Nancy Tystad Koupal will discuss “Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts” tonight (Nov. 4, 2021) at 7pm CDT (6pm MDT) at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. The program also offered virtually via Zoom.
Those who plan to attend are asked to register at sdhsf.org. The program is free and is sponsored by the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation and the South Dakota Historical Society Press.
“Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts” was written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and annotated by Tystad Koupal.
Wilder completed her autobiography, “Pioneer Girl,” in 1930, when she was 63 years old. She turned over her manuscript to her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, already a well-known reporter and writer, who sent the manuscript to her agent, Carl Brandt of the Brandt & Brandt literary agency in New York City. The manuscript was not published, and Wilder and Lane continued to revise it. The manuscript later became the basis for the “Little House” books for young readers. “Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography” was published by the South Dakota Historical Society Press in 2014 and contains Wilder’s handwritten autobiography and annotations.
“Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts” presents, side by side, the three typescript versions of Wilder’s “Pioneer Girl.” Each manuscript has its own column showing the changes made to the manuscript, with a fourth column of annotations providing historical context and explaining the ways Wilder or Lane changed and reused the material.
Tystad Koupal is from Pierre and is the director and editor-in-chief of the Pioneer Girl Project. The Pioneer Girl Project is a research and publishing program of the South Dakota State Historical Society, working since 2010 to create a comprehensive edition of Wilder’s “Pioneer Girl” and books dedicated to exploring her life and works.
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