In the Little House books, Laura Ingalls Wilder created both a much-loved masterwork of children’s literature and a vivid firsthand narrative of an epoch in the settling of America. Now Library of America and editor Caroline Fraser present all nine of these autobiographical novels in a deluxe two-volume boxed set that celebrates Wilder as a distinctive and vital voice in the canon of American literature.

Originally published from 1932 to 1943, the eight Little House novels—Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years—are brilliant narratives of the early life of Laura Ingalls and her family as they grow up with the country in the woods and on the plains of the advancing American frontier. They are joined here by the posthumous novella The First Four Years, which recounts the early years of the author’s marriage to Almanzo Wilder and, as a special feature, four rare autobiographical pieces that address the need for historical accuracy in children’s literature, reveal real-life events not included in the novels, and answer the inevitable question: what happened next?

The Little House Books are presented by Library of America without the illustrations and typographical trappings of editions for young readers. Here Wilder’s prose for the first time stands alone and can be seen for exactly what it is—a triumph of the American plain style.

Caroline Fraser, editor, is the author of God’s Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church and Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution. She has written on Laura Ingalls Wilder and other subjects for publications including The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker.

Each Library of America series volume is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, three-piece binding with spine cloth, and a ribbon marker.

Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books, Volume 1 is kept in print by a gift from The Berkley Foundation to the Guardians of American Letters Fund in honor of Marjorie Berkley.

Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books, Volume 2 is kept in print by a gift from The Berkley Foundation to the Guardians of American Letters Fund in honor of Lauren Berkley Saunders.