Posted by Joy of Little Houses on January 10, 2006 at 12:04:49 from 195.157.57.17 user Joy.
In Reply to: Re: Will Potter be read (was The 'N' word) posted by Peter H on January 10, 2006 at 10:53:13:
Laura Ingalls Wilder may not be in print in Britain but she is alive and kicking in the States and has produced a whole family of spinoff books (most of 'em are ghastly) in The Rose Years, The Caroline Years, The Martha Years etc about her ancestors and daughter. There are also many many books about the origins of the books and the question of how far Laura wrote the books and how far they are the work of her daughter Rose Wilder Lane.
Some of her continuing popularity depends on the good looks of Michael Langdon in the TV series! But much more on the good writing, which evokes a very good sort of Americanism to me, the fact that one can visit several of the houses in which she lived, and their very factual base. I understand from GirlsOwn that a new dramatization was shown in the States this Christmas.
If we're talking good writing, then I would rate THE LONG WINTER very highly indeed.
And one encounters similar PC problems for today's readers in Ma's attitude to the Native Americans - pesky redskins out to kill her and her girls, she thinks (and she may even have been right since they were living in what was about to become Indian Territory at the time - I don't know enough about its history to be sure).
Joy