On the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in 1872, Laura Ingalls lived in a little log house miles from any neighbors and remote from any settlement. Her family was virtually self-sufficient, depending on crops raised in the clearing and on the animals, birds, and fish caught by her father which were then salted, smoked, or canned in preparation for the time when the family would be snowed in. Life had its hardships and difficulties in these early pioneer days, but it had a great deal of fun and excitement too, such as the times when folks gathered from miles around for the "sugaring down" season and doubled up at each other's houses, and when Christmas came bringing home-made toys and special goodies to eat for Laura and her sister Mary.
"It is a matter of great satisfaction and a cause for gratitude that in these days, when the history of our country and the doings of our forebears have a special significance for us, we can turn to such a group of stories as those (of) Mrs. Wilder. ... (They) are based on the author's life and ring true in every particular. Their authentic background, sensitive characterization, their fine integrity and spirit of sturdy independence, make them an invaluable addition to our list of genuinely American stories." —ANNE T. EATON, The New York Times
WE ARE PROUD of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books and happy to present this uniform edition illustrated by Garth Williams and designed by Helen Gentry.
MRS. WILDER'S life story is told in the "Little House" books. She was born in 1867 in the little log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin and traveled with her family by covered wagon through Kansas, Minnesota, and Dakota Territory. In "the little town on the prairie" she met Almanzo Wilder, whose boyhood is described in FARMER BOY. The Wilders' courtship and marriage is the subject of THESE HAPPY GOLDEN YEARS. THE FIRST FOUR YEARS completes the series with Laura and Almanzo's early years on the homestead and the birth of their daughter, Rose. Mrs. Rose Wilder Lane was also a novelist. She wrote the introduction to ON THE WAY HOME, Mrs. Wilder's diary of the journey she took with her husband and child from South Dakota to a farm in Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894. Mrs. Wilder lived on this Missouri farm until she was ninety years old.
GARTH WILLIAMS worked for nearly ten years on the pictures for Mrs. Wilder's books. He began by taking an automobile trip through all the country where the Ingalls family lived, seeking out the sites of their different homes and even locating the depression on the banks of Plum Creek where the little sod house must have been. He visited the Wilders on their Missouri farm and obtained family records and photographs. He pored through old newspaper files and spent many hours in museums studying household furnishings of the period. In Malone, New York, Almanzo's first home, Mr. Williams did similar research. The pictures he created bring to life in glowing detail each character of the lovable pioneer family and all their activities and possessions. Some of the most beloved and familiar of these illustrations reappear in THE LAURA INGALLS WILDER SONGBOOK, favorite songs from the "Little House" books, compiled and edited by Eugenia Garson, with musical arrangements by Herbert Haufrecht.
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