Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)

By Unknown photographer
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House series of autobiographical novels, was born 150 years ago today, on 7 February 1867. Between 1932 and 1943, she produced a total of eight such novels, all based on her childhood experiences growing up in various parts of the US northern mid-west during the 1870s and 1880s, as part of a pioneer and settler family. "Years of sunshine and shadows" as she would later describe it.

She was born near village of Pepin in the Big Woods region of Wisconsin. Her family moved around quite a lot and this feature of her life would continue after she got married. She had worked as a teacher in the meantime, from the age of just 15, in order to supplement her family's earnings. Each of the books in the Little House series are set in one of the locations that she had lived while growing up.

The family resided for only two years in Walnut Grove, Minnesota before crop failure forced them to move on. Nevertheless, it provides the setting for the TV series, Little House on the Prairie, loosely based on her accounts. The book of the same name actually tells of the time that the Ingalls family spent on the prairie of Kansas, near the town of Independence, on what subsequently turned out to be a Native American reservation. The decision to move was based on the fact that the land was not legally open to settlement and that the US army might force them to abandon it.

By Laura Ingalls Wilder
(scan from the Internet)
[Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Her writing career began around 1911, when she found an outlet for her particular talent and style in articles that she submitted to mostly farming and rural publications. In her early 60s, she began writing an autobiography with the title, Pioneer Girl. It was rejected by publishers but she re-wrote most of the stories, adapting them to a format suitable for juvenile and young adult readership. She was assisted in her efforts by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, herself a prominent journalist, writer, polemicist, staunch libertarian. The Little House series were, in many ways, a literary collaboration of the mother and the daughter, with Rose also acting as her agent, using her connections as a successful writer in her own right to get the books published.

Another motivating factor may well have been the stock market crash of 1929, which saw both Rose's savings, as well as that of her parents, wiped out. Their fortunes were restored far beyond what they could have expected with the success of the Little House series, recollecting pioneer life of the late 19th century, based on the Ingalls family's experiences on the American frontier. Some unfinished manuscripts have been also published posthumously.

Laura Ingalls Wilder died on February 10, 1957, three days after her 90th birthday.

Gravesite of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder in Mansfield Cemetery, Mansfield, MO.
Buried next to them is daughter Rose Wilder Lane.

By Julie Jordan Scott [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

H.G. Wells - born 150 years ago today (21 September 1866)

George Charles Beresford
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Herbert George (H.G.) Wells was born 150 years ago today, on 21 September 1866. A prolific author and writer across genres that include fiction and non-fiction, he applied his mind to just about every field of human enquiry. He was outspoken on many issues of the day and his views were eagerly listened to – by politicians and public alike.

He is recognised (along with Jules Verne) as one of the founders of science-fiction and his contributions to this genre are mostly responsible for making him a household name. War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau are as much enjoyed today, in their original form, as they were upon publication, over 100 years ago. If that was not enough, they have been endlessly adapted for stage, screen, radio and other media. His near-namesake, Orson Welles, famously broadcast a radio adaptation of War of the World in October 1940, the response to which has become the stuff of legend.

A prolific writer throughout his adult life, Wells is, nevertheless, best and most fondly remembered for what would be considered his first work. Little more than a novella, The Time Machine was first published in 1895, although an early version of it appeared as a short story in 1888, under the title, The Chronic Argonauts. In it, Wells postulates the ultimate fate of humanity and the planet that it dwells upon, considering the ramifications of a society basing its orientation on blind obedience to, what some might consider to be the fate to which it is ordained. The views presented and conclusions drawn remain curiously fascinating today, even with the passage of time.

"Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change." - from The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)

His particular skill as a storyteller was to devise themes and then use them as a larger device, to convey a sense of morality, foreboding or harbinger of things to come. It is a format that many have followed but few have emulated. His science fiction (or scientific romances as he called them) are based on a true understanding of scientific principles – something that he possessed in abundance – but also, deeply rooted in real word concerns. His other novels, such as A History of Mr Polly and Kipps, reflect his preoccupation with social class and what he saw as the restrictive, detrimental and ultimately ruinous consequences for a society based on it.

Of course, Wells himself had humble beginnings. The fourth child of parents who worked as domestic servants for most of their lives, his early education was sporadic and based on whatever his parents could afford to pay for. He served an unhappy apprenticeship in this teenage years, working 13-hour days and sleeping in dormitories with other apprentices. All of this could not but have left a mark on his personality and temperament. His adult years and his literary efforts therefore, were devoted to finding cures for various social and other ills, as he encountered them. He was an advocate of World Government and devoted much time to investigating ways that it could be realised.

