that housed the papers of hemingway, we are the only presidential library to house the literary papers of a major , these papers it came to us through the estate of her daughter. she had written an early --paign hierarchy of hoover campaign papers of hoover. she had contacted the library. of course, the archivists were interested and the collection was donated. little did they know it also contains important correspondence between her and her famous mother, laura ingalls wilder, and famous writings. for decades, laura ingalls --der fans have checked trekked to with branch as if they were looking for the holy grail. they asked to see the autobiography. we are fortunate to have pamela smith hill, who has recently published the autobiography. "pioneer girl: the annotated autobiography" came out last fall and immediately sold out its first printing. it is now on the ninth printing and is still selling. it took years of research in different repositories and giving the annotations to guide the reader through various place names and events. the result is a definitive work that will be cherished by all "little house" readers. by happenstance, we have a supply for sale in our museum store and the author has consented to signing them. inela smith hill was born the ozarks, explaining her interest in laura ingalls wilder . she grew up miles away from rocky ridge farm. she is the award-winning author of laura ingalls wilder, a writer's life. last reales, the keeper, and the voice from the border. she has taught at universities of oregon and colorado, as long as an online course on laura ingalls wilder. she is now working on several fiction novels for young adults. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome pamela smith hill. [applause] [applause] pamela: thank you so much for coming. i am gratified and surprised to see such a full house, but then laura ingalls wilder is a rockstar, so it should not be surprised. i want to say that the idea for "pioneer girl: the annotated autobiography" originated here in the archive room, so it is especially gratifying to be back talking about the book. last summer, the associated press and publishers weekly brought the news that "pioneer girl: the annotated autobiography", her previously unpublished autobiography was soon to be published. according to the associated a morethe book was realistic, grittier view of -- living. kevin burbach went on to say that the book included, not safe for children tales, and a stark scenes of domestic abuse, love triangles gone awry, and a man who likes himself -- lights himself on fire. across the state, from the new york times to public radio, from the christian science monitor, to the guardian, picked up the story and by the time the book was published last november, reviewers alike continue to focus on the dark side of wild er. the headlines in the wall street journal, a greenhouse -- grim house on the prairie. was i surprised on this thin -- spin, all the dark, disturbing scenes, frankly -- yes. [laughter] from my perspective, there is a so much more to "pioneer girl: the annotated autobiography" then what the associated press reporter described as "not safe for children tales/ ." i spoke to the report about some much more. why had he zeroed in on that aspect? it was a relatively small part of the interview. the obvious answer of course is that popular culture thrives on scandal, i should have known. but beyond that there was an implication that wilder had whitewashed her life in the "little house" books, that she had covered up the truth. , one persontown called a glaring distortion. certainly she made significant changes when she shifted from writing nonfiction to fiction, more about this later. but i came to realize as more in the were featured national and international press, that much of the media's obsession of this dark side was related to not be "little house" novels themselves, but to the television series. what you are looking at here is the front page of a french language newspaper published in switzerland in december, a rough translation of this text, the true history of laura and a little house on the prairie. but notice, the photograph is of melissa gilbert, the actress who played laura, not the real laura ingalls wilder. to be fair, the newspaper later did include a historical photograph of laura. but the image of melissa gilbert appeared on the front page, it hiking into the contrast between realities of pioneer girl and the fiction of little house on the prairie. and images of the tv series or references surfaced again and again as reviewers contrasted wilder's real-world experiences with fictional ones. why is this significant?? does it matter that they focus on the tv series versus the books when trying -- and drawing comparisons? first a few words on the television series. the television series, little house on the prairie, ran on tv from 1974 until 1982 and it shows -- and it remains in syndication. it won emmys and tv guide named one of the episodes to its list of 100 greatest episodes of all time. the show was incredibly popular and successful. but, it is a highly reimagined interpretation of wilder's the original book. the cast itself, for one thing. [laughter] you can tell who the real charles ingalls is. ingeneral, the characters the tv series are softer, more