The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie

Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder — a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she’s never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She traces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family — looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House — exploring the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura’s hometowns. Whether she’s churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of “the Laura experience.” The result is an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones — and find that our old love has only deepened.

"The Wilder Life is a tribute to the Little House books that's both reverent and irreverent — in a thoughtful, hilarious way. I couldn't put it down." Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

"Mandatory reading for all 'bonnetheads' — and the people who love them!" Alison Arngrim, TV's Nellie Oleson and New York Times bestselling author of Confessions of A Prairie Bitch

"Wendy McClure's The Wilder Life evoked so much of an almost palpable nostalgia that I felt like I was walking into my childhood dollhouse every time I opened the book. I absolutely loved this book." Julie Klam, author of You Had Me at Woof

"The Wilder Life perfectly captures the wistful, poignant, goofy nature of Little House lust. It also offers some important lessons on late 19th century land rights and butter churning. Now that's my kind of book!" Meghan Daum, author of Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House

One woman's intensely enjoyable pioneer pilgrimage into the world of her favorite books.

When a childhood obsession is reawakened by a box of old books, Wendy McClure begins a quest to rediscover the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder — a realm of fiction, history, and places she's never been but knows by heart. It's a funny and engaging story of what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones and find that our old love has only deepened.

Wendy McClure holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of I’m Not the New Me and the creator of the online journal Pound, as well as the humor site Candyboots. She is a columnist for Bust, a regular contributor to the website Television Without Pity, and her writing has also appeared in Glamour, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the New York Times magazine, among other publications. She lives in Chicago.