Derivative Works / Little House on the Prairie

Books

As a whole

There is some contention about how much of the books are purely Laura Ingalls Wilder: the stories are hers, to be sure, but her daughter Rose Wilder Lane was a popular author and was instrumental in encouraging her mother to publish her story. While Laura already had a background writing columns for local newspapers, some suggest Rose—who was an accomplished ghostwriter—wrote the books herself, while others suggest she merely offered advice and put Laura in touch with her publishing connections; the truth is likely somewhere between the two extremes. A study of the relevant correspondence between the two suggests that Rose's main concern was with the technical details of grammar and style, while her mother focused on character and plot. The First Four Years, which was written without Rose's help, is noticeably different in style to the rest of the series, but this may have more to do with the fact that it was apparently originally intended as a more adult take on the same material.

After Wilder's death, her daughter found her journal account of their move from De Smet to Mansfield, Missouri, and had it published as On the Way Home. Shortly after Rose's death, her lawyer and heir, Roger Lea MacBride, brought to light The First Four Years, which Rose had entrusted him with. MacBride also published a collection of letters Laura wrote to Almanzo while visiting Rose in San Francisco during the World's Fair, under the title West From Home. Not content to stop there, he also wrote a series of books about Rose, drawing on stories she told him as a child and tossing in a few creative liberties.

Novels

HarperCollins was similarly discontented, as they smelled a zombie franchise in the making - nearly half a century later! - and added to the Rose books, publishing an inter-generational Little House series about Laura's female ancestors:

• The Rose Years by Roger Lea MacBride
• The Caroline Years by Maria D. Wilkes and Celia Wilkins about Caroline Quiner Ingalls, Laura's mother.
• The Charlotte Years by Melissa Wiley about Charlotte Tucker Quiner, Laura's grandmother.
• The Martha Years by Melissa Wiley about Martha Morse Tucker, Laura's great-grandmother.

HarperCollins also published books about Mary Ingalls and Nellie Oleson, an additional book about Almanzo, and Old Town in the Green Groves, a book about the "lost years" Laura felt were too painful to include in children's books, written by Cynthia Rylant.

These extra books vary in quality and success at emulating the charm of the originals, but all are interesting portraits of "America's favorite pioneer family."

Laura's autobiography Pioneer Girl, which she initially tried to publish before re-writing her life story as the Little House books, was published in October 2013.

Other

Anime & Manga

• Laura, the Prairie Girl, a 1975 anime adaptation by Nippon Animation

Live-Action Series

• Little House on the Prairie (1974)
• Disney adapted Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie into a six-part miniseries in 2005. Carrie was Adapted Out of the story.