sentimental, less rough around the edges. characters,tional more about that in a minute. ingallsboth the real family and the fictional one from the book moved to the territory and set her books there. four of these five books were finalists for the coveted newberry award in children's literature. they are often considered while 's strongest books. but many were part of the tv series. libertyhow took lots of with the characters, scenes, and episodes they did include. here's one example. fiction and the tv series, mary ingalls lost her sight. ingalls familyal sent mary to the college of the blind. unlike her television counterpart, the real mary ingalls and the fictional character never married. she lived her life in south dakota in the house the charles ingalls built for his family there. the tv series gave mary a happier more conventional future. she falls in love and gets married on the television show. cast aral, the tv series happier and more conventional flow over all of wilder's characters. ,he tv series has become iconic and in many ways appears to have overshadowed the books. when reporters and reviewers observed that the autobiography contrasts with the optimism of the little house books, i suspect they are unconsciously referring to the tv show. they may not be aware of scenes like this from the books. on the banks of plum creek, laura is nearly ground when she tries to cross the flooded creek. the scene isn't simply about danger or disobedience. laura doesn't learn from this episode that she should always a baker parents. instead, she learned something darker, more subtle, and more sophisticated. -- laura doesn't learn from this episode that she should always open a her parents. she claps her hands and rolls onto it. in that very instant, she knew the creek was not playing. it was strong and terrible. it sees her whole body and pulled it under the plank. only her head was out, and one arm desperately across the narrow plank. her andr was pulling pushing too, trying to drag her head under the plank. the water pulled hard at the rest of her. it was not laughing now. no one knew where she was. no one could hear her if she screamed for help. the water roared aloud and tug at her stronger and stronger here door kicked, but the water was stronger than her legs. she got both arms across the plank and pulled, but the water pulled harder. it pulled the back of her head down and it jerked at it would jerked her into. it was cold. the coldness soap into her. soaked into her. this was not like wolves are capital. the creek was not alive. it was only strong and terrible and never stopping. it would not -- pull her down hirl her away. the natural world is and government. it doesn't care about laura. nature isn't simply sunny, warm, and beautiful in the book. it can be dangerous, cruel, and even deadly. how does the scene and? -- laura escapes and mom hopes it would teach her a lesson. i can't punish you. i can't even scold you. you came near being drowned. if the scene had ended here with the expected moral lesson, a bay your parents, it would have been obeyen a your parents -- your parents, it would have been more conventional. this is not where the scene ends. laura did not say anything. down and ituld go will be a gentle, pleasant place to play in again, but nobody could make it do that. nobody could make it do anything. laura knew now that there were things of stronger than anybody, but the creek had not got her. it did not make her scream and it could not make her cry. laura is a tough and unyielding little girl she is unrepentant. she has great in a world that is sometimes dark and ambivalent. another scene that speaks to the seamier side of life, a scene that might surprise reporters and reviewers. the one i am about to share with you comes from little house on the prairie, gwen moore as a tonager is working in town pay for mary's college expenses. she makes buttonholes for mrs. white. let's dive in and take a look at the scene. on, the big man had gone mr. clancy asked mrs. white when his shirts would be done. mrs. white to said she did not know which shirts they were. then mr. clancy's war. scrooge small in her chair, fasting as fast as she could. d small incrooge her chair, basking as fast as she could. ting as fast as she could. i will not be driven and hounded . mrs. white blaze. not by you nor any other shanty irishman. more hardly heard what mr. clancy said then to her g wanted desperately to be somewhere else. but mrs. white told her to come along to dinner. the kitchen was hot and crowded and cluttered. mrs. clancy was putting dinner on the table and three little boys and girls were pushing each other off their chairs. mr. and mrs. clancy and mrs. white all quarreling at the top of their voices set down and ate heartily. laura could not understand what they were quarreling about. they seem so angry she thought they would strike each other. there is obviously an element of dark humor here, but this is clearly a dysfunctional family. how does laura respond? she continues to work through the day. it is her first day on the job, in fact. the hours are long, her shoulders and neck ache, her fingers ache as well from working and needle hour after hour, but she does the work without complaint. pa comes to walk her home, he asked her how she liked her first day