Laura Ingalls Wilder was born on February 7, 1867 near the small settlement of Pepin, Wisconsin, the second child to Charles Phillip Ingalls and his wife, Caroline Lake Ingalls. At the time of her birth, her older sister, Mary Amelia, was two years old. Over the next several years, Caroline and Charles had three more children, Caroline Celestia, born in 1870, Charles Frederick, born five years later in 1875, and Grace Pearl, born in 1877. Sadly, the Ingalls’ only son, Charles, passed away when he was just an infant.
The Great Depression brought huge reversals to the family’s fortunes, and it was this unfortunate turn of events, coupled with the recent loss of her mother and eldest sister, that prompted Laura to write the stories of her girlhood.
Her first work, Little House in the Big Woods, was published in 1932, and tells the story of Laura’s life and adventures in Pepin, Wisconsin, before the family moved to Kansas. After its immediate success, Laura went on to pen the second book in the series, entitled Little House on the Prairie, which details the family’s life homesteading on the Osage Reservation as well as their move to Kansas.
Books in order of publication:
Little House Books
| Little House in the Big Woods | (1932) | |
| Farmer Boy | (1933) | |
| Little House on the Prairie | (1935) | |
| On the Banks of Plum Creek | (1937) | |
| By the Shores of Silver Lake | (1939) | |
| The Long Winter | (1940) | |
| Little Town on the Prairie | (1941) | |
| These Happy Golden Years | (1943) | |
| The First Four Years | (1971) |
Chronological Order of the Little House Books
| Little House in the Big Woods | (1932) | |
| Little House on the Prairie | (1935) | |
| Farmer Boy | (1933) | |
| On the Banks of Plum Creek | (1937) | |
| By the Shores of Silver Lake | (1939) | |
| The Long Winter | (1940) | |
| Little Town on the Prairie | (1941) | |
| These Happy Golden Years | (1943) | |
| The First Four Years | (1971) |
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