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When I first discovered blogs in the olden days of 2004, one of my standby reads was Wendy McClure's late, lamented Poundy (That link that will now take you to her eponymous website, but do you remember those old recipe cards?)
Wendy's words were so smart and funny that it made me jealous, and when I feel that way, whomever I'm reading has a fan for life. She also delved into issues like body image, pop culture and the general minutiae of life that populated my own brain, so in addition to being impressed, I could relate to her in the most personal of ways. I read her memoir I'm Not the New Me (you should too, if body image and weight are on your radar at all, seriously), and followed her around (in a hopefully minimally-creepy way) at the 2007 BlogHer conference in Chicago.
You should know that I do not allow myself fan-girl moments, most especially in blogging. I made an exception here.
A year or so later, I noticed an @halfpintingalls account on Twitter. A Little House books geek of the highest order since early childhood, I immediately followed this virtual Laura Ingalls on her digital trip to 2011. I chatted her up on Twitter (like I said: geek) and eventually learned that Wendy was the voice behind Laura's Twitter handle. And really, who else would be behind tweets like, "Today in honor of Almanzo's 154th birthday, I'm making him a stack of 154 pancakes! (Which he'll finish off in about 10 minutes.)"? Prairie humor, folks. It's all here.
Some months later, I learned that in addition to her work as a children's book publisher and columnist for Bust magazine, Wendy was working on a book about Laura Ingalls Wilder, the woman who traveled the U.S. prairies with her family and then her husband, and left a legacy of yellow softcover books -- from The Little House in the Big Woods all the way to These Happy Golden Years -- behind.
A return to her own childhood interest in Laura -- courtesy of her own explorations and a sweet gift of those softcovers from her fiance -- took Wendy back to Laura World too. This didn't mean visiting a single homestead and calling it quits, no way. She took this process to the prairie wall, trying out recipes from the books and churning butter at home, developing a taste for bonnets, and engaging with the wider world of Wilder historians and fans online and in person. She took it on the road, too, tracing the Ingalls-Wilder clan's origins and their pioneer paths across the United States, from New York and Wisconsin to the Dakotas, Missouri and Manhattan.
Wendy's record of this experience, the book The Wilder Life -- part memoir, part biography, part American travelogue -- debuted this spring. She was kind enough to send me a review copy this winter that I devoured, and last week, she graciously responded to some questions about her writing process, her relationship to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and her views on Laura's world.
Much like you, I truly felt that I inhabited these books and Laura's world when I read them as a young girl. And reading your book, it's so easy to go right back -- Pa's fiddle, Almanzo's donut jar, the china shepherdess. Any ideas about why these stories imprinted on so many of us so deeply?
I think it's in the vividness of the details and the immediacy of Laura's point of view. So much of the narrative is simply about looking, so that after awhile you begin to feel like you're in her head, inhabiting her life.
I think I loved your descriptions of the Ingalls Homestead the best. I could really feel you there and see the details in my mind so clearly (especially The Big Slough. Yikes.) Did you have a favorite place of the many that you visited?
I loved Ingalls Homestead, too, but really, I have different favorites for different things. I loved the pageant and festival atmosphere of Walnut Grove, MN, for example. Other places, like Pepin, Wisconsin and the site in Kansas, felt wonderfully forlorn in March and April. And the day we went to Burr Oak, Iowa, it was the height of summer and there was this wonderful road-trip carefree feeling to my experience there. They were all great.
You've written about issues of race and class in the books (Dr. Tan, the black doctor, and the obvious negative representations of Native Americans) Do you think these representations
