Politically motivated murder and the putin regime. On saturday and sunday we will be live at the southern festival of books in nashville featuring jonathan eyed, history professor nancy mclean, radio talkshow host eric erickson, and many other authors. For the next hour we will focus on the Literary Community beginning with nancy rice that goebel on the Important Role south dakota plays in american history. We are in the research and Publishing Office of the south Coast Historical Society and also the headquarters of the south dakota Historical Society press. Back in the day in 1997 when i started this press , i felt that it was a niche we could fill in south dakota. Nobody was doing our history seriously get certainly no money, thats not fair but there was not a concerted effort to publishing for the state of south dakotain a meaningful way. To do it right, you have to have some experience and we have garnered that experience through doing the journal which is essentially 100 page book that we do every three months. So i felt that we had the expertise to start doing something more sophisticated. Doing books about the state seems like something we were letting other people do, other presses in the region a little bit but as i said, if you let other people write your history , it may not be what you wantor expect. I thought lets take thatback , lets do it right. Lets do it well. Lets do it with all the standards of the new york publishing company, all the standards of the University Press in terms of scholarships. You measure success in different ways, some of our books are not financially successful all. Thats a goal to fulfill our mission. So there are things we have to do and i will give you examples. We did a book called principles of our party and its a book about the south dakota Population Movement which was actually the first populist movement in the country, the First People Party back in 1890. It predated the kansas party and some parties by a month which isirrelevant in the big picture , but there have never been a study of the south dakota populist movement so i felt that was an important piece of our history that hadnt been done. So i talked him into it, i gave him a pitch and said we need to do this but that book went out there into a black hole and i hate to say this, politics or we havent found a way to sell it. We do a lot of politics, theres a lot of interest in politics but its finite, its a small group and i dont know if its because the reach doesnt get beyond the state somehow. Youd think it works because as i explained about the book in populism, that was a national movement, it started in this region it was a national movement. Weve had some Amazing National politicians from tom daschle to george mcgovern. And we have an interesting politics so i dont know, the answer your question, i dont know why it doesnt sell and maybe its because we dont know how to sell it to the right market. Its part of our mission so is the fact that it doesnt sell, its irrelevant because we will continue to look at it. I suspect that whats going to sell and weve got some things coming up our biographies of politicians. People like biographies. And they like political biographies, literary biographies. A life anything with that human center and we have this little biography series here called the south dakota biography series which we designed to be inexpensive. Its a paperback series designed for people to buy off the newsstands that want to find out more about south dakota and that one does beautifully well. Its been an exciting little series area because in the beginning, i told people i said okay, heres the deal. You read a biography of a great man. And or great women. And half the time, they will go like this and then they came to south dakota. And they made it exit, thats all you get and i said i dont want that. I want to know okay, well, essentially came by. Is a big piece of our history in terms of our legend, in terms of our sense of the black hills and what its all about. So how does that happen . How do place built while in his place in south dakota but reach beyond that because he goes beyond that and so thats the story with the whole biography series. They all focus on that and its been exciting because each one of them has been in a way not definitive so youre not digging up a definitive history of wild bill or Laura Ingalls wilder either but they all break new ground and that makes it really exciting in and of itself. Always write stories that are eager then south dakota, i like it when they take place in south dakota, central to the concept or central to whats going on but just a piece of a much bigger national story. And thats something that they dont think about having to do in massachusetts but we have to think all the time about how do we become relevant to the rest of the country who doesnt understand that we are included. Great plains states, north dakota and south dakota feel that they have to explain their relevance to the rest of the country and i think thats because of a lot of things indicate that to us. One of the most egregious examples, again, theres one after that but the most egregious example to me is that a few years back, rand mcnally did a series of maps in which they left, they just left all whole where the dakotas and alaska and oklahoma were. Things like that make you think okay, we dont matter. You look at our Electoral College and if we get mentioned in nationally, from the election its a minor miracle. Its a slow news day is what it is. And its things like that that make you think okay, you have to say guys, we are not irrelevant. Were in the