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December 2021 MBR The Literary Studies Shelf
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Midwest Book Review
Jan 2, 2022, 1:54:29 PM1/2/22
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The Literary Studies Shelf
Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts
Laura Ingalls Wilder, author
Nancy Tystad Koupal, editor
South Dakota Historical Society Press
900 Governors Drive, Pierre, SC 57501-2217
https://www.sdhspress.com
9781941813096, $49.95, HC, 484pp
https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Girl-Revised-Texts-Project/dp/1941813097
Synopsis: For generations, the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder have defined the American frontier and the pioneer experience for the public at large. Edited by Nancy Tystad Koupal, "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts presents three typescripts of Wilder's original Pioneer Girl manuscript in an examination of the process through which she and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, transformed her autobiography into the much-loved Little House series. As the women polished the narrative from draft to draft, a picture emerges of the working relationship between the women, of the lives they lived, and of the literary works they created.
Editor Nancy Koupal in collaboration with the other editors of the Pioneer Girl Project provides a meticulous study of the Wilder/Lane partnership as Wilder's autobiography undergoes revision, and the women redevelop and expand portions of it into Wilder's successful children's and young adult novels and into Lane's bestselling adult novels in the 1930s. The three revised texts of Pioneer Girl, set side by side, showcase the intertwined processes of writing and editing and the contributions of writer and editor.
In background essays and annotations, Koupal and her team of editors provide historical context and explore the ways in which Wilder or Lane changed and reused the material. Wilder and Lane's partnership has been the subject of longstanding speculation, but "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" is the first work to explore the women's relationship by examining the evolution of surviving manuscripts.
Showcasing differences in the texts and offering numerous additional documents and handwritten emendations, the editors create a rich resource for scholars to use in assessing the editorial and writing principles, choices, and reasoning that Lane employed to shape the manuscripts for publication.
Readers can follow along as Wilder grows into a novelist that "no depression could stop." The New York Times best seller, Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography (2014), edited by Pamela Smith Hill, gave the general reader easy access to Wilder's original account for the first time, but that book only scratched the surface of available textual and archival materials.
Ultimately, the editors of "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" employ the rich resource of letters between Wilder and her publisher and between Wilder and Lane, along with rough drafts and false starts of the Little House books, to inform scholars and readers about the original manuscript's metamorphosis into novels and about the intriguing editorial relationship between Wilder and Lane.
"Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" deepens our understanding of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the process through which she would ultimately become an icon of young adult literature.
Critique: An epic work of impressive and meticulously diligent scholarship, "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" is an extraordinarily informative and insightful literary study. Exceptionally well organized and presented, and with its immense appeal for the legions of Laura Ingalls Wilder fans, "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, college, and university library 20th Century American Literature Studies collections in general, and Laura Ingalls Wilder supplemental curriculum studies reading lists in particular.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no funds from authors or publishers. Full permission is given to post any of these reviews on thematically appropriate websites, newsgroups, listserves, internet discussion groups, organizational newsletters, or to interested individuals. Please give the Midwest Book Review a credit line when doing so.
The Midwest Book Review publishes the monthly book review magazines "California Bookwatch", "Internet Bookwatch", "Children's Bookwatch", "MBR Bookwatch", "Reviewer's Bookwatch", and "Small Press Bookwatch". All are available for free on the Midwest Book Review website at www (dot) midwestbookreview (dot) com
Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them to:
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugalmuse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publisher, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number, and list price).
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts
Laura Ingalls Wilder, author
Nancy Tystad Koupal, editor
South Dakota Historical Society Press
900 Governors Drive, Pierre, SC 57501-2217
https://www.sdhspress.com
9781941813096, $49.95, HC, 484pp
https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Girl-Revised-Texts-Project/dp/1941813097
Synopsis: For generations, the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder have defined the American frontier and the pioneer experience for the public at large. Edited by Nancy Tystad Koupal, "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts presents three typescripts of Wilder's original Pioneer Girl manuscript in an examination of the process through which she and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, transformed her autobiography into the much-loved Little House series. As the women polished the narrative from draft to draft, a picture emerges of the working relationship between the women, of the lives they lived, and of the literary works they created.
Editor Nancy Koupal in collaboration with the other editors of the Pioneer Girl Project provides a meticulous study of the Wilder/Lane partnership as Wilder's autobiography undergoes revision, and the women redevelop and expand portions of it into Wilder's successful children's and young adult novels and into Lane's bestselling adult novels in the 1930s. The three revised texts of Pioneer Girl, set side by side, showcase the intertwined processes of writing and editing and the contributions of writer and editor.
In background essays and annotations, Koupal and her team of editors provide historical context and explore the ways in which Wilder or Lane changed and reused the material. Wilder and Lane's partnership has been the subject of longstanding speculation, but "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" is the first work to explore the women's relationship by examining the evolution of surviving manuscripts.
Showcasing differences in the texts and offering numerous additional documents and handwritten emendations, the editors create a rich resource for scholars to use in assessing the editorial and writing principles, choices, and reasoning that Lane employed to shape the manuscripts for publication.
Readers can follow along as Wilder grows into a novelist that "no depression could stop." The New York Times best seller, Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography (2014), edited by Pamela Smith Hill, gave the general reader easy access to Wilder's original account for the first time, but that book only scratched the surface of available textual and archival materials.
Ultimately, the editors of "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" employ the rich resource of letters between Wilder and her publisher and between Wilder and Lane, along with rough drafts and false starts of the Little House books, to inform scholars and readers about the original manuscript's metamorphosis into novels and about the intriguing editorial relationship between Wilder and Lane.
"Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" deepens our understanding of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the process through which she would ultimately become an icon of young adult literature.
Critique: An epic work of impressive and meticulously diligent scholarship, "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" is an extraordinarily informative and insightful literary study. Exceptionally well organized and presented, and with its immense appeal for the legions of Laura Ingalls Wilder fans, "Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, college, and university library 20th Century American Literature Studies collections in general, and Laura Ingalls Wilder supplemental curriculum studies reading lists in particular.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no funds from authors or publishers. Full permission is given to post any of these reviews on thematically appropriate websites, newsgroups, listserves, internet discussion groups, organizational newsletters, or to interested individuals. Please give the Midwest Book Review a credit line when doing so.
The Midwest Book Review publishes the monthly book review magazines "California Bookwatch", "Internet Bookwatch", "Children's Bookwatch", "MBR Bookwatch", "Reviewer's Bookwatch", and "Small Press Bookwatch". All are available for free on the Midwest Book Review website at www (dot) midwestbookreview (dot) com
Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them to:
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugalmuse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publisher, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number, and list price).
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
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