Millions of readers of the Little House on the Prairie series believe they know Laura Ingalls Wilder, the pioneer girl who became a famous author. With access to her unpublished manuscripts, letters, and diaries, Caroline Fraser fills in the gaps of Wilder's American success story, revealing that her girlhood was grittier and more difficult than is commonly known. Winning both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, the biography chronicles how Wilder and her husband lost their life savings in the Great Depression, only to achieve financial security late in life with her books. Fraser also discusses Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her daughter, journalist and author Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding Lane's contribution to Wilder's books.