working for pay, half pint? right?e out all i think so, she answered. mrs. white spoke well of my buttonholes. breathe a word to anyone in the family about the extraordinarily uncomfortable position she now finds herself in. she thinks only about the money she could possibly earn for mary's college. , ara is a tough little girl tough young woman in little town on the prairie. house hold iste not the only dysfunctional family depicted. ,here is the brewster family and this scene in the book. mrs. brewster and the butcher knife. in this scene, laura is teaching school for the first time and boarding with mr. and mrs. brewster 12 miles from home. laura is just 15. up, moonlightight was streaming over her bed from the window. again, aster screamed wild sound without words. there is another wonderful detail for you writers out there laura's scalp crinkled. take the knife back to the kitchen, mr. brewster said. laura picked through the cracks between the curtains, the moonlight shone through the darknessd thinned the so that laura saw mrs. brewster standing there. night downite final trail on the floor and her black hair fell loose over her shoulders. in her upraised hand she held the butcher knife. brewstery, mr. convinces his wife to the knife away, but laura spins a sleepless night on the slippery couch behind the curtains just a few feet away from the brewster's. in the income laura reaches this conclusion. in the in, laura reaches this conclusion, she news that she must not be afraid. said that she must never be afraid. very likely, nothing would happen. you was not exactly afraid of mrs. brewster, for she knew that she was quick, and strong as a little french horse. that is, when she was awake. but she had never wanted so much to go home. yet, laura finishes the term and tells her family nothing about that butcher knife. the scene may seem very tame by today's standards. 1940's, her depiction of mrs. brewster and the butcher knife was daring and edgy. after she submitted the manuscript, her literary agent it is suggested that mrs. brewster's butcher knife incident because out. wilder's editor at her publisher. she went on to become a well-known literary figure in her own right. she edited the work of the writer of charlotte's web. as she went on to become, in 1942, she believed mrs. brewster and that butcher knife for pushing the envelope on content for young readers. obviously, wilder prevailed, the scene remained, but it is significant i think that the first addition of these happy doesn't include an illustration of this scene. brewsterof mrs. combined with the narrative would have given it too much andasis, and then to dark disturbing for young adults and 1943. at least from the publisher's point of view. this illustration dates from 1953, when wilder's publisher issued a new addition of the book, illustrated by garth williams. 10 years after the book publication, young readers themselves had convinced publishers like harper brothers that darker, grittier content had a place in young adult literature. it is reallyk important to note that children and young adults in the 1930's and 1940's, when she wrote the books, were much more conservative and restrictive than today. such topics as divorce, sexuality, alcoholism, child abuse, these issues became accepted topics in children's books much later through groundbreaking work. blindness in the books was a controversial topic. the children's literature in the depression era. edit -- dr. edited -- daughter edited the manuscript. maintained that a touch of tragedy makes the story ite to life, and showing illustrates the spirits of the time and the frontier. in fact, of the fictional laura ingalls in the series, wilder fought to keep more mature scenes and episodes in the book over her daughter's objections. that thesed characters have no place in books for young readers in the 1930's and 1940's. to avoid morested on adult scenes. wilder disagreed. i don't see how we can spare what you call adult stuff, for .hat makes the story it was there and laura knew and understood it. we can't spoil this story by making it childish. clearly by the teresa standards of the 1930's and 1940's -- by the literary standards of the 1930's and 19 forgers -- 1940's, she did not sanitize them. trail inlazing a new children's and young adult fiction in the 1930's and 1940's -- in young adult fiction in the 1930's and in the 1940's. the long winter is extraordinarily dark and focuses on the fictional families struggle against isolation, cold, and starvation. it was very adult stuff for young readers when first published in 1940, and it still is. the book's original title was a hard winter, but the publisher feared that title would discourage and frightened young readers away from the book. and evenet, wilder lane agreed to the new and softer title. so, the conventions of children's and young adult literature were far more restrictive during the depression era and early 40's than today. you could even say that the category of young adult literature wasn't officially recognized until 1958, when the american library association first began using the term young adult fiction. wilder herself had died the year before in 1957, long before the term gained wide acceptance. true that wilder all thet to transfer experiences she recorded in pioneer girl into