientists: Much of the suffering of homesteaders was “self-inflicted,” climate change caused by human activity. In the latter part of the 19th-century scientists knew about the problem, but the railroads promoted settling the land calling the scientists elite intellectuals.
P.S. for feminist historians: Libertarians owe much of their popularity to “three weird sisters” who published philosophic books during World War II: RWL (The Discovery of Freedom), Isabel May Paterson (The God of the Machine), and Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead). Fraser calls these “an antifeminist trifecta.”
Do you love the Little House books? If so, you might not want to read this American tragedy.
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