I found it interesting to read about what life was like for an ordinary family in the time and places where Laura Ingalls grew up. I guess that was the burgeoning historian in me; the books were like historical documents.
I wish more historians would focus on what life was like for an ordinary family in their era as opposed to the larger and ostensibly more "important" activities of royalty and armies and whatnot.
Sidenote: I've always wanted to write a book about the history of comfort. The idea would be to look at what life was like for people before all the things we take for granted that make our lives comfortable -- streetlights, comfy beds, Advil, a variety of food from one day to the next, etc., etc. I would try to go beyond the obvious things like indoor plumbing and central heating. But it would get back to my idea that the average middle-class American family lives far, far better than a king from the Middle Ages.
My only roadblocks are: 1) I don't really know how to do historical research and 2) Millions of people around the world still experience this pre-comfort life (and even in this country, some people lack some of the things).
I think the only way to do the book would be to find a coauthor who knows historical research (my ex is pretty good at it -- if only I could get him interested in undertaking such a major project). The other thing is I'd have to spend some time in a place where these ordinary comforts are unknown. For example, I interviewed a guy who has for years been raising money and leading travel groups to some little village in, I think, Ghana, where he spent time during his Peace Corps years. The people there were living on <$1 a day, which is some international measure of acceptable standard of living, and this guy I interviewed managed to bring them up to $2 a day. That meant the difference between families having secure tin roofs on their homes versus having the family get up in the middle of the night during monsoon season to go out in the storm and hang onto the tarp that was serving as their roof to keep it from blowing away. It also provided people with malaria shots and mosquito netting. When I talked to him, a woman had started a rudimentary "restaurant" (selling bowls from big pot of beans she cooked in her yard) and someone else had set up a TV and satellite and would charge villagers some small amount to watch.
But a medicine chest full of OTC medications to help with minor aches and pains? Chicken one night and steak the next? Forget it.
I see the book structure as alternating chapters between the experiences of people in a village like that (so and so suffered a terrible toothache but had to just endure the pain until someone yanked it out, rather than do whatever dentisty thing they might do here) with chapters about the accumulation of comforts in developed countries and their histories (Louis Pasteur invented Advil in 1980, or whatever).
I've never read Pippi Longstocking, or Little Women (though I've thought I ought to read Louisa May Alcott because I think she's an important figure in literature, and, again, Little Women takes place in the 1860s)
You'd want to read LMA if you'd ever visited her home in Concord. One thing you'll learn there: She had no particular interest in writing a YA book for girls but her publisher talked her into it so she churned out
Little Women in about six weeks. She did the whole thing on a flip-down desk about the size of a cafeteria tray.
P.S. I wanted to double-check LMA's hometown and found she was actually born in Germantown, PA -- so all the more interest for you!
I've never even heard of Maude Hart Lovelace.
She's probably more famous in Minnesota because she was born here and her series (following a group of girls from age 5 through high school and beyond; reading difficulty increases with the age of the characters) is set here. But she's nationally famous. I once went to see the columnist-turned-novelist Anna Quinlen speak, and she happened to mention that those were her favorite books.
They're fictionalized, but very closely based on her own girlhood -- literally, character X in the novels = person Y in real life -- and are set between about 1900 and 1920. She also had a daughter to whom she told the stories, but unlike Rose Wilder Lane, I doubt anyone suspects her of writing them. Maude's character is portrayed as being fascinating with telling stories and loving to write from an early age, and all through school. She went to the University of Minnesota for a while but dropped out, I think because she got married -- typical back then. But then she went on to write these books.
I've never read any Nancy Drew, but I've also never read any Hardy Boys.
Me neither. I was trying to think of more boy books!
Of course, there is a controversy over whether the books were actually written by Rose Wilder Lane, Laura's daughter (you should look her up; she was quite an interesting character).
I've read about it. My suspicion is that Rose wrote them but based on her mother's actual memories. Arguably they could share a byline but shrewd Rose probably knew they'd be more marketable with Laura as the sole author.