In a way, just as Wells' life straddles the 19th and 20th century, so too, his thinking and his ideas encapsulate the hopes, dreams and ambitions of the period in which he lived and worked. Much of what he anticipated has come to fruition, even if not entirely in the way that he might have conceived. Still, there is much else in his body of work that may indicate 'the shape of things to come', all making for an enduring enigma.

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)

By Charles G.Y. King (1854-1937)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The world of children's literature is marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of its most famous and enduring figures. Beatrix Potter, the English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist was born on this day in 1866. Her children's tales are more popular than ever - few who are reading this will not have at least some distant childhood memory of characters such as Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, the Tailor of Gloucester, Benjamin Bunny, Squirrel Nutkin, Jeremy Fisher, to name but a few.

Her entire literary canon consists of over 30 books, including the 24 tales that continue to captivate and delight succeeding generations of young children. And it doesn't end there. In 2015, an almost completed, unpublished manuscript was discovered among her archives. The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots is due to be published later this year, in September, by Frederick Warne & Co, the publisher of the original series of Potter's children's tales though these days, it operates as an imprint of Penguin Books.

Potter's work is most clearly influenced by an abiding passion for natural history, which was nurtured from an early age and stayed with her throughout her life. When she eventually gave up writing, it was to devote herself to farming and country living. She is credited with preserving much of the land that now constitutes the Lake District National Park in North West England. Upon her death, in 1943, she left most of her property to the National Trust.

Although she herself died childless, her writing style lends itself well to young audiences. Her deep and abiding interest in the natural sciences is conveyed in a manner that is lively, inventive and refuses to be dull, packed as it is with a sense of earthy realism.

Beatrix Potter
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Her success, both critical and commercial, is a reflection of her distinct talent as a writer and illustrator. It was also a product of a certain business sense that she applied to all of her ventures. She had a hands-on approach, both to her writing and publishing activities. Potter was one of the first authors to recognise and capitalise on the merchandising possibilities of her books, patenting and licensing a range of toys, dolls, board games, colouring books based on the characters that she created.

The first editions of The Tale of Peter Rabbit were self-published by Potter, until she found a publisher who not only saw the potential, but also shared her vision for 'the bunny book' as it was called. This finally happened in October 1902, following numerous rejections, both from publishers but also from Potter herself, who was initially hesitant about adding colour illustrations to the story.

It proved to be the right decision. Colour illustration was becoming both popular and affordable and the book was an overnight success. Today, it has been translated into 36 languages and is estimated to have sold over 45 million copies worldwide.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

By Nobel Foundation
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Today marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of playwright, critic and commentator, George Bernard Shaw, or Bernard Shaw as he preferred to be known. During the course of a long life (he died at the age of 94), he left behind a vast literary legacy that has proved enormously influential. The term 'Shavian' has even entered the English language, to describe his ideas and manner of expressing them.

Winner of the the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 (for his play, Saint Joan) Shaw's work extended into other media and genres, including the silver screen. He provided the screenplay for the film version of Pygmalion, which garnered two Academy Awards, including one for Shaw himself. Music however was Shaw's first love and perhaps his most enduring. He began his literary career as a music critic and was well into his forties before he took up drama in a serious way, becoming, in some people's estimation, the second most important English-language playwright after William Shakespeare.

A man of prodigious talent and a work ethic that lasted up to his final days, Shaw combined it all with a spirited nature and irascible wit, which shines throughout his literary output and legacy, using comedy as a device to question conventional morality. He was also a keen political commentator and ardent campaigner in the cause of social reform. A professed and outspoken socialist, he was most closely associated, publicly and politically, with the Fabian Society - a group of intellectuals whose views can broadly be characterised as reformist and social democratic.

George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, in 1856, to a middle-class family of Protestant ascendancy stock. He moved to London in 1876 and returned to Ireland only occasionally thereafter - on one occasion meeting Michael Collins, just days before his assassination. Although he made his home in England, where he died in 1950, his relationship with his home country remained strong throughout his life. He even took out dual citizenship following Irish independence and his initial reluctance to accept the Nobel Prize (due to unease he felt about the origin of the award and its connection with the armaments industry) was overcome by the realisation that it was an honour that would be celebrated and appreciated back home. With this anniversary falling in the centenary year of the Easter Rising of 1916, it is notable that Shaw, though scarcely a nationalist or republican, was among the first public figures to speak out against the repression and executions that followed.

Shaw was a celebrated figure in his lifetime and his death was mourned around the world, causing "the Indian cabinet to adjourn, theatre audiences in Australia to rise for two minutes' silence, and the lights on Broadway and in Times Square to be dimmed."

Source Material

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• Today in Literature