Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls WilderPrairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Score Modern
What it's about
Millions of readers grew up with Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books and think they know her life. Caroline Fraser tells the true, harder story: a family driven by debt and failure across the frontier, a marriage marked by poverty and drought, and Laura's late-in-life writing career, shaped heavily by her talented, difficult daughter Rose, who helped turn the books into myth.
Why it's worth reading
It won the Pulitzer Prize for biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It's both a biography and a history of the American West.
You'll love it if you liked
The Worst Hard Time
Little Women
Between the World and MeGood to know
It's long and sometimes punctures the Little House magic. Rose Wilder Lane's politics and personality get a lot of attention.
By the numbers
- Readers34 out of 100 · counts 42%
- Critics81 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
- Bestseller10 out of 100 · counts 14%
- Buzz7 out of 100 · counts 10%
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.
Where it ranks
- #174 of the 290 memoirs and biographies we rank
- #612 of the 1,573 modern books we rank
- #1159 of the 2,816 books we rank
Why it made the list
Reads as
True story
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Quick answers
Is Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder worth reading?
Yes. It won the Pulitzer Prize for biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It ranks #1,159 of the 2,816 books in our ranking, with a Must-Read Score of 71.2 (the best book we found scores 99).
What is Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder about?
Millions of readers grew up with Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books and think they know her life. Caroline Fraser tells the true, harder story: a family driven by debt and failure across the frontier, a marriage marked by poverty and drought, and Laura's late-in-life writing career, shaped heavily by her talented, difficult daughter Rose, who helped turn the books into myth.
How long does it take to read Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder?
About 16 hours (641 pages), or about 5 weeks at 30 minutes a day.
What awards has Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder won?
Pulitzer Prize (Biography) winner (2018); NBCC Award (Biography) winner (2017).
What should I read after Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder?
If you liked it, try The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott or Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.