her fiction. she didn't write about the birth and death of her baby brother. he lived only nine months after a short illness, he straightened out his little body and was dead. and wilder chose not to write about the family's decision to move east to iowa after the grasshopper plague in minnesota had wiped the family out financially. and caroline ingalls managed a hotel briefly, an enterprise that failed, and they returned to minnesota with the family lived in town, not on a farm. choose to wilder write about these experiences in her little house books? she wrote lane, it is a story in itself. it does not belong in the picture i am making of the fictional family. in other words, these episodes did not serve wilder's larger themes, frontier family moving west, pursuing agrarian values, finding land in the west and building a new life for themselves there. it wasn't that the material was to adult, her resistance to include the material from pioneer girl was thematic. that, there is no question pioneer girl contains grittier and more adult material than the little house books. wilder wrote pioneer girl for an adult audience. ,his was after all her memoir her personal account of childhood and adolescence written from an adult perspective for adult readers. wilder hoped to sell pioneer girl to a prominent national magazine, perhaps the saturday evening post or the ladies home journal. in those days, national magazines were a significant market for longer form nonfiction like pioneer girl, as well as short and novel length fiction. magazines serialized longer manuscripts. mightir like pioneer girl appear in three or four different issues, and the longer works of fiction and nonfiction were popular with the magazine's readers. writers could negotiate a book deal with publishers. in essence, they could sell the manuscripts twice. something that was especially appealing to those during the dark early days of the depression. wilder finished writing pioneer , a full two 1930 years before her first little house book was published. describe the to marketing effort that lane launched to sell her mother's manuscript. you can read that in the book. [laughter] i will say that she chose to write about things that were important to her personally , but would resonate with adult readers in the 1930's. have pointed out, pioneer girl contains dark scenes of domestic abuse, love and a man live himself on fire. this is because it was appropriate for adult readers in the 1930's, but welder apparently felt that some material was inappropriate for adult readers. and the rough draft version of line near girl, wilder includes an especially troubling scene. she and her family are living in minnesota, and once again struggling to make in smead -- ends meet. mysterious --from mary suffers from thanking spells and could not care for the little girl. lower was to look out for both the mother and the daughter. as to the husband and his young family, wilder was uncomfortable around him. like to be i do not where he was. he was drinking more than ever. his eyes were red rimmed and hit such a silly look on his face. i hadn't stayed with nanny very long when one night i wake from a sound sleep to find will leaning over me. i could smell the whiskey on his breath. i set up quickly. six, i asked. no, he answered. lie down and be still. go away quick, i said, or i will scream for nanny. he went and the next day ma said i could come home. a lot is implied in this scene. there is not a lot of discussion here. the implication is clear. laura was threatened with sexual assault. ends well for laura, and yet it was cut from pioneer girl in the edited version submitted to literary agents and magazine editors and 1930 and 1931. the material was too dark, too gritty, to sexually charged for even a dog breeders in the depression. -- for even adult readers in the depression. why is this manuscript important? what did i hope reporters and reviewers would see in wilder's autobiography? matters pioneer girl question mark what does it reveal about her work and legacy? first, it gives readers a new insight into wilder's childhood and adolescence. regardless of the grittier, darker elements in pioneer girl, it provides us with more perspective and information about her life in her own voice. let's return to the birth of her baby brother. coming home from school one day, we found a strange woman and a ma in bed.her beside we were very proud of him and always hurried home from school to see him. later, as the ingalls family left minnesota, the farm and finances ruined by a relentless grasshopper plague, freddy took ill. little brother was not well and the doctor came. i thought that would cure him. but little brother got worse instead of better and one awful day he straightened out his little body and was dead. despair,he midst of grief, and economic struggle, wilder gives us this scene a few pages later, when the family is living over a grocery store. our reading lessons very much and used to practice reading them all out at night. pa new but did not tell us until later that a crowd used together in the store beneath to hear us read. this is one of my favorite images and pioneer girl, laura as mary reading aloud townspeople gathered below to view the read. a second reason why pioneer girl is important, it illustrates