pioneering story of the us. That originates here. And i think the question about bestsellers is to understand that that isnt our job. As a press to create this bestseller. We did that with pioneer girl. And that was an amazing experience. In more ways than one. But thats not really our job. Our job is to tell this history , to tell it accurate , and accurate story and the history of the region. There are an estimated five of cattle per resident in south dakota. In controlled recklessness, alternating sanderson explores the life of an lemon comedy cowboy businessman who was a key player in developing the south dakota cattle industry. We are here in the capital, here is the capital of south dakota, the Capital Building behind us and adjacent the capital lake, one of the highlights of south dakota. The state of south dakota developed in two ways. North dakota started as dakota territory in 1851 and in 1889 south dakota and north dakota became states but eastern south dakota had been settled for a number of years, farmers came from minnesota, iowa, other places in the midwest. Western half was an indian reservation so the development of western south dakota lagged behind each and every respect and so the ranching culture that grow up in western south dakota happened far later than the farming culture of eastern south dakota and it was central to the way in which south dakota developed as a state. The book is called controlled recklessness, a story about an lemon and the development of western south dakota, hes a figure that was a cowboy, a cattle man, he had 865,000 acre ranch in western south dakota in the early 1900s. He was involved in the expansion of the railroad and also at the same time in the early 1900s and was one of the figures was essential to the growthand development of western south dakota. A lot of people think of south dakota as a farming state. Certainly south dakota is more than that. 800,000 people that we got in the state right now, weve also got almost 4 million head of cattle so almost 5 for every man, woman and child in the state and 11 more involved in the expansion of that cattle industry in western south dakota which was essential along with mining and the expansion of the railroad in the growth of the state in the early 20th century. Add lemon came to south dakota in the glory days of cattle ranching, the open range, no fences and not much to speak of for Law Enforcement so they made their own way. He came to south dakota with a Company Called the shively Cattle Company and they made their living primarily with by ranching with a headquarters adjacent to the indian reservation and had their headquarters adjacent to the reservation and then the great store cattle on the reservation, they were trespassers so they made their living raising cattle and work up from texas and other areas, not on the chisholm trail and other trails but via the railroad. The railroad brought in thousands of heads of cattle where they were raised in western south dakota and lenin was partial to that. In 1897 he bought one of the largest cattle roundups ever, more than 50,000 head of cattle in a handful of days, 500 roundup wagons, talking about a huge operation and that was typical of western south dakota in the 1890s, early 1900s. Large cattle operators, hundreds of thousands of head rounded up at the same time and driven to rail heads in marketing and chicago. One other thing they did was they illegally raised their cattle on the indian reservation. and indians often had very good relationships rather than a contentious relationship and add lemon personified that. He would, when he raised his cattle on the reservation invite any indians who were interested in coming and sharing a meal with this cowboy, sharing the campfire with him and whenever he would have cattle that were fit for market, he would provide those for free no cost to the indians. As a result, they turned their other way when he was raising on the reservation. It was a connection that he had manifested itself decades later when he had the hundred 65,000 acre ranch, and 865,000 acre ranch on the indian reservation. One of the things that the indians called him was cosmology so in lakota, it was he cost which means yellow. Why would you call him yellow . Lemon like the fruit, theres no name for the word lenin in lakota but they did know what an apple was and they had a name for the word yellow so it got recognized into a spotty and so thats what they called an lemon because of this relationship he had with them. He was a known quantity and a guy who them as much as he helped each other. And lemon was involved in the open range cattle industry and he was involved with the onset of that open range movements, the more offense after, he was one of the guy established the way of ranching with his 865,000 acre lease. All had a single boundary around it so there was this massive 210 mile long free strain of barb wire fence around the parameters, no interior fencing he took some of the techniques that are used in the open ranch cattle industry and transfer them into fences but even today in western south dakota , its been carved into different smaller ranches. A 10,000 acre ranch is not uncommon at all in western south dakota and every file that ends up on a dinner plate starts out as a cattle grazing on grass in some areas like south dakota so while we might think of the cattle industry growing and evolving from open range cattle that were texas longhorns, driven up on these cattle trails, to now be beef that shows up in your supermarket, the origins of those that were born on the range are much different than they are today, born on