Wilder, Laura

Wilder, Laura (b. Ingalls)

(1867–1957) writer; born in Pepin, Wis. She attended school in various states as her family of pioneers moved around the West. She taught in the Dakota Territory (1882–85) and married Almanzo Wilder (1885); they farmed in De Smet, S.D., until 1894, then moved to Mansfield, Mo. Drawing on her own and her husband's family experiences, she began writing the Little House books when in her sixties; the fourth in the series of nine is the classic Little House on the Prairie (1935).