wilder's natural and instinctive talent as a writer and storyteller. wilder's skill and ability as a writer came into question in large part with the publication of this book in 1993. the ghost in the little house, ,iography of wilder's daughter a well-researched book, and i encourage all of you to read it if you haven't already. i'm simplifying the books major from this only slightly. it contended that wilder had no talent and that her daughter had ghostwritten the little house books. very little attention was devoted to pioneer girl, which perhaps explains why his depiction did not focus on passages from her original manuscript that clearly reveal her raw talent, passages like this one. the sun sank lower and lower wl of looking like a bo it sankliquid light hoarsely in clouds of crimson and silver. called purple shadows rose in the ease, crept slowly around the horizon, then gathered above in depth on depth of the darkness from which the stars swung low and bright. edited,aft, on laura ingalls wilder. one passage does not necessarily translate to sustained talent, and yet this passage in pioneer girl is important. it showcases her national -- ,atural descriptive talent which elaine herself praised. i don't see how anybody could improve on your use of words. you are perfect in describing landscapes and things. descriptive passage from the original draft of pioneer girl also illustrates what sometimes happens when editors convince writers to revise and change what should never be altered. here is how the opening sentence from the passage appears in the final edited version of pioneer girl. lowern sank lower and still. light,of pulsing, liquid it sank in clouds of crimson and silver. this edit is not radical, yet the passage loses its poetic rhythm and grace. wilder's original descriptive passage went on to have yet another life, this time in a novel by the shores of the silverlake. here is how it appears, the sun sank, a ball of pulsing liquid light, it sank in clouds of crimson and sober. .gain, the edit is subtle lines,for these opening wilder returned to her original passage in pioneer girl for the rest of the description. at herake one more look original opening line from that description in pioneer girl. sank lower and lower until looking like a ball of pulsing liquid light, it sank hoarsely in clouds of crimson and silver. this original line has movement. both and how it describes and the rhythm of the words. this is a technical issue for those of you in the audience who are writing geeks. wilder uses an adverb, gloriously. usually adverbs are never a writers friend, but here wilder uses it brilliantly and perfectly. this is why adverbs exist. but, this passage had yet another life. novel,me in the pioneer free land. this book borrows heavily from 1938,r girl, published in and here is lanes take on wilder's original passage. spread in rainbow colors around the level rim of the earth and purple shadows rose. the low stars were huge and quivering. flat.scription here is it lacks the visual immediacy and impact of her mother's original passage. if lane was truly the ghost writer of the little house lack they does it distinctive voice that many find in pioneer girl? three, why number pioneer girl matters. it reveals wilder's growth as a writer. her transformation from a newspaper columnist to novelists. launched her professional writing career in 1911 as a columnist and page editor. it was the largest farm publication in missouri in the early 20 century. ruralist is still around today. the work was ultimately successful, so successful they publish a profile about her. here is what her editor said about her then. she knows farm folks and the problems as few women who write no them. , she writesthy well. in pioneer girl, readers can see that wilder initially wrote like short,aper columnist, intense, every word mattered, because newspaper columnists come unlike novelists, have to make every word count. they don't have a lot of real estate, a lot of physical space in which to develop their stories. here is what i mean. let's look at the passage that opens pioneer girl. once upon a time, years and years ago, pa stopped the horses and wagon they were hauling away out on the prairie in indian territory. isl caroline, he said, here the place with been looking for. might as well cap. ma got down from the wagon. pa unhitched the horses and picketed them, tied them to long rows fastened to wooden pegs driven in the ground, is a big lead the grass. then he made a camper out of bits of willow twigs. cook supper over the fire and after we had eaten, sister mary and i were put to bed in the ma set a whiled by the fire. i lay and looked to the opening in the wagon cover at the campfire and pa sitting there. and ma it was low cement so still with the stars shining down on the great, flat land were no one lived. there was a long, scared sound off in the night and pau said it was a wolf howling. that frightened me a little, but we were safe in the wagon with its nice tight cover to keep out the wind and he appeared the wagon was home, we had lived in s rifle wasand pa' hanging at the side where he could get it quickly dishes the wall. he wouldn't let wolves nor anything heard is injected brindle bulldog was lying under the wagon. the opening passage reads like a newspaper column. single