Today was the anniversary of the birth of Rose Wilder Lane, so I am thinking about her tonight. Rose was born on December 5, 1886 in De Smet in the Dakota Territory.

Tonight I thought I would share images of books that I have about Rose that will help give a short view of her life.

Of course, Rose is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her birth is chronicled in The First Four Years which is the last book of the Little House series.

This book is co-written with Roger Lea MacBride who went on to write a series of books about her life similar to the Little House books.

The Wilder family moved from Dakota Territory to Mansfield, Missouri where Rose grew up. She also spent some of her school years in Louisiana where she lived with her aunt.

The book above is one of the small books written by William T. Anderson about the Wilder family.

After Rose finished school she went first to Kansas City and worked as a telegraph operator before heading west to San Francisco. Her mother visited her in San Francisco and West from Home is excerpts from letters that Laura sent back home to Missouri during her trip. The book is edited by Roger Lea MacBride.

Rose later became a world traveler, but would often come back home to Missouri. Rose was also an author and wrote on diverse subjects.

One of her best known books is Young Pioneers which was originally published as Let the Hurricane Roar. The book is based on the life of her grandparents when they lived at Plum Creek in Minnesota.

Of course it is also a badly kept secret that Rose Wilder Lane helped write the Little House books along with her mother. The question though has always been how balanced the collaboration was.

I touch on this a little bit in my post Happy Birthday Laura that I wrote earlier this year on the anniversary of her birthday.

I of course have many other Little House related books in my library. I have most of them shelved near each other, but there are still some scattered in my stacks.

I have always enjoyed reading more about the Wilder family as some of my ancestors had similar stories in their lives.

Happy Birthday Rose.

Steven