I have to admit that I never read Little House on the Prairie, or the seven other books in the “Little House” series, nor did I ever watch the t.v. show; but I’m sure there are sufficiently many readers to be impressed by today’s Google Doodle honoring Laura Ingalls Wilder (click on it to go to a bunch of articles about her):
Wilder was born in 1867, and died 90 years later (that’s right, she lived during many of our lifetimes) on this date, February 10. Surprisingly, Wilder’s autobiography was published only last November, and by the South Dakota Historical Society Press, for crying out loud. But good for them, as it’s cleaning up: Pioneer Girl is #713 on Amazon, a very good show.
The Mirror (!) gives a few details of the doodle:
The Google Doodle depicts characters Laura and older sister, Mary, made through needle felting.
The figures were made from a wire armature which was then sculptured using a process called ‘roving’, in which loose wool is stabbed through with a needle.
Might be a nice visual if they re-did the noses.
I loved the Little House books as a child, and read the whole series to my son, then later to my daughter, when they were growing up. Another one of those (sets of) books that you can read so much more into as an adult.
And sub.
Are you sure they didn’t have big, blobby noses?
😀
Actually, yes. I have a book about Laura and her family that has photos.
Meanwhile–is anyone else having trouble with WP refusing to subscribe you to certain threads?
I always found it amazing how much Melissa Gilbert looked like her. Particularly the main picture of Wilder on Wikipedia.
There is a resemblance. Then add the period wardrobe & hairstyles…
Trying for the 4th time to subscribe to this thread. In the interim I’ve been successfully subscribed to another WEIT thread and a non-WEIT WP thread. Apologies for wasting your time with my personal experiment. Just trying to figure it out.
I heard he author of Laura Ingall’s biography interviewes on NPR. She sounds like she was quite an interesting woman, and had a rich life. I watched the television program, which has its moments, and my 8-year-old daughter is currently reading the books. Man, I thought the show was melodramatic; all kinds of tragedies and complications beset the Wilders that didn’t even make it into the program!
I took my Grandmother to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Walnut Grove, MN. I enjoyed the tv show when I was a kid. It was no Grizzly Adams, but not bad:-)
Never read the books but saw many of the shows on TV. Back when they were still attempting to create some television time for children. The age of westerns on television was about over. I think Landon started this show after 14 years on Bonanza — the guy was on TV almost his entire life.
Sorry,pseudo-3D animation is not my thing.
The link to Pioneer Girl on Amazon is to the wrong version. The new one, the autobiography, is this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984504176/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
And it’s currently #1 in several categories.
My ex put me on to the books when I was in my thirties (A while ago). I read them all, one after the other as quickly as possible. They were great. The things they did, and endured, were amazing.
I read all the books when I was young and found them delightful. They had a sense of openness and optimism that to me seems to capture America at its best. I always found it an amazing thought that someone whose childhood environment was in many respects so primitive and dangerous lived to see the launch of Sputnik.
I watched the TV series a lot when I was young. I saw a few episodes recently–it’s interesting how perspectives change over time. The stories are still quaint and charming, and the battles with Nelly are hilarious, but now I recognize the mis-attribution of God. Probably representative of the time, but characteristic of never-blame-God -for-bad-stuff-he-does attitudes. Example: a freak hailstorm flattens the grain right before harvest, so Charles has to leave for a month to find work that kills his friend and almost kills him. Carolyn works hard to salvage enough grain for the winter , but not enough to pay the debt from planting all that grain. At the end it’s, “We survived, God is good to us.” Oy vey.
The books were family favorites of ours having two girls 3 years apart. Interesting criticism of the books is the impact of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter and collaborator Rose Wilder Lane, a prominent libertarian writer of the early and mid-twentieth century. Some feel that the daughter’s influence on the books was considerable and aimed towards crafting them into libertarian/right-wing/American Exceptionalist mythology that glosses over the more negative aspects of the families struggles or the assistance they got from the you-know-what (“dreaded gubmint”. I dunno really, we read all of them and enjoyed them greatly and never sensed that influence, though I can understand how one might reach that conlusion.
I read Little House on the Prairie in the old Puffin paperbacks, but liked better Little House in the Big Woods, which my mother read to us, because forests are so much more mysterious!
I’d like to give props to the creators of the doodle — two brothers from Vancouver! Here’s a great article about how they developed the doodle.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Vancouver+brothers+doodle+Google/10796453/story.html