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A review by sophiarose1816
A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America by Laura Ingalls Wilder
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
A Little House Traveler compiles the travelogue-style quick journaling of three trips the Wilders made. These are not polished, but Laura's roughed in thoughts while making these journeys giving insight into what making the journeys was like.
The first two trips in this one can be read separately as On the Way Home and West From Home and the third is mentioned a little in A Little House Sampler, but getting the full journal entries here was great. A Little House Traveler comes with photos and a few editorial notes from William Anderson and Rose Wilder Lane.
On the Way Home is the first chronologically and details out the journey Laura, Almanzo, and young Rose made by wagon when they moved from the drought-ridden De Smet, SD on a journey of several weeks to Mansfield, MO where they found their Rocky Ridge Farm.
West From Home finds a middle-aged Laura as a correspondent back to her husband Almanzo. She has taken a journey by train from Missouri and out to San Francisco to visit with their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane and her husband during the time of the San Francisco World's Fair. Laura details her journey for Almanzo and her letters show the hints at the soon to be authoress. Rose is already a successful journalist and plans to help her mother use her own life experiences to write for newspapers, magazines, and book publishers. I enjoyed the detail of a San Francisco emerging from the earthquake disaster, the way WWI touched lives, that period in Northern California and beyond, and the fair's splendid point.
The final piece was Laura journaling a road trip she and Almanzo took by motor car in their old age to finally get back to visit De Smet, see old acquaintances, see Grace and her husband and then go to the Black Hills area to visit with Carrie and her family. Laura has returned because she has recently sent in her first Little House books from publication and has returned to refresh her memory to complete the latter part of her story. Many days, her entries are succinct, but once they reach De Smet and her family, she fills in much that allows readers to see where the remaining Ingalls girls have gotten in their lives and allowed the reader to see 'modern' De Smet through Laura's eyes.
All three travel pieces added so much to what came after the Little House years for Laura, Manly, and Rose. I really enjoyed reading through these.
The first two trips in this one can be read separately as On the Way Home and West From Home and the third is mentioned a little in A Little House Sampler, but getting the full journal entries here was great. A Little House Traveler comes with photos and a few editorial notes from William Anderson and Rose Wilder Lane.
On the Way Home is the first chronologically and details out the journey Laura, Almanzo, and young Rose made by wagon when they moved from the drought-ridden De Smet, SD on a journey of several weeks to Mansfield, MO where they found their Rocky Ridge Farm.
West From Home finds a middle-aged Laura as a correspondent back to her husband Almanzo. She has taken a journey by train from Missouri and out to San Francisco to visit with their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane and her husband during the time of the San Francisco World's Fair. Laura details her journey for Almanzo and her letters show the hints at the soon to be authoress. Rose is already a successful journalist and plans to help her mother use her own life experiences to write for newspapers, magazines, and book publishers. I enjoyed the detail of a San Francisco emerging from the earthquake disaster, the way WWI touched lives, that period in Northern California and beyond, and the fair's splendid point.
The final piece was Laura journaling a road trip she and Almanzo took by motor car in their old age to finally get back to visit De Smet, see old acquaintances, see Grace and her husband and then go to the Black Hills area to visit with Carrie and her family. Laura has returned because she has recently sent in her first Little House books from publication and has returned to refresh her memory to complete the latter part of her story. Many days, her entries are succinct, but once they reach De Smet and her family, she fills in much that allows readers to see where the remaining Ingalls girls have gotten in their lives and allowed the reader to see 'modern' De Smet through Laura's eyes.
All three travel pieces added so much to what came after the Little House years for Laura, Manly, and Rose. I really enjoyed reading through these.