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  • Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend

  • Missouri Biography Series
  • By: John E. Miller
  • Narrated by: Paula Faye Leinweber
  • Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (16 ratings)
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Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend cover art

Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend

By: John E. Miller
Narrated by: Paula Faye Leinweber
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Summary

Although generations of readers of the Little House books are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder's early life up through her first years of marriage to Almanzo Wilder, few know about her adult years. Going beyond previous studies, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder focuses upon Wilder's years in Missouri from 1894 to 1957. Utilizing her unpublished autobiography, letters, newspaper stories, and other documentary evidence, John E. Miller fills the gaps in Wilder's autobiographical novels and describes her 63 years of living in Mansfield, Missouri. As a result, the process of personal development that culminated in Wilder's writing of the novels that secured her reputation as one of America's most popular children's authors becomes evident.

©1998 The Curators of the University of Missouri (P)2013 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Miller draws on Wilder's unpublished autobiography, existing letters written to her daughter and to her husband on the few occasions she traveled without him, and her fiction and ‘newspaper stories, local histories, land records', which he mines to create an impressively detailed context for her life.... Miller does not try to make her any more - or less - than she was, and that is the virtue of his biography." ( Washington Post Book World)
"Miller's absorbing new biography...puts the author's early years in context before focusing on her adult life as a farmer's wife, mother, journalist, and budding author.... Miller uncovers facts about Laura's life that were not revealed in her own work, and he places her experience in a broader context. He makes her days on the frontier and the farm come alive with statistics on population and demographics as well as rich details about Indians and wildlife." ( In These Times)

What listeners say about Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Laura fans

A must listen to, if you love Laura Ingalls Wilder, you will,love listening to this audio book 4 stars

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A little too much Rose

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, because I learnt so much about the history and what it would have been like, and I am American Studies Major!

What did you like best about this story?

That it was possible to hear otherwise dry facts in a way that made sense to me.

Which character – as performed by Paula Faye Leinweber – was your favourite?

Laura

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

hearing about Laura as an old woman and all the social and industrial change that had happened in one lifetime.

Any additional comments?

The only thing I didn't like was that for a book about Laura there was a lot of Rose in it.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Monotonous Narration

Not as interesting as other biographies of Laura. Comes across as a rather dry boring list of facts. The narration was toneless and monotonous. Would not recommend and I regret spending £8 on this book.

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