and what we know of the historical record are crucial. Fornexample Carrie, though she is a character in Little House innthe Big Woods, was not born until the family reachednKansas; while Laura, who was three when the Ingalls leftnWisconsin, is plainly several years older than that in LittlenHouse on the Prairie. I do not believe that Mrs. Wilder isnmisremembering here; I think she is manipulating literalntruth in the interest of poetic reality in a way that FordnMadox Ford would have understood and approved. Similarly,nOn the Banks of Plum Creek represents itself as the storynof the liigalls’ unbroken stay near Walnut Grove, though innfact their residency there was interrupted by two years innIowa, of which no mention is made. Finally, Mrs. Wilderntells us nothing whatever of Ma’s pregnancies, of the birthsnof Grace and Charles Frederick, or of the death in infancy ofnthe little boy.nConcerning these last omissions, it is possible — probableneven — that Mrs. Wilder’s sense of what was fitting fornchildren to read, as well as her Victorian standards ofndiscretion, privacy, and good taste, helped to determinenwhat was included in her books and what left out. Still, Inbelieve that she had in mind literary criteria as well asnconventions of propriety in selecting her material. Each ofnher books has its special tone and mood, and each appears tonhave been consciously shaped to bring those forward andnestablish them securely. The mood of These Happy GoldennYears, for instance, is elegiac and romantic, and it isnmaintained nearly from start to finish. When we read in ThenFirst Four Years that Laura told Almanzo before theirnmarriage, “I don’t want to marry a farmer. I have always saidnthat I never would. I do wish you would do something else,”nher words are shocking. Nothing is said in These HappynGolden Years of her reservation, nor of the couple’snagreement that Almanzo would try farming for three yearsnand then quit if he were not making a go of it. CertainlynMrs. Wilder hadn’t forgot this crucial matter when shenOn the State’s New Divorce Lawnby Richard MoorenA family is not ancontract;nit cannot bendissolved.nIt can only benmurdered,nand murder makesnghosts.nwrote the eadier book. She just didn’t want to spoil the auranof unreserved love and mutual sympathy she was soneffectively creating.nWhat gives Mrs. Wilder’s writing its unique power andnbeauty, I think, is Laura’s ability to retain the sensationalnperceptions of a child, while developing the intellectual andnmoral perceptions of an adult. The result of this combinationnis a poetic freshness and directness supporting a keennobservation and an unsentimental understanding. In Mrs.nWilder’s work, as in that of nearly every great literary artist,nnothing appears to be haphazard or without intention, everynidea connects with something larger, and every sentencenpoints beyond itself. And what sentences hers are! FromnLittle House in the Big Woods: “Then one day Laura saw anpatch of bare ground in the yard. All day it grew bigger, andnbefore night the whole yard was bare mud. Only the pathnwas left, and the snowbanks along the path and the fencenand beside the woodpile.” How many writers describing anthaw would recall that the path of trodden snow andncompacted ice would remain beyond the surrounding snow?nFrom By the Shores of Silver Lake, a description ofnmigrating geese stopping overnight on their way south:n”Down they came endlessly from the sky, sliding down longnslopes of air to rest on the water of Silver Lake.” And fromnThe Long Winter, Pa’s fiddle joining itself to the music ofnthe blizzard: “The fiddle moaned a deep, rushing undertonenand wild notes flickered high above it, rising until theynthinned away in nothingness, only to come wailing back, thensame notes but not quite the same, as if they had beennchanged while out of hearing.”nWhether or not Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books offer thencritics as much to write about as those of Faulkner’s, Twain’s,nand O’Connor’s do, remains to be seen. That they give theirnreaders as much to read, however, is already beyondnquestion.n<^nnnNOVEMBER 1991/25n