story effectively, while using a minimum number of words and a minimum amount of space. as wilder's confidence grew and she understand that she did not need to restrict herself to a tight word count for every scene and narrative, pioneer girl begins to include more elaborate and well-developed scenes. let's take a look at the following passage from pioneer girl, which appeared later in the narrative, when the first wave of grasshoppers sweeps through the family farm. the weather was just right and the crops grew and grew. day, pa wase telling us that the wheat in our field was so long it would just --nd under his arms with beautiful heads and feeling nicely. heard someone call and mrs. nelson was in the doorway. she was all out of breath and running, wringing her hands and almost crying, the grasshoppers are coming. the grasshoppers are coming, she shrieked. andll ran to the door looked around now and then a grasshopper dropped to the ground, but we couldn't see anything to be excited about. look at the sun. we raised our faces and looked into the sun. it had been shining brightly, but now there was a light colored, fleecy cloud over its face so it did not hurt our eyes. and then we saw that the cloud was grasshoppers. their wings were a shiny white making a screen between us and the sun. groundre dropping to the like hail and a how storm, faster and faster. -- like hail in a hailstorm, faster and faster. notice the vivid and colorful this caption, we raised our faces and looked straight into the sun. the phrasing is memorable. the grasshoppers hit the ground like hail in a hailstorm, faster and faster. perhaps because of her experience as a newspaper columnists, she intersperses the scripture and with believable dialogue. it sounds the way real people talk. -- she intersperses description with believable dialogue. it sounds the way real people talk. on the other hand, i near girl grew us just how much she as a novelist once she understood the freedom that writing fiction could give her. here is a single sentence from pioneer girl. logs in theouse of nearby creek bottom, and when we moved into it, there was a hole in the wall where the window was to be and a quilt hung over the doorway to keep the weather out. prairie, house on the wilder's third novel in the series, she devoted an entire chapter to construction of that house that he built of logs. and yet, another chapter to moving in, plus doors, and chapters on construction of the fireplace, and building the roof and floor. from one sentence in pioneer confidence, laura ingalls wilder wrote five chapters from one sentence about that little house on the prairie in her third novel. that brings me to another reason why pioneer girl is important. pioneer girl serves as the foundation for wilder's little house books. their and lane abandon attempt to publish the manuscript in 1933. it was entered in the atlantic monthly writing contest. pioneer girl did not win. yet, while that went on to use the manuscript as an outline for the rest of the little house series, drawing heavily from scenes in pioneer girl. they often found their way into the little house books. missouri toved to research a book of her own, she took pioneer girl with her, and wound it requested the manuscript as she worked on them by the shores of silverlake, her sixth novel. as she wrote, thank you for the pages from pioneer girl. they will help. evened out an episode from pioneer girl for farmer boy , her novel about her husband's childhood on a farm near new york. in pioneer girl, welder recounts the story of a young h. reed, ar, william man who inherited a schoolhouse of unruly young boys who started fights with teachers and drove them away. the leader of the gang was a bully named -- who according to wilder was the worst of the lot. his chair by his desk with his ruler in one hand, ideally staffing it against the other. it was a large, flat, very strong ruler he had just made. mose was the last one in. he was ready to fight and came swaggering up expecting mr. reed to stand up so he could knock and down. but mr. reed sat still and, just stood in front of him, reached up with his left hand, by the collar and jerked, tripping him with his foot. mose was so surprised that he lay there like a bad little boy and was being soundly spanked with the flat, strong ruler. mose is so humiliated that he does not turn -- return to the school. from that day forward, mr. reed ran an efficient and peaceful school. in farmer boy, the teacher's ourse, described as a pale, young man was not big enough to fight the bad boys on his first day at school. they had come to thrash the teacher and break up the school. the leader of this fictional gang is a tough, mean young man named bill ritchie. in the fictional version, the downlteacher faces bill with a whip 15 feet long. around hillsed legs -- bill's legs. mr.cor mr. corse jerked. the outcome is the same. the big boys were licked. cors hade licked ritchie's gang. another episode of pioneer girl found its way into a novel. lane also used material from pioneer girl in several short ladies published in the home journal and the saturday evening post and later incorporated into her book and her two pioneer novels. war and freecane land. while her mother wrote big jerry lane wrote about halfbreed jack in free land. lane's