the ranges of western south dakota, under much the same conditions, same sky, and grass they did in morgan. And henry hundreds of stories about his own life. In the 1930s after he was retired from the cattle business he was in the 70s. He wrote an article called developing the west. So out of these stories, one was able to glean a good insight into and lenin as a person, as an individual. Controlled recklessness is the story of an lemon, cowboy catalan, town founder but it also rears the growth and development of western south dakota. Both shared characteristics, the control part, and lemon was a cerebral guy. He was organized, he was methodical, and intelligent so from bossing around 80,000 head to the way in which he organized his cattle roundups to the way in which he ran his operation, he was controlled. At the same time he had a reckless street. He wasnt one for shirking danger. Whether it was champions or swollen rivers or indian engagements, he wasnt one to back down. That mirrors the growth and development of western south dakota. It was essentially a control process. Government had six plans for the way in which one could hold it, you went in and filed papers, got160 or 320 acres. A parcel of land, it was all designed to be methodical. But the reality was much different, there were claim jobs, you would file land claims under your name or your wifes name or your fictitious brothers name. It was a reckless way in which it was implemented so controlled recklessness recognizes the few competing house of the growth and development of the great plains and add lemons personality. Controlled on one hand although reckless onthe other. Then theres a guy was all around is underneath the service so you might not be , you might not necessarily see him when hes there so for instance, the community of 11 south dakota, his namesake now, theres a beautiful metal sculpture by a sculptor of john lopez. In his image. The entire railroad that is now the Burlington Northern santa fe railroad. That was all designed originally as a Milwaukee Railroad because of him. Communities of timberlake, buffalo, south dakota, of mulberry were established as a result of his involvement. Bud lenin is a figure that could often be mistaken for some regional character, some bit player in the development of a single state but lenin was more than that. In much the same way that the charlie good night for all of our loving, the famous cattlemen that Lonesome Dove was based on, lenin is back to the northern great plains. All of our loving, charlie good night in the southern great plains where these guys who self help establish communities, more than just their individual cattle ranches. Add lemon did that in the great plains hoping to guide the railroad and establish settlements. He founded a variety of different towns. All of these things combined brought people to the region far beyond anyone typical cattle drive for anyone cattlemen ever could. He helped to put in place systems that brought people here and its part of the fabric of western south dakota and the northern great plains is the whole. The south dakota state capital was constructed more than 100 years ago and for the last 30 years, barb mercer has been covering the south dakota legislature. As we continue our look at the literary life of pierre south dakota, we sit down with mister mercer to learn more about the current state of journalism in south dakota and the nation. In 1986, at the end of 1986 i moved here to pierre and began to build that the covering state government. Ive been here since, ive spent four years and the in that time i made a number of transitions. In 1998 i went to work for governor bojangles and after four years with him i went back into the newspaper business and have been in it cents. As part of that transition in the business side, ive contracted with five daily papers. Ive run back to the American News and continued that relationship with the other papers and actually expanded and i now have seven papers, 711 papersin the state. State Government News through me. So last seen here in the 30 years is a complete reversal in terms of what the newspapers or tv stations cover at the capital. We went from having 10 yearround reporters in the mid1980s to two for the ap, two for the ubi. Three daily papers, to tv stations, a public radio. And gradually has diminished and its gotten to where right now there are two of us left. Theres an ap reporter whose job is the entire state and then we have me. I think thats counterproductive. What you get is superficial reporting, you dont get depth. You dont yet, for example, in our legislature theres 105 members and every one of those people comes to the capital with something they want to accomplish for many things they want to accomplish area and i dont think that on any given day that even a third of the committees get covered during session. And the, then in the afternoon they run dozens of ills, legislative pieces of legislation through area. And i dont think that beyond one or two or three of those get covered. And yet they are all laws that people want past or want to kill, whatever the case may be. You will have tremendous debate on things that never see a word in print or get a word onbroadcast. In terms of the newspaper industry, south dakota, we are transitioning to an Online Presence as well theyre doing it in different ways. The company i work for which is a privately ownedcompany , they prize local content. They want good newspapers. They provide grants to pursue projects, things like that. Whereas the argosy which is owned by direct, theyre trying to just basically put themselves out of