Reference
Lane, Rose Wilder (1886-1968), by Amy H. Sturgis,
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, 15 Aug 2008
Biographical essay
"Rose Wilder Lane was born in 1886, the first child of Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder; the latter was the author of the Little House on the Prairie series. Her parents would later become famous thanks to the book series, originally written by her mother and vastly reworked and edited by Lane herself. ... As a reporter, columnist, and author, Lane became interested in the issues of free trade and individual rights, especially as viewed against the backdrop of world events. She was one of several highly visible libertarian women writing in the first half of the 20th century."
Born
5 Dec
1886, Rose Wilder, in De Smet,
South Dakota
Biography
An autobiographical sketch of Rose Wilder Lane [PDF], 1939
Library of Congress, American Memory Collections, American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 - 1940. Images of original typewritten text also available.
"I am now a fundementalist American; give me time and I will tell you why individualism, laissez faire and the slightly restrained anarchy of capitalism offer the best opportunities for the development of the human spirit. Also I will tell you why the relative freedom of human spirit is better — and more productive, even in material ways — than the communist, Fascist, or any other rigidity organized for material ends."
Laissez Faire Books
"Journalist Lane (1886-1966) was one of the most inspiring libertarian authors of the 20th century. She is best known for Give Me Liberty (1939) and The Discovery of Freedom (1943). Albert Jay Nock admired her work, and she inspired Robert LeFevre, who established the fabled Freedom School in Colorado. Lane refused to authorize reprints of The Discovery of Freedom until she got around to revising it, which she never did, but after her death her literary executor and heir, Roger MacBride, helped bring the beloved classic back in print."
Rose Wilder Lane | Libertarianism.org, by
Cato Institute, Mar 2003
Part of Cato's "Three Women Who Launched a Movement", celebrating during Women's History Month the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of
The Discovery of Freedom (as well as Isabel Paterson and Ayn Rand books published in the same year)
"Lane publicly disavowed her youthful socialism in a long 1936 article in the Saturday Evening Post titled 'Credo,' which was later reprinted as the pamphlet Give Me Liberty. ... During the early 40's, she wrote articles focusing on individualism, needlework, and sometimes both at once for Woman's Day and other magazines. She also began work on The Discovery of Freedom, which by her own account was written in a 'white heat.'"
Web Pages
Advocates for Self-Government - Libertarian Education: Rose Wilder Lane - Libertarian
Biography (from Laissez Faire Books) and photograph
"Rose's mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, wrote story outlines about how she grew up on the American frontier, and as scholar William Holtz explained in his biography The Ghost in the Little House (1993), Rose transformed the outlines into eight magnificent Little House books which many readers consider the finest series of children's books ever written. These books are all about personal responsibility, self reliance, courage and love, and they captivate children as well as adults."
Freedom Fighters » Rose Wilder Lane
Quotation and links to selected online resources by and about Rose Wilder Lane
Rose Wilder Lane | Mises Institute
Includes picture, short profile and links to her works
"Rose Wilder Lane was one of the highest paid writers in the United States during her days as a journalist, war correspondent, and novelist. The daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, she was widely considered a silent collaborator on the Little House series. She lived from 1886 until 1968."
The Rose Wilder Lane Collection
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum; includes a lengthy "Scope and Content Note" as well as a listing of the individual papers
"The documentary legacy of Rose Wilder Lane and her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, encompassed in the holdings of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. A journalist and philosopher, Lane also was the first biographer of Herbert Hoover. In fact, her work on 'The Making of Herbert Hoover' (1919) led to a friendship with the Great Humanitarian that lasted more than forty years."
Articles
35 Heroes of Freedom: Celebrating the people who have made the world groovier and groovier since 1968, by
Reason,
Reason, Dec 2003
"Eclectic, irreverent" list of individuals who, according to
Reason editors, "have made the world a freer, better, and more libertarian place by example, invention, or action" (includes the unknown martyr of Tiananmen Square and "The Yuppie")
"The daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lane extensively edited and shaped that great alternative history of American settlement, the Little House books, which place the family, community, and commerce—rather than male adventure, escape, and violence—at the heart of our national experience. She was a prolific author in her own right and, along with Isabel Paterson and Ayn Rand, one of the three godmothers of modern libertarianism. Lane's The Discovery of Freedom: Man's Struggle Against Authority remains a powerful statement about the evolution and necessity of individual rights."