main characters in length the hurricane war were named charles and caroline. he played the fiddle, and she was a quiet person. understoods quite wings of hair, and all her movements were gentle and death. -- and deft. she took their names and personalities from pioneer girl. pioneer girl is indeed a somewhat grittier and edgier count of laura ingalls wilder's childhood and adolescence, but for good reason. it is an important addition to laura ingalls wilder's literary legacy, new insight into growth and develop as a novelist and as a literary legend she has since become. reviewerirl is as one aptly described it, a treasure. thank you all very much. i believe i have time for some questions. [applause] >> there are a few microphones. if you raise your hand, we will pass the microphone. there is one on that side. if you have a question, raise your hand. >> [inaudible] --ela: the question about still remains inconclusive. when i was working on pioneer girl, i will look into this and consulted another expert on wilder -- william anderson. he concluded along with me that her brother's grave is unmarked and remains unknown. >> my wife is the big laura ingalls wilder's enthusiast, not myself. my image was always that she was like grandma moses, started her art late in life with no training and so on, and i was shocked to learn that she was an accomplished newspaper woman for 20 years or so before she started. why is that such a closely held secret? why wasn't she applauded for her newspaper work? pamela: that is a very good question. you are not alone in cleaning to that image of laura ingalls wilder as being an untrained writer who recently wrote down the facts of her life and remembered them and became an instant star. why thatthe reason myth has persisted is because it is such a wonderful story. to so manycouraging people who want to write and are working diligently and hard hoping for a book to be published. i have also come to believe that wilder's work for the missouri ist was unrecognized until recently. there is a fine book that includes a selection of her in part it ishink because she was writing for an agricultural newspaper. she did write a couple of articles for maccallum and the country gentleman, three in early 1920's, and but she did not enjoy writing for that market at all. she preferred to write to an audience that she understood. she understood the audience a missouri very well. her husband had a stellar state farm, worked hard to nurture and make that land viable, so she knew that she was writing with a certain amount of credibility to people that she understood. and yet, i think a lot of critics and early historians initially dismissed her agricultural newspaper writing because it was just that, writing for a regional, relatively small group of people , and the smaller audience. however, i think what is really interesting, and i discuss this more thoroughly in my biography, ste circulation for the rurali grew to medically during the years that she was a feature columnist and editor, not in a silly because of her work itself , because the magazine was taking root and finding new ways to express itself. morel say this, more and scholarship has been devoted to wilder's work as a journalist, and now people are beginning to understand just what an important foundation in late for her as a professional writer. laid for her as a professional writer. of the technical ways you approach the material for editing, when you first took on the material, was it all digitized or did you actually work with the big chief tablet? pamela: that is a great question. there are several different versions. the version i chose to use for the annotated autobiography, and the one i quoted from most extensively, was the original draft, which was in fact hand written on those big chief tablets. my first exposure to the manuscript came in 2006 and 2007, and i could not look at the original manuscripts. they are safely guarded in a climate controlled space. you can imagine how fragile those manuscripts are at this point. so i looked at the manuscripts on microfilm from the university of missouri, and i made the , and copies from microfilm that is what i read and worked from on the biography. it was really tough going, i have to tell you. not only is it difficult to read someone else's handwriting, but on microfilm in pencil on tablet paper, it is really hard to read. , in the time around 2006 and 2011, when we really started working on pioneer girl in earnest, the university of missouri had a digitized copy that was somewhat er than mightlear xerox copy made from microfilm. using a digitized copy, a valiant, talented, and persistent assistant editor at the south dakota historical society made a type written transcript. he was very, very careful. he made all kinds of marginal notes and footnotes that indicated where wilder had crossed something out or where a page shifted from the front to the back and then the back to the front again, and so with his terrific transcript, it made my job ever so much easier. >> thank you. pamela: there is a question right up here. do you believe after looking through her work that there is more undiscovered gems from her, or have we possibly seen the last of her original works? pamela: there is one more book coming out next year, edited by william