business and they want to go strictly online and not print a product at all anymore. So we are going opposite ways. And then you have papers that are just slowly dying on the vine. They will continue to publish but i dont know for how long. I dont know where they will be 20 years from now. The trouble that news organizations have under what i would describe as a traditional revenue model is that its difficult to get advertising on to the web. You can have a run ad. But you dont have page after page of ads. So what happens is there may be an ad or two or three on the news organizations main frontsight, if you will on the web. And then you go to a story and there might be one or two ads but they dont have the page after page 4 minute after minute of time of advertising, whereas if you are reading a newspaper or listening to a radio or watching television broadcasts, you are getting just that steady stream of advertising throughout the whereas on the web its a very targeted, very narrow advertising. And that narrowness then affects their budgets, and their budgets drive their reporting staff and consequently they have fewer reporters. Ill throw a circulation number out. In the legislator in sioux falls which is the state largest city which is had tremendous growth, the growth has gone, the double in growth in terms of population in the last decade or so. And the same time the newspaper has lost half of its circulation or more. Within that same decade. So the and the same thing is true in rapid city which is the states secondlargest city. It had tremendous growth in the circulation has just steadily gone down. Circulation is Holding Steady in some places such as aberdeen and in watertown. Mutual to some extent but the, i dont see definitively how many in those places that are the fastestgrowing places in south dakota in terms of howthey get their news. I think that what you see happening in sioux falls in rapid city is also what you are seeing happening in other states, other cities. Across the nation. And weve seen a steady decline in the number of newspapers throughout the country. In the washington post, the grand family on the soul post a few years ago. To the owner of amazon and i didnt think that would ever get sold. And what i can as a daily reader, i see a shift in its tone. Its increasingly analytical as opposed to factual. And so you see much more opinion, highlighted on. Even from its staff. More analysis. And in my opinion, less coverage of the nuts and bolts of the federal government. And so if thats what the newspaper in the Nations Capital is doing, i think it just sets the tone for papers through the nation or for news organizations through the nation. Back in april, when president was nearing his 100 day mark. There the paper new its battle within the news media and the white house. And it provided the 100 day mark. And i think trumps succeeded in changing the tone about that. About that conversation about whether 100 days matter. And now he still hasnt really accomplished much, but he at least accomplished a change of tone and i dont vote. I never have. So i dont have a position on whether hes the right or the wrong or whatever but im somewhat calm. Im really call about, trump changed the conversation based on the last 100 days and one of my papers wouldnt run it. And its a weekly column, its a picture and one of the papers wouldnt run it. Because i. Because they didnt want to give him credit. They didnt agree with what i was saying about him changing the conversation or attempting to change the conversation. They just thought, hes wrong. And that had never happened to me before. Where a paper chose to censor me. Maybe a better way to put it is we are becoming less informed. You know, trump. I wont name the organization but theres a news outlet that had a lot to do withtrump getting elected. And i use the term news outlet loosely. But on the other hand, thats where people go to find outor to reinforce what they already believe. And i think that the value of traditional news organizations was, they are opinionated one direction or another but you got to the middle. And there is no middle anymore or theres less and less of a middle these days. And i think we see that in our national politics. In a congress and in the campaigns for president. And then it gets down to this state level and you see it in the campaigns for state office and ways that werent there before. And i think that where this leads would be pockets of people who just dont get information. Or dont get real life information , information that they can take to the council, maybe. And so what youll see our what youll see our places where there are, they are down to one reporter per Radio Station or down to a handful of reporters at the newspaper and i think those will continue to get shaved. You will see radio increasingly go automatic. And i think you will gradually see newspapers, some newspapers become more and more where they just move around 84 copy. The ap is pulling back and so i dont, i worry about the future of journalism in that respect and i worry about what happens to the readers and listeners as a result of that. I think their decisions will be based increasingly on hearsay and not on reported facts. With the help of our midterm cable partners, cspan is inferior south dakota to learn about its history and Literary Community. We continue our special feature with author the drain as she revisits her grandfathers life is cowboy on the open range in the american frontier, lovely Early September day and study philip Memorial Cemetery on the banks of the missouri river. Basically the edge of what was part