This date in 1867 saw the birth of Laura Ingalls Wilder, US author, who wrote Little House On the Prairie. 10 things you might not know about her:
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born to Charles Phillip and Caroline Lake (née Quiner) Ingalls near Lake Pepin, Wisconsin.
She had some famous distant relatives. She was the 7th great granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren and a third cousin, once removed, of U.S. President and Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant. Through her great-grandmother Margaret Delano Ingalls, she was a fifth cousin of Franklin D Roosevelt , a fact she may or may not have been aware of, but wouldn’t have been proud of, as she heartily disapproved of Roosevelt’s politics. Another of her distant relatives was Martha Ingalls Allen Carrier, who was hanged as a witch at Gallows Hill during the Salem Witch Trials.
The Ingalls family moved frequently when Laura was growing up and her homes included Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas. They eventually settled in Dakota Territory.
Laura got a job as a teacher in a one room school when she was just 15, while still attending school herself. She didn’t enjoy teaching much but saw it as her duty to help her family financially as much as she could.
In 1885, at the age of 18, she married Almanzo Wilder, who was 28. She called him "Manly" and he called her "Bess", short for her middle name, as he had a sister named Laura.
The couple had one daughter, Rose, who would become a writer as well. In fact, it was Rose Wilder Lane who encouraged her mother to write about her childhood. There has even been speculation that Rose, not Laura, wrote the books. Rose certainly helped out with the editing. They also had a son, but he died at just 12 days old and was never even named. On the gravestone, he is remembered as "Baby Son of A. J. Wilder."
She didn’t start writing until she was 44 years old. Her first published works were articles in magazines like called The Missouri Ruralist, McCall's magazine and The Country Gentleman. She wrote under the name A. J. Wilder. Her articles were about farm-related topics: titles included “Economy in Egg Production”, “Shorter Hours for Farm Women”, “What’s in a Word”, “Make Your Dreams Come True,” “The Farm Home” and “As a Farm Woman Thinks.”
She was 65 when her first book was published. She had tried to publish her memoirs before that, under the title Pioneer Girl. This wasn’t a children’s book, and was actually quite dark, including stories such as neighbours freezing to death during a Minnesota blizzard. Her daughter persuaded her that happier, fictional accounts of pioneer life aimed at children would do much better. Pioneer Girl did get published eventually, in 2014.
Many of the experiences described in the books really happened. In On the Banks of Plum Creek (1939), the third volume, the Ingalls family lives for a while in a dugout on the banks of Plum Creek. Laura’s family actually did live in such a dwelling for one winter when she was about seven years old, while waiting for their permanent house to be built.
Wilder was only 4 feet 11 inches tall, and Pa’s nickname for Laura was his “little half pint of Cider half drank up.”
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment