Publication History

Little House in the Big Woods, 1932


1953 re-issue with illustrations by Garth Williams.	1994: New cover art on paperback edition	2003: New cover art on paperback edition
View a side by side comparison of illustrations from the original Helen Sewell and later 1953 Garth Williams editions.

Editions from other publishers

E. M. Hale, Eau Claire, WI 1932

Last date in print

May 2004 Harper Collins Children’s Book Group (trade paperback $7.99 retail)

Total Copies sold

5,872,446

HB:               430,633
LIB:               97,412
PB:             5,254,638
Full Color PB:     49,276
Rack:              40,487

Sales by year:

Since it's appearance in 1932 Little House in the Big Woods has never been out of print.

HB 3,069 YTD   2004
HB 16,875      2003
HB 13,919      2002
PB 33,941 YTD  2004
PB 92,905      2003
PB 116,090     2002

Advertising copy

"This small saga of pioneer Wisconsin is a satisfying response to the cry, 'Grandmother, tell us about when you were a little girl!' It should be read by all middle border children — and by many others. Too few nowadays can tell as real and treasurable a story.”

Minneapolis Journal $2.00 For an illustrated catalogue of Books for Boys and Girls address correspondence to: HARPER & BROTHERS… 49 East 33rd Street, New York, NY

Image of sample advertisement

Other promotion

My Book of Little House Paper Dolls; The Big Woods Collection. By Laura Ingalls Wilder and Renee Graef Here, for the first time, is your very own collection of paper dolls inspired by the classic Little House books. Inside this book you'll find Laura, Mary, Baby Carrie, Ma, Pa, and their faithful bulldog, Jack. From helping Ma gather food in the garden to watching Pa play his fiddle, now you, too, can be a part of Laura and Mary's happy days in the Little House in the Big Woods.

A playtime package for young Little House fans: six full-color paper dolls made of durable and sturdy card stock (Laura, Mary, Ma, Pa, Baby Carrie, and Jack the bulldog); several easy-to-detach and authentic outfits for each character; two full-color pull-out scenes (a cozy room inside the Little House and the garden outside); a special pouch to store everything; and the complete text of Winter Days in the Big Woods interspersed throughout the book.

Herbert Hoover Presidential Library — The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum has a wonderful website for students and educators. The library houses the Rose Wilder Lane papers, donated upon her death to Hoover's library because he was the subject of Lane's first biography.

Handmade dolls are marketed by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historical Society in Mansefield, MO.

Performances in other media

Wilder Pageant held each Summer in Walnut Grove, MN. This annual outdoor drama is based upon Laura's life and presented live on the banks of Plum Creek. www.walnutgrove.org

Little House on the Prairie TV Series - 1974-1983. This very popular TV series (now available in DVD) starred Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. Painfully, the one hour format, TV ratings game, and a 9 year run caused the show to deviate wildly from the original texts by Wilder.

Little House on the Prairie TV Mini-Series for Disney. A set of three 2-hour episodes are currently filming in Canada. A web-blog has been established by a photographer with production images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/shadowplay/sets/56385/. HarperCollins will be publishing a special tie-in edition of Little House on the Prairie at the same time. For another article on the movie in production see: http://www.westernwheel.com/040407/news-littlehouseokotoks.htm.

Laura Ingalls Wilder; Voice of the Prairie (a script) — by Katheryn Shultz Miller & Barry Miller. A stage play for student production based upon Laura's life originally produced by the St. Louis Reperatory Theater: http://www.childrenstheatreplays.com/liw.htm.

Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder (2000) Part II (2002) — A TV movie starring Richard Thomas as Pa Ingalls based upon Laura's life. This production stayed much closer to the facts of Laura's life than the Michael Landon production of the 70's and 80's.

Translations

Translated into over 40 languages including Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish and Tamil.

Serialization

Other books that have sprung from the “Little House” series include:


My First Little House Picture Book series with illustrations by Renee Graef, Jody Wheeler, or Doris Ettinger (1996 to present)


Little House Chapter Books series with illustrations by Renee Graef (1997 to present)


Little House ‘The Martha Years’ by Melissa Wiley about Laura’s great-grandmother, Martha Morse (ongoing series - Book 4 published 02/04/2003) Note: Series also exist for Laura's grandmother, mother and daughter.