Related Topics:
Norman Borlaug,
Milton Friedman,
Barry Goldwater,
Friedrich Hayek,
Robert A. Heinlein,
Jane Jacobs,
Richard Nixon,
Ron Paul,
Ayn Rand,
Julian Simon,
Thomas Szasz
Cast a Giant Ballot: Roger MacBride Made the Libertarian Party the Most Important Third Party in America, by
Clifford F. Thies,
The Freeman, Oct 1997
Memorial and biographical essay, discussing MacBride's influence on the early Libertarian Party as well as his involvement in the
Little House saga
"As a young man, Roger MacBride was "adopted" by Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls who, along with Isabel Paterson and Ayn Rand, was one of the three founding mothers of the modern libertarian movement ... Ms. Lane's strain emphasized the Eastern (or "Hebrew") concepts of emotion and community. Rose Wilder Lane, although herself something of an agnostic and a thoroughly cosmopolitan person, unabashedly presented the freedom philosophy as part of—indeed, as the essential part of—our Semitic religious tradition, and the defining feature of the American experience."
Islam and the Discovery of Freedom, by
George Leef,
The Freeman, Sep 1998
Review of the 1997 book, based on Rose Wilder Lane's
The Discovery of Freedom, with introduction and commentary by Imad-Ad-Dean Ahmad
"... Islam has a history of peace and respect for individual rights. One famous exponent of freedom who knew that was Rose Wilder Lane. Her original book, The Discovery of Freedom, contains an abundance of information on the golden era of Islamic civilization, particularly the role that free markets played in that remarkably progressive and virtually stateless society. ... One point of disagreement between Lane and Ahmad is over the existence of Islamic law. Lane writes that "the weakness that eventually ended the Saracens' civilization" was that "there was no civil law." "
How to Become a Teacher [PDF], by
Robert LeFevre,
The Voluntaryist, Feb 1983
Autobiographical summary of the events in LeFevre's life that led to the founding of the Freedom School, including LeFevre's relationship with Baldy Harper and the offer for him to lead the School
"Ruth Dazey ... brought me another [book]. It was 'Discovery of Freedom,' by Rose Wilder Lane. ... nearly everyone is familiar with the television program, 'Little House on the Prairie.' ... the Ingalls family of the series included a daughter name Laura. In real life, Laura Ingalls married a man named Wilder and Rose Wilder was their daughter. Later Rose married a man named Lane, hence, the name Rose Wilder Lane. ... Rose clearly inherited her mother's talent for expression. 'Discovery' was a book that was so enthralling I read it through at one sitting."
Isabel Paterson's Place in History, by Doug French, 20 Jun 2011
Review of Stephen D. Cox's
The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America
"Lane, like Rand, had the benefit of picking Paterson's brain, and Cox writes, 'It is possible that Lane derived many of her key concepts from her all-night conversations with Paterson.' However, Discovery and God of the Machine are very different books, as Cox points out: 'Libertarian readers have generally turned to Lane for emotional satisfaction and to Paterson for intellectual challenge.'"
Libertarianism and the Great Divide, by
Justin Raimondo, 16 Mar 2007
Review of Brian Doherty's
Radicals for Capitalism (2007) concluding with remarks about a Cato Unbound debate on the book
"So how in blazes does the author open this often inspiring story? By describing the Cato Institute's intellectually dubious and positively pallid campaign to partially privatize Social Security ...
Rose Wilder Lane – the feisty author of the Little House on the Prairie books, and prolific libertarian polemicist of the 1940s and 50s, who refused to even sign up for Social Security, and quit her job when informed she had to – must be rolling in her grave. (Doherty’s portrait of her, by the way, is sympathetic, as well as extensive.)"
Rose Wilder Lane (1886-1968),
Religion & Liberty, Oct 1996
Short biographical note, based on Jim Powell's "Three Women Who Inspired the Modern Libertarian Movement",
The Freeman, May 1996
"According to Lane, because of the doctrine of monotheism, people came to believe in one creator God who judges men's actions, instead of a pantheist pantheon of capricious gods. Additionally, the laws of morality are woven into the fibre of creation and provide the guide for human behavior. It is from these doctrines, Lane argued, that the Christian conceptions of individual responsibility and self-control are derived; essential qualities for the preservation of a free society."
Rose Wilder Lane - Hero of the Day,
The Daily Objectivist, 2000
Includes excerpt of essay by Robert LeFevre on
The Discovery of Freedom
"Rose Wilder Lane came out to the Freedom School in Colorado on various occasions and on one such instance undoubtedly saved the school from foreclosure. ... When Rose finally died, mourned and respected by all of us at the Freedom School, Roger MacBride, who was Rose Wilder Lane's protege, graciously granted me permission to make copies of the book. Of course I did."
Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Paterson, and Ayn Rand: Three Women Who Inspired the Modern Libertarian Movement, by
Jim Powell,
The Freeman, May 1996
Triple biographical essay on the women who in 1943 published
The Discovery of Freedom,
The God of the Machine and
The Fountainhead
"Like her compatriots, Rose Wilder Lane surprised people. ... she soared with great eloquence as she helped revive the radical principles of the American Revolution, and she inspired millions of adults and children alike as the editor of the beloved 'Little House' books about individual responsibility, hard work, stubborn persistence, strong families, and human liberty. ... She quit school after the ninth grade and determined that somehow she would see the world beyond rural Missouri. ... She spent most of her spare time reading, perhaps three hours a day. By 1908, she relocated to San Francisco ..."
