In 1928, Rose Wilder Lane—world traveler, journalist, highly-paid magazine writer—returned from an Albanian sojourn to her parents’ Ozark farm. Almanzo Wilder was 71 and Laura 61, and Rose felt obligated to stay and help. Then came the Crash. Rose’s investments vanished and the magazine market dried up. That’s when Laura wrote “Pioneer Girl,” her story of growing up in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, on the Kansas prairie, and by the shores of Silver Lake. The rest is literary history. But it isn’t the history we thought we knew. Based on the unpublished diaries of Rose Wilder Lane and other documentary evidence, A Wilder Rose tells the surprising true story of the often strained collaboration that produced the Little House books—a collaboration that Rose and her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, concealed from their agent, editors, reviewers, and readers. Acclaimed author Susan Wittig Albert follows the clues that take us straight to the heart of this fascinating literary mystery. ***ADVANCED PRAISE FOR A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert*** “This pitch-perfect novel reimagines the life of Rose Wilder Lane, co-author of Little House on the Prairie . . . A nuanced, moving and resonant novel about fraught mother-daughter relationships, family obligation and the ways we both inherit and reject the values of our parents. . . . With all of the charm of the Little House series—and the benefit of a sophisticated, adult worldview—Albert’s novel is an absolute pleasure.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A fine study in personalities, an accurate depiction of time and place, and a thorough understanding of the birth of the Little House books.”--William Anderson, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography “Albert fictionalizes history in a way that helps readers better understand [the Lane/Wilder story]. She reopens the controversy over who deserves primary credit for the Little House series while at the same time engagingly and persuasively reimagines the conflicted mother-daughter relationship.” —John E. Miller, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder “Rose Wilder Lane deserves to be fully recognized for her coauthorship of the Little House books. Susan Wittig Albert does that, and more, in a compelling and well-researched novel that accurately recreates Lane’s complex and troubled relationship with her mother during the dark days of the Depression and the Dirty Thirties. A revealing behind-the-scenes look into a literary deception that has persisted for decades.” --William Holtz, author of The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane

Recommended to book clubs by 1 of 1 members.