NEW YORK (AP) - Laura Ingalls Wilder, who already holds a special place in the hearts of millions of parents and children, soon will be added to the country’s official literary canon.
The Library of America announced Tuesday that it will issue a boxed two-volume set this fall of Wilder’s “Little House” series, including “Little House on the Prairie” and “Little House in the Big Woods.” Wilder based the books on her family’s experiences as pioneers in the 19th century. She died in 1957 at age 90.
“As people who’ve read it to their kids know, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s `Little House’ books aren’t just for children. Terrifying and lyrical, the `Little House’ books tell, through a meticulous firsthand account of one family’s struggle to survive in a harsh, dangerous, unfamiliar world, the classic story of the American West from pioneering to settlement,” Library of America publisher Max Rudin said in a statement.
Rudin added that the new edition would include “additional pieces by Wilder about the events and the composition of the books (that) will, we hope, encourage adult readers to rediscover an American classic.”
Founded in 1979, the Library of America specializes in clothbound volumes of classic American literature, including such works as “Moby-Dick” and “Portnoy’s Complaint.”
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