Related Topics:
Nathaniel Branden,
John Chamberlain,
Communism,
Entrepreneurship,
Europe,
Liberty,
Roger MacBride,
Albert Jay Nock,
Isabel Paterson,
Ayn Rand,
Leonard Read
The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder, One of America’s First Libertarians, by
David Boaz,
Time, 9 May 2015
Focuses on Rose Wilder Lane's life and relates the influence of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, as well as Wilder Lane's influence on Roger MacBride
"Laura's only child was Rose Wilder Lane. Lane was born in DeSmet, South Dakota, and grew up on her parents' Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri. ... Lane wrote two novels of her own about her family's homestead ... But her interests turned more to politics, and she became a vociferous adversary of President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, which she saw as "creeping socialism." In the dark year of 1943 ... Lane published a passionate historical book called The Discovery of Freedom. ... Also in 1943 Lane met Roger MacBride, the 14‐year‐old son of her editor at Reader's Digest."
The Libertarian Legacy of Rose Wilder Lane, by
Jeff Riggenbach, 14 Apr 2010
Biographical essay on both Rose Wilder Lane and Roger MacBride, transcript of "The Libertarian Tradition" podcast of 30 Mar 2010 titled "Roger MacBride and Rose Wilder Lane: A Libertarian Legacy"
"Rose Wilder Lane ... was the daughter of Almanzo Wilder and Laura Ingalls ... The young Rose Wilder was a star student in the small-town schools she attended in Missouri and in the cajun country of southwestern Louisiana, but there was no money for her to attend college. ... she wrote ... 'Americans (of both parties) who stand for American political principles ... have no means of peaceful political action.' What was needed, Rose believed, was a political movement, which would unite writers, activists, teachers, propagandists, and politicians in favor of individual liberty. A 'libertarian movement' — that was her phrase."
Writings
Give Me Liberty [PDF], 1936
Originally published as an article titled "Credo" in the
Saturday Evening Post; describes her experiences in and history of Soviet Russia and Europe, contrasting them with the history of the United States, emphasizing the individualist themes
"Every advance toward personal liberty which had been gained by the religious revolution and by the political revolution, was lost by the collectivist economic reaction. ... I came out of the Soviet Union no longer a communist, because I believed in personal freedom. Like all Americans, I took for granted the individual liberty to which I had been born. It seemed as necessary and as inevitable as the air I breathed; it seemed the natural element in which human beings lived."
Related Topics:
American Revolutionary War,
United States Bill of Rights,
Bureaucracy,
California,
Capitalism,
Democratic Party,
Economic Resources,
Economics,
Farming,
France,
Germany,
Government,
Hungary,
Italy,
Thomas Jefferson,
Kentucky,
Liberty,
Individual Liberty,
Militarism,
Nonviolent resistance,
Personal Responsibility,
Political Parties,
Republican Party,
Socialism,
United States
Books
Bachelor Girl
by
Roger MacBride, 1999
Partial contents: Back Home - A Good Start - Left Behind - On Her Own - Give Me a Chance - Bachelor Girl - A Real Celebration - If I Had a Little Money - Call Me Miss Wilder - The Big City - New Friends - This Is the Life! - When We Are Married
"[Introduction by author's daughter] The book ... continues the childhood story of Rose Wilder Lane, and her mother and father, Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder. Rose treated my father much as she would have treated a grandson and told him many stories about what it was like growing up in Missouri almost a hundred years ago. Dad took those stories and spun them into a series of books based on the facts of Rose's life. Bachelor Girl is the eighth and last of those books. ... Abigail MacBride Allen"
The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane
by William Holtz, 1993
Partial contents: A Prairie Rose -
Old Home Town Growing Up in Mansfield - Bachelor Girl, Married Woman -
Bulletin Days - An Interlude and Herbert Hoover - "Come with Me to Europe" - The Road to Baghdad - The Albanian Experiment
Books Authored
Let the Hurricane Roar, 1932
Also known as
Young Pioneers
The Discovery of Freedom: Man's Struggle Against Authority, 1943
Partial contents: One: The Old World - The Pagan Faith - Communism - The Living Authorities - The Planned Economies - War - Two: The Revolution - The First Attempt - The Second Attempt - The Feudal System - The English Liberties - The Third Attempt
Young Pioneers, 1932
The story of two young newlyweds as they head west in search of a new homestead in the Dakotas
Videos
Rose Wilder Lane: A Longing for Far-Away and Unimagined Places (Part One), by Pamela Smith Hill, 12 Sep 2014
Reviews Rose Wilder Lane's life, writing, career, travel and friendships (in three segments)