of his worldfamous Buffalo Ranch and he, scotty wanted to have a cemetery plot for his family, relatives and he took this piece of land because he thought the view was lovely and made it for the scotty the family. Scotty came to scotland into a large family in the United States at the age of 15. Went to a small scottish settlement in kansas, discovered that he didnt think that was where he wanted to be and not gold fever, came to the black hills, was run out the army a couple of times and fell in as the indian situation was trying to be resolved. Found a place for himself in Fort Robinson and northwest nebraska, became a freighter, the one who would herd cattle to the native americans and he ultimately, because he married larabee who had American Indian blood, then came from Fort Robinson up into this area where he was going to start a ranch. So thats how it all began. Being a man of adventure and wanting to make something of himself, he rapidly became a manager, owner of the companies. It was then able to graze is growing heard on land because of sally and he became a part owner of a bank, a big man in central south dakota. Then a yeoman in thenorthwest corner of the state , he died and left a small herd of buffalo. This was at the time when the big thing to do was to come out on a train and shoot buffalo from the train cars, weve been out on the prairie. This did not sitwell because she was native american. And the story is that they put pressure on their husbands to get some of these buffalo and save the buffalo from extinction. So scotty and several of his hands went, one of them was my grandfather, went up to dupree and drove buffalo down which i think is sort of like hiking through jello or herding cats. I dont think its an easy fit he got them down here and the herd grew and grew and he developed a huge, very heavy buffalo fence around these many acres and as we heard, the herd grew and his permanence grew and people began to realize that for all intents and purposes that he was the patron saint of the buffalo, he became very well known and at that point, then on the few of scottys who was born, new where he was in scotland, it didnt matter because families were large and spread all over but my grandfather was orphaned at three. What his father died three, mother died soon after. He was taken care of by his grandparents and it went well but how much fun is that . It was finally decided by the family he would be apprenticed to be a ships engineer. That lasted not so long and he realized im not really cut out for this. The problem was he high five year apprenticeship and at 16. And we are not loving this. And he had to figure out a way to break the apprenticeship legally. So he thought what i want to do is cultivate a really attention grabbing call at which he then and the doctors kept saying whats wrong with you. He said nothing, im successful which is true. But ultimately doctors said i really think you need a years rest, how about south africa or United States . The United States sounded like just thedeal so he got on the ship, came to kansas. Gather in with the family and after a year on the ranch in kansas that wasnt going to be good and foolish, he then went to colorado, worked in the lumber camp for a year which is not fun and thought this is not a good plan but scotty had heard that his nephew was in the area, somehow or other a letter reached my grandfather from scotty saying hey, you need a job, ill put you to work. Thats really where the story began. George philip arrived in fort pierce wondering what do i do now . And as hes walking down the street, ran into scotty who he had seen only once before at a family wedding and he said well, im george. Coming in response to your letter. One of them said scotty, probably and he said come with me, him set up with a horse. Got into a man who was going to work with, even of admiral and said follow those men and out they went. To work with the herd and at that time, scotty was bringing in a fair amount of cattle from texas on the train. There were times when my grandfather george and the other men were down in the railyard working the cattle or they bring the cattle, taken up. Do what people do with cattle which is follow them around and milk the cow or whatever. So he did that. For four years. But in the time span of those four years, keep in mind there were no fences. There were very few roads and the map was the stars and the creeks. You would follow the water down hill until you knew where you were. And there were other can ranch houses but they were followed between but you got to know the topography and his travel with the cattle took them all to the North Carolina loud line and into the northwestern part of nebraska. All of this with his string of horses which would be about 10 animals that would move with the cattle and the men he was working with and they would hurt the horses, they would hurt the cattle, around the moment mike. They put them out for branding or if they were catching the horses in the spring, they dont the stallions and it was just pretty typical ranch work except there wasnt really a ranch. There were rolling prairies and ravines and rivers and things like that. By 1931, he had his two grown sons were in the military and by 1936, it became very clear in the rest of the world that things were not going well in europe. And he, i suppose taking a personal inventory as we all do, realize it was really important to him that his children understand these years on the prairie. Because while at the end of his time on the prairie which would have been 19 02 or 1903, for all practical purposes the open range was