WHO WROTE THE LITTLE HOUSE BOOKS? I cited an article by Rebecca Onion in the Slate Vault in my recent post on the Grecian Bend. The Vault is Slate’s history blog, and I found there this article by Rebecca Onion about the writing of the great Little House books, which were so important to Annalisa’s childhood. I had previously come across references to claims that the books were really written by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. Onion’s article links to this lengthy excerpt from John E. Miller’s LAURA INGALLS WILDER AND ROSE WILDER LANE: AUTHORSHIP, PLACE, TIME, AND CULTURE.
The leading critic who thinks that the daughter, Rose, deserves primary credit for the books is William Holtz, who wrote a book entitled THE GHOST IN THE LITTLE HOUSE. Miller’s “ghost” is Rose. Miller at page 34 of the excerpt says that Holtz concluded that Rose “deserved to be recognized as the ghostwriter of the books since she had done so much to revise them and get them into publishable form.”
Miller himself at pages 36 and 37 of the excerpt offers “tentative hypotheses” as to the contributions by mother and daughter with respect to each of the books in the series.