I read all the LIW books as a kid, and as an adult read a book about her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. The bio of Rose Wilder Lane puts forth the theory that Lane basically ghost-wrote the Little House books. I really liked Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder because it 1) told the story of Wilder's life (which often differed from the fictionalized version she wrote for children) and 2) presented a more balanced description of how Lane and her mother collaborated on the books. There was a lot of extraneous stuff about the community of Mansfield, Missouri (where LIW lived most of her life), but those parts were easy to skim over if they weren't terribly fascinating.

I hadn’t realized how Rose was instrumental in creating a little house books. A good biography.

I felt that this book did a good job of presenting the facts and presenting Laura Ingalls Wilder as a human being. I thought that this book also did a good job of showing the dynamic between Laura and her daughter Rose without taking sides. The book also presents an even-handed answer to the "authorship" question raised by William Holtz's Ghost in the Little House.

Although the book reveals far more about Rose Wilder than it does about Laura Ingells Wilder, I still feel that it was worth reading. As an adult who still goes back to read my old Little House books, I did like learning the back stories of the books and more about the relationship between mother and daughter.

A very interesting account of the life of an author whom most women grew up with. Inspiring to those of us who are late bloomers - or hope to be, and a good reminder of how hard life in the United States was before the post-war boom.

Fascinating tale of how Laura Ingalls Wilder became the celebrated children's book writer in collaboration with her daughter, Rose. If you are curious about what it was like to homestead on the prairie that became Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota, this will interest you. This detailed biography will take you inside the culture of a prairie town, what people ate, what they did for entertainment and how they tamed the land.

She was a spunky, self-sufficient woman. I admire those pioneer women that moved so many times & had to start over & persevered to help other people in the end.

A decent biography that focuses on her daughter Rose almost as much as it does on Laura, mainly because Laura left behind very little documentation in the way of personal letters or diaries, whereas Rose left many diaries and letters behind when she died. It's a little bit frustrating, because we know factual things about Laura, but anything that hints at what her personality or thoughts were like is through the lens of Rose's perceptions of her (which were often volatile and negative). This book seems to be a response to The Ghost in the Little House, which I haven't read, but which asserts that Rose was actually the ghostwriter of the series. Miller isn't willing to draw that conclusion, although he does acknowledge that Rose did heavy editing on most of the books. Overall, Miller's attitude is rather protective of Laura. Other books I have read about her lately were willing to be slightly more critical of her.

I really enjoyed reading more about one of my favorite authors. I learned lots of new info about Laura and her relationships with Almanzo and Rose. I bought it in DeSmet, SD, which makes it even more special.

Given the classic status of the Little House series, I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that it’s become a popular topic amongst literary historians, especially in the Midwest. Two professors at the University of Missouri have taken up the question of the influence of Laura’s daughter Rose on the series. Professor William Holtz argues in his book n  The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lanen that Rose ghostwrote the series. This book, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, is a rebuttal of his argument, contending that while the book couldn’t have come about without Rose, Laura wrote the bulk of it. I read this one first because I prefer that position, but had I known that it was actually written in response to Holtz’s book, I might have done differently.

My preference for crediting Laura isn’t just emotional. The books portray the Ingalls family as valuing education almost above all else. They study in the house through n  The Long Wintern and they scrimp and save just to put Mary through the College for the Blind. Of course, if you accept that Rose ghostwrote the series, you can argue that that’s just part of her invention, but I think the historical facts point otherwise. Charles Ingalls was not just a simple farmer and carpenter; he ended up holding political office in De Smet. A visit to the website of the Vinton School for the Blind (which still exists) will tell you that its most famous graduate, Mary Amelia Ingalls, was a top student. As an adult, Carrie worked in the newspaper business in South Dakota. And most significantly, Laura began her own writing career as a columnist for a small-town newspaper much like the one Carrie was working for. Her articles are collected in Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings, which is essential reading before embarking on this book. It’s a fresh new way to experience Laura’s voice.

As I stated above, the author, Professor John E. Miller, makes it clear that Rose was pivotal in the development of the series. She became an author before her mother did, and aside from actually editing the books, she was the one who put her mother in touch with agents and publishers. The relationship between mother and daughter, however, was anything but smooth. As much as Laura represented home life and simplicity, Rose bucked tradition and sought out adventure. She had quite an interesting life, and I am looking forward to learning more about it in The Ghost in the Little House. I could not help but conclude, though, that not only wouldn’t the books have come about without her, they wouldn’t have come about if she had settled down and had a family. Laura never had grandchildren, but with Rose, she had the series.

I noticed that several other Goodreads reviewers found that all the historical background in the book made it dull. Well, one reader’s boredom is another‘s education. I think it adds tremendous depth to consider how Laura wrote these books during the Great Depression, and that The Long Winter, the ultimate story of triumph over hardship, was published in 1940, the beginning of the war years when rationing was to become a reality for all Americans. The book may not be entertaining, but it’s not meant to be. It’s meant to enrich our understanding of how one pioneer girl became one of America’s most beloved children’s authors.

Interesting ... It changes your feelings on a few things, especially the TV show.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I so enjoyed an adult version and in depth look in the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. For any Little House fan this book is a must read!