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#3: Publishing Little House in the Big Woods - Part 1 (Laura Ingalls Wilder & Rose Wilder Lane)
Episode Overview
At age 63, Laura Ingalls Wilder sat down with a No. 2 pencil and wrote a memoir she called Pioneer Girl. Following the stock market crash of 1929, it was her effort to preserve her stories and provide for her family. This episode tells the first part of the story of how, with the help of her daughter, she turned that rejected memoir into a seminal work in children’s literature Little House in the Big Woods.
What You’ll Hear
| Time | Topic
| 00:00 | Cold‑open & Intro
| 02:29 | Stage Setting - Harper & Bro published Little House in the Big Woods
| 03:45 | Motivation to write
| 06:55 | Writing process and revision
| 08:45 | State of children’s lit and agent Carl Brandt gets rejections
| 09:51 | Revisions
| 11:52 | Rose heads to NYC, fires her agent, and acts as agent for her mom
| 14:02 | Extracting a 20‑page children’s story set in Wisconsin woods
| 16:15 | Postscript: Pioneer Girl finally published in 2014
| 17:19 | Bibliography: Pioneer Girl
| 18:25 | Sign‑off
(Timestamps approximate)
Takeaways
- Sometimes the market doesn’t want what you want to write – Wilder couldn’t sell her memoir, agent Carl Brandt couldn’t sell it, and her daughter couldn’t sell it. She had to write her story in a way that appealed to editors and readers.
- Help Needed – Lane’s efforts and her experience were central to her mother’s success.
- Late Start – Laura’s late start in life at book writing and publishing, while wildly successful was not smooth. If not for her dozens of years of prior writing experience, and her daughters efforts and experience, there would be no Little House series.
Recommended Reading
- Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, ed. Pamela Smith Hill (South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2014)
- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (HarperCollins 1932)
People Discussed:
Laura Ingalls Wilder | 00:00:39
Rose Wilder Lane | 00:03:55
Carl Brandt (literary agent) | 00:08:49
Pamela Smith Hill (editor of PioneerGirl) | 00:17:47
Love the Show?
Follow I’ll Probably Delete This on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.
Also share the episode with anyone you think will like it.
Credits
Host / writer / editor: Will Jauquet
Cover art: Wili Joel Productions
© 2025 I’ll Probably Delete This. All rights reserved.
View all episodes
By Will JauquetEpisode Overview
At age 63, Laura Ingalls Wilder sat down with a No. 2 pencil and wrote a memoir she called Pioneer Girl. Following the stock market crash of 1929, it was her effort to preserve her stories and provide for her family. This episode tells the first part of the story of how, with the help of her daughter, she turned that rejected memoir into a seminal work in children’s literature Little House in the Big Woods.
What You’ll Hear
| Time | Topic
| 00:00 | Cold‑open & Intro
| 02:29 | Stage Setting - Harper & Bro published Little House in the Big Woods
| 03:45 | Motivation to write
| 06:55 | Writing process and revision
| 08:45 | State of children’s lit and agent Carl Brandt gets rejections
| 09:51 | Revisions
| 11:52 | Rose heads to NYC, fires her agent, and acts as agent for her mom
| 14:02 | Extracting a 20‑page children’s story set in Wisconsin woods
| 16:15 | Postscript: Pioneer Girl finally published in 2014
| 17:19 | Bibliography: Pioneer Girl
| 18:25 | Sign‑off
(Timestamps approximate)
Takeaways
- Sometimes the market doesn’t want what you want to write – Wilder couldn’t sell her memoir, agent Carl Brandt couldn’t sell it, and her daughter couldn’t sell it. She had to write her story in a way that appealed to editors and readers.
- Help Needed – Lane’s efforts and her experience were central to her mother’s success.
- Late Start – Laura’s late start in life at book writing and publishing, while wildly successful was not smooth. If not for her dozens of years of prior writing experience, and her daughters efforts and experience, there would be no Little House series.
Recommended Reading
- Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, ed. Pamela Smith Hill (South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2014)
- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (HarperCollins 1932)
People Discussed:
Laura Ingalls Wilder | 00:00:39
Rose Wilder Lane | 00:03:55
Carl Brandt (literary agent) | 00:08:49
Pamela Smith Hill (editor of PioneerGirl) | 00:17:47
Love the Show?
Follow I’ll Probably Delete This on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.
Also share the episode with anyone you think will like it.
Credits
Host / writer / editor: Will Jauquet
Cover art: Wili Joel Productions
© 2025 I’ll Probably Delete This. All rights reserved.