closing. Barbed wire was coming up area the life that he knew was gone. And he felt a lot of experiences, a lot of the knowledge, a lot of the people who were part of that were going to be forgotten. His children new of his western history but not really. So he began to write these long letters to his children. And because he wanted them to understand, he called himself an ordinary man. Its obvious by the end there was nothing ordinary about my grandfather at all, he was exceptional in many ways but he wanted them to know what his experiences had been. He would write these letters allowed, so letters would be dismal and some would be funny, some would be not so funny. Would be pointed and one of the really fine things that i think my grandfather did in the letters comprise the book is in many places, he says to his children because these were originally letters he wrote to his adult children, he said you need to understand the real cowboys were not penciled and spent their time in bars and shot everyone they saw. He said it wasnt like that. The cowboys were young and they worked hard and they lived hard and slept outside under the stars or under the clouds or under the wagons when it was rainy and it was a hard life and you were in the saddle 18, 24 hours or more a day as the situation demanded. These were his statements, these were fine men. Not always educated butalways fine, the reverent people. Knowledgeable, experienced and he said the tragedy is, and he wanted to remedy that, that the names of some of these truly wonderful man, bills and who built the last that we are familiar with, he said are going to be lost to history because theres no one here to write it. And i think he set a personal task to do some of that writing. He said everything that started in life should have a purpose so he explain his purpose. My mind and undertaking this letter and such others as they follow is to chronicle the uneventful story of an unimportant man and to give each of you some idea of the experiences and ordinary chat could have in a generation that preceded you. He was probably aware of the change to the land and what it would do to society when the open range closed and i think he really wanted that sense of closure and change to be something his children could recognize and hopefully absorb. That life does that to you, and you have these moments of empathy or periods of ecstasy, then theres a time of reckoning where you gather all that into your self and you open up into something new. I think that is what he was doing. Author Laura Ingalls wilder is well known for her little house series which has reached millions of readers worldwide. With the support of our people partners, td will speak with nancy tie said global, director of the pioneer girl product tactics, and effort exploring wilders memoirs and inspirations for her writing. The project is a research and Publishing Program of the south cota Historical Society that is designed to study and publish a comprehensive addition of Laura Ingalls wilders pioneer girl which is her autobiography. She was a an amazing person. She was a woman who, how do you start with Laura Ingalls wilder . She was this two year old kid who came out to the frontier in the 1869 and spent the next 16 years of her life on various parts of the american frontier. Then as an adult, she moved to missouri, started a career in farm journalism, wrote weekly columns for the local newspaper on how to get hands to lay eggs and all kinds of things like that. She was 63 years old and she wrote her autobiography. And in 1932, she published her first book. And shes best known for the little house series of books which are these eight books about her childhood starting with little house in the big woods , actually the second book which was her husbands childhood and thats farmer boy and then her third book is when she kind of launched this concept of doing a history of the frontier and multiple volumes. Her third book is probably in many ways her bestknown book , little house on the prairie. That was the name of the Television Series that ran from 1974 to the 80s and the fourth book is on the banks of plum creek, on the shores of silverlake, long winter, these happy golden years and they tell her story of her family pioneering as a settler on the frontier, western frontiers of america. Her books have been translated into i think upwards of 60 languages. They sold millions ofcopies. Theyve been influential in the culture. They tell the quintessential american pioneering journey. When i started the biography series, i knew that i wanted to do a book on Laura Ingalls wilder so i approached mint hill which was a writer of young Adult Fiction and i thought that a good thing to view on wilder, and one you dont necessarily always get that from the story point of view and she said theres the pioneer girl which has never been published. It was her autobiography. It had just had languished in these archives for four years. And she said i think theres a market for that. And i think people are interested in that. Then we just decided use this, lets see if we can get the rights to publish that. Lets put together a proposal which we did and then i took that proposal to the Little House Heritage trust which is the guardian of wilders literary properties and it took about a years worth of negotiations but they said okay, yes. Will give you the permission to do that. And i think it was more than permission, it was also a privilege and something that we have to look at seriously. There are these questions we had to decide was okay, the manuscript of pioneer girl, its been at least five different