The Real Deal

More than twenty five years later, I wish we had done a better job of capturing Laura’s growing maturity in her transformation from girl to young woman in that arc of shows. I think we did nice job and I’ll always be proud of that work, but we could’ve told those stories much more thoroughly and I have no doubt that the audience would’ve absolutely loved it. Despite the relatively brief courtship we presented on television the audience was right there with us filling in all the blanks with their awareness of Laura’s beautifully written autobiographical story.

The above is taken from the blog of Dean Butler, whose effort and integrity continues to impress me in his quest to understand the hearts and minds of Laura fans. He embraces the books and their fans not as an opposition to the TV show, but as the catalyst behind it. He doesn’t have to dig in this way. He wants to. Finding the roots of the characters he would portray and interact with isn’t something that’s going to further his celebrity (well, not much) or land him a reality-show gig. He’s doing it because he wants to, and his honesty shows.

If you’re looking for evidence of harmony between the opposing corners of the Little House books and the TV show that was, sometimes recklessly, spun from them, you’ll find it threaded evenly through the life and work of Dean Butler.

Laura and women’s right to vote

Part of being a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan is, to me, to be open to all opinions about her, whether or not I agree with them, as long as they are well thought out and intelligently presented. She was a human being after all, not a deity, and it can admittedly be easy to get caught up in the fantasy of fandom. To that end, I’ll share this detailed commentary I came across regarding Laura’s Ruralist column about women earning the right to vote (recently reprinted in Stephen Hines’ newest collection).

Salt pork for thought, anyway.

Back on Schedule

I’ve just returned from the very unLauralike vacation of a Caribbean cruise. I do think Rose would have quite enjoyed it, now that I consider. She would have reveled in the port stops most of all, I think, mingling with the locals and enticing them to share their cuisine and customs. Can’t you just see her bargaining with a street vendor and having a marvelous time of it?

Hiatus until March 24

I’m embarking on the very unLauralike activity of a spring break vacation. My family and I are heading to the open water for a while. Posting will resume when we return.

Have a wonderful week!

Pomona Public Library Blog

The Pomona Public Library in Pomona, CA, hosts an annual Gingerbread Sociable every February in honor of Laura’s birthday in its Laura Ingalls Wilder Room.

Did you know the library has a blog?

Excerpt:

Come in and see the original manuscript of “Little Town on the Prairie.” Sometimes I think that our original manuscript is the best kept secret in Pomona.

“Caroline Ingalls” Performs in Bay Area Play

Any Bay Area-based Laura Ingalls Wilder fans have a play to see: “Southern Comforts” at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto, California. The New York Times calls it “a delightful, even sneakily sexy, romance.”

Which is fabulous, considering it stars Laura’s famous TV Ma, Karen Grassle.

Grassle attended the University of California at Berkeley and is a Bay Area native. Here’s an interview where she talks about the play, as well as her defining role as everyone’s favorite Ma, Caroline Ingalls.

I still think Karen Grassle could have wandered into the Little House books at any moment and been perfectly at home. Caroline was one of the few people in the “Little House on the Prairie” TV show who was, in my opinion, impeccably cast.

More on Malone’s Anniversary Event

Looks like Malone is the place to be in June. The unofficial word is that longtime Laura expert William Anderson and Barbara Walker, author of the long beloved Little House Cookbook, will all be visiting the Almanzo Wilder Farm on Saturday, June 21.

Dean Butler will also be on hand filming new footage for his ”Life Before Laura” DVD, but perhaps not available to the public to the degree he was last September. 

We’ll let you know when “unofficial” transitions to “official.”

Previews on the Play

Esther commented below on “The Play’s the Thing,” but in case you missed it, here’s her recap of play news, as well as a request:

As most of you probably know, there was a sneak peek at the Guthrie yesterday for the Little House musical. A blogging friend of mine, Steve on Broadway, was there and filed a report.

I also posted something on my blog, including links to the Guthrie Web site where you can hear from the director, Francesca Zambello, and short clips from three songs. I also included links from other media coverage of the event, which you might find interesting. … 

I’m planning my first-ever trip to Minnesota this fall to visit friends and take in the musical. Before I go, I was thinking about re-reading some of the Little House books. Any suggestions where I should start if I don’t have time to read all of them? I loved them as a girl, but I haven’t looked at them in probably 35 years. The musical will focus on a teenage Laura in the 1880s, so that’s where I’d like to focus.

What say you, Laura Ingalls Wilder fans? Let’s help Esther out. Where should she start if she wants to get a sense for the teenage Laura?  Myself, I’d first suggest all the De Smet books – By The Shores of Silver Lake (which starts in Minnesota), The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years. But then I’d say heck, just read ‘em all — once you start with one, Laura will go from her fifth birthday to marriage before you know it.   

Right? 

Back to the play, news stories have been trickling in since the preview. An Associated Press story has been making the rounds regarding the preview, but the information is pretty much what we’ve already heard. The more locally flavored story in the Pioneer Press (and who else read the Pioneer Press???) reminds us that the play was workshopped last spring with Melissa Gilbert as Ma and Patrick Swayze as Pa. (Best wishes to you, Johnny Castle, for a full recovery.)

Tickets go on sale June 27.

Holtz endorses new LIW book

In June 2008 the University of Missouri Press will release a new scholarly book about Laura called Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Impact on American Culture by Anita Clair Fellman. Fellman is the Chair of Women’s Studies at Old Dominion University in Virginia. 

This book gets an endorsement from none other than William Holtz: “There is much to admire in this book. Many have casually noted these connections, but no one has put them all together so well.”

I admit, Holtz endorsement notwithstanding, this book has me curious. Like Pamela Smith Hill’s recent LIW biography, I have a feeling that this book will offer something completely new. Here’s the beginning of the book’s description: 

Beyond their status as classic children’s stories, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books play a significant role in American culture that most people cannot begin to appreciate. Millions of children have sampled the books in school; played out the roles of Laura and Mary; or visited Wilder homesites with their parents, who may be fans themselves. Yet, as Anita Clair Fellman shows, there is even more to this magical series with its clear emotional appeal: a covert political message that made many readers comfortable with the resurgence of conservatism in the Reagan years and beyond.

It goes on to say that the books show how pop culture can explain shifts in political assumption, and that the anti-New Deal attitude both Rose and Laura had, as well as Rose’s bourgeoning libertarian views, helped shape the political attitude in the book series as it was being written. 

More on the book (which you can pre-order on Amazon), as well as additional endorsements, can be found on the University of Missouri Press’s web site.

Colliding Worlds

I would never be admitting this without reason, but sometimes my TiVo inexplicably picks up episodes of ABC Family’s equine soap opera, Wildfire. And OK, sometimes I watch it. While I’m folding laundry.

 The most recent episode I watched featured a company that attended a dude ranch as a teambuilding exercise. The team leader, a male in his forties, seemed straight out of a self-help book, with trust falls and “let’s process our feelings” and the whole nine. Sort of an amusing, albeit annoying, character to watch. Something was disturbingly familiar about this character, and not too far into the episode I thought I had it. But could it be, really? I kept wondering all through the episode, when finally I had to check to be certain. 

Yep, I was right. 

Andy Garvey. 

Though he’s still more impressive in Summer School (the guy with the football), or even as “my dead gay son” (where he also, curiously, was last seen clutching a football).