anderson. it is a collection of her correspondence. that is coming out next year. i saw william addison -- anderson in brookings. he feels confident that with the publication of the correspondence that will come out next year, this is the last of the material that we will have from her. stay tuned for that book. i know it will be terrific. other questions? >> i had a question. over here. i have always in curious about the place of farmer boy in the collection of her work. where aly read a book writer thought of former board as an idealized version of a childhood, and that is how wilder was writing in her depictions of the plentiful food available to him, and i was curious what your thoughts were on that and what doing the pioneer girl project taught you about that. pamela: that is a great question. i described farmer boy in more detail in my biography, a writer's life. that iton farmer boy is is the mirror image of little house in the big woods. when laura ingalls wilder originally sold little house in , that she was offered a three book deal. publishing has not changed that much since the early 1930's, and just as laura ingalls wilder was about to sign the contract for that three-book deal, they decided to close its children's department. advised laura ingalls wilder to not sign the contract. i won't go into the story about that. it is quite fascinating. ultimately, when she signed her another publisher a few months later, it was for just one book. i don't think that laura ingalls wilder had envisioned a full series at this point, so she finished little house in the big woods. deal inl had that book her mind, so she turned her attention to writing a book about her husband's childhood. so she wrote what about her childhood,about his hers for girl readers. farmer was for boys. his story would contrast nicely with hers because they were from a more prosperous family. their expenses were different. boy andhat farmer little house in the big woods can almost be read as a set. what i think is dynamic and unique about farmer boy is that her confidence as a novelist is growing in farmer boy. character whomain is really the center of the action, and little house in the big woods, we think about lower as being the main character, but it is a family story. if you look at it, the whole family is engaged here. little house read in the big woods without knowing all the other little house books were coming, you might assume this was indeed a family story, that pa was just as much a main character as laura. so i think those two books are kind of a set. then as laura ingalls wilder became more confident about her abilities as a novelist, when she created a character in farmer boy, around which all the ownon centers, who has his hopes, dreams, and aspirations, filled the pages of that book, i think then she was ready to think about maybe there are more books in me, and that's when she began work on little house on the prairie. if you read little house on the prairie, laura emerges as the main character there. it is interesting to see her progress as a novelist in the first three books. thank you for asking that question. i'd like to answer, as you can tell. [laughter] >> two of the questions have been asked, first, do we know what freddie died from? would you tell a little bit more about laurapoluza? pamela: we don't know what freddie died of. he died on the trail. the family was in movement then. in the 19th century, it was sometimes difficult to ascertain exactly what was the cause of death or what caused -- for example. although, we still have a better what was at the root of mary's blindness. you can read about that in pioneer girl. a, it is arapoluz conference that meets every other year and brings together wilder scholars, amateur scholars, fans to discuss laura and sharelder, read papers, talk about their expenses with her and her work. 2017 in one will be in springfield, missouri, my hometown. i'm sure there will be trips to rocky ridge farm, where wilder wrote pioneer girl and all the little house books. who --re several people do you want to hold up your hands? alums here.za if you want to know more, see me afterwards. >> i think we have time for one more question. >> this is delightful listening to you. pamela: thank you so much. >> what is next? where are you going next in terms of your writing? break from taking a nonfiction right now. it is so liberating to write fiction again. my agent is marketing a young adult novel right now, and i am working on a second young adult novel about the civil war. my first novel was published several years ago. time that really intrigues me. i am going back to the civil war right now. i'm thinking about another book on wilder, but it is still shadowy and it hasn't taken shape yet. note, thank you for coming. if you would like your book signed or you would like to continue the dialogue with pamela, she will be in the lobby. thank you for coming. let's thank her. [applause] history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. 1872, the warnd department's bureau of refugees, or the freedmen's bureau provided help to slaves. next on american history tv, emmanuel dabney discusses the archival records of the freedmen's bureau and what they can tell us about the lives of former slaves. he describes how the bureau issued food and clothing,