Mr. Carle, who had lived in Northampton for many years, founded the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst with his wife, the late Barbara Carle, in 2002.
In the middle of the Great Depression, young bookworms were introduced to a spirited girl growing up in woodsy Wisconsin during the 1870s. Though not every detail was strictly autobiographical,
Little House in the Big Woods was the true story of its author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, who was born on February 7, 1867, and died on February 10, 1957. Readers were captivated by her tales of family life on the homestead, and Wilder capitalized on this success by penning an entire series of Little House books, which followed the protagonist to the prairies of modern-day South Dakota and beyond. Get to know the pioneering author behind the series with these eight fascinating facts.