formats. You got the hand written first draft, and then shes got three type scripts that come off of that. That our fulllength manuscripts. And then theres the childrens manuscript at the end called juvenile pioneer girl. So we had to figure out what are we going to do and we decided we would go with this original because that was the closest to wilders original voice. The first thing that had to be done is the names had to be transcribed caused it was a handwritten manuscript. And so we spent oh, i dont even know how long transcribing that, through reading it. Figuring out some of the manuscripts because there were many and it was in the era before computers. So she wrote that manuscript and she wanted to amend it without redoing it. She had to do it in a nontechnological way. And use tape for example or she used pens, she literally took six pens and end pieces of corrections together and stuck them in or put them through the page book so she wrote in between lines so she study the manuscript, which wired the book so big . Thats one of the questions with the mentions, its because its set up to be imitated so that means that you have wilders text here and then footnotes based on things that we decided needed to be managed so youve got notes here in this column and of course as you can see, what we had to say earlier, what are these questions the text brought out, they were bigger than thetext. So the notes extend over onto a couple of pages. So it was a matter of figuring out all the pieces and you know, but at the same time not letting on notes overwhelm the text. Which happened at times. Wed have 1300 word and diffusion for a three word sentence or hybrid sentence and then theres 1300 words, you have to shrink that down to workable. Much as i wanted to go home, i did not want to be unfair or deceitful. I was only going with these things when i could think of being home over sundays, we fully intended to impugn as my school was out. Thats what crowder rose but that brought in for us was this, wilders home over sunday was the second time and in the situation she describes the pioneer girl is inspired wilder lane, her daughters, her story call over saturn published in the saturday evening post on september 11 1937, each story fictionalized her mothers experiences and her fathers name that he rescued wilder home each saturday. These same elements provided chapters 2 through 10 of these happy golden years last novel published in wilders lifetime. But the more interesting graphic in some ways are things like this which is wilders drawing of how this was. So shes trying to help her daughter with her editor. Figure out how this works. So she draws a picture of it which we use in the original. Then just last week i became aware that theres two more copies of this very same drawing. And this is a rough draft of the little house on the prairie. I just didnt realize it was there. And it says very pointedly on it, to her daughter rose, please dont lose this. It is the third math i have drawn. Actually, i was in new york and my staff called me and said youre on the New York Times bestseller list and we were excited and we got congratulations from all over. We were also, there were people interested for film rights, they said what about this right and this right and so it was, new world of conversation with presses and paper. It was fairly overwhelming for us at times but something that we, that has made our future in many ways because we were able to ride that wave. And its going to pay its way through time and help us do our mission. The next project of the pioneer project is already out and its called exploring Laura Ingalls wilder. We knew that we were going to continue our exploration of Laura Ingalls wilders text. That one of the things that was the success of pioneer girl in the autobiography did was allow us to think more comprehensively about what the pioneer girl project was doing and what we decided we wanted to do was we look at those texts and start to answer some of those questions about what kind of an editor was Laura Ingalls wilder, what kind of a memory does Laura Ingalls wilder half, to what extent was that memory supplemented by her daughters . And this is just on the nonfiction aspect of it. And then you move into fiction, how did that editor, agent lead her mother into fiction . What role did the two women play . Thats one thing we decided we would study all the texts that generate or the pieces of which are in pioneer girl the autobiography. So thats our future. I wanted to take away that i suppose that theres history we dont understand as a reading public. We dont understand the role of authors and editors. That most good authors have good editors and that, thats what i would like to take away from the project, is to see that the story, the voice , the writer here is Laura Ingalls wilder and the editor who was very talented at what she did is wills wilder lane and i think those lines get blurred and confused partly because we dont talk to enougheditors. We dont know what it is that they really do. And i think we should rectify that. You are watching book tv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Heres our primetime lineup. At 6 20 p. M. Eastern, alex rifkin talks about the antiisrael agenda that he says is being pushed by the united nations, religious groups and on College Campuses in the us and europe. That 7 30, economist Mohammad Yunus explores how to solve the problems of global poverty, unemployment and climate change. On both tvs after words, former radio host and msnbc contributor Charles Sykes discovers the conservative movement in america with tammy bruce