Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder published her "Little House on the Prairie" books with the help of her daughter, Rose. In 1962, the same daughter compiled another work: her mother's diary, or what might be called the real prairie saga. Unfortunately, the real prairie turns out to be more gruesome than the fictional one.
In 1894, Wilder, her husband, and their seven-year-old daughter joined a caravan of Americans plodding through the dusty American west in search of predictable rain and good health. The Wilders had spent several difficult years in De Smet, South Dakota, weathering drought, crop failure, diphtheria, and one infant death before they decided to try for another destination. Throughout the six-week, 650-mile journey, Laura kept a loyal and plain-worded diary, which Rose edited and published in 1962, under the title On the Way Home–The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894.