| Title | : | Free Land |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0803279140 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780803279148 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 332 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1938 |
Free Land Reviews
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Free land, my ass. According to this novel no one ever worked harder or suffered more disappointment than the original farmers who bought into the federal "giveaway" of Midwestern acreage provided by 1862's Homestead Act.
David and Mary Beaton nearly starve in their efforts to bust sod and plant wheat and make a living, in the teeth of rampant land speculators (that's who wound up with most of the Homestead Act land), winter-long blizzards, summer-long droughts, greedy store owners, outrageous freight costs, outlaws. The story about the stolen Indian papoose corpse is genius -- a better description of the clash of pioneer culture with Indian culture I never read. While the story is told from David's perspective, Wilder doesn't demonize anyone.
Another wonderful (and painful) scene is when they're harvesting fifteen acres of turnips and Mary's hands are bleeding and David wants her to stop and she won't because she hasn't been able to help him in any other way or earn any money the way she would have if they'd stayed in New York (butter, eggs). The sheer physical, mental, emotional and spiritual stress feels overwhelming to the reader, never mind the characters.
Rose Wilder Lane is of course the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and from what I can google this book is meant to be a fictionalization of Laura's parents' early years together, and fans of the series will recognize certain scenes. Free Land reads like non-fiction in its detail and its immediacy. There is a lot of romanticizing of this period of history elsewhere. By contrast, this book reads like the plain unvarnished truth. Well worth reading. -
Seriously good writing drags one right into the 1880s and the Dakota territory, along with 19-year-old David and his brand new wife, Mary, as they determine to stake and keep a claim. David's parents are successful and established, with a beautiful holding, plenty of money, and the hard years behind them; David has this for contrast as he begins independent life with $900 in the bank and watches it trickle right away into debts; necessary debts to make a go of it. Terrible blizzards, droughts, incessant wind, near starvation, and work, always the intensely hard work, are all part of David and Mary's daily realities to endure and the reader is right there next to them through all of it. Lane's spare, powerful language describes the settler experience to perfection, and knowing that she lived this through the experiences of her parents, Laura and Almanzo, and then through her childhood as her parents moved in search of a better life, gives it all the more credibility. Her book is not for children, as her mother's books were. Some passages will offend, like the encounters with Indian tribes and the language used to describe them but this also is authentic to the times. This is an amazing book, start to finish.
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Excellent story of the life of a homesteader in the 1880s. This was written by the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. (Side note - Rose is also considered by many to be the true "author" of the Little House books. Laura wrote out her stories, then Rose edited and put them together into book forms. You can see a definite difference between the LH books and The First Four Years, which did not have Rose's editorial input.)
So much of this book is familiar - the character David is obviously based on her father Almanzo. His growing up places (New York and Minnesota) mirror Almanzo's life, as well as the names of his siblings, his love of Morgan horses, and many other instances. Many events from the LH books also take place here, including drought, children lost in blizzards, the Hard Winter, etc.
This is definitely a more "grown up" version of the stories though, as it is dealing with events through the eyes of David and Mary, newlyweds and new pioneers, instead of a child's eye. -
The story is very familiar to anyone who has read the Little House series or Rose Wilder Lane's Young Pioneers. Davy comes from a family like the Wilders. They have a large and prosperous farm in Minnesota, but previously lived near Malone in New York. Davy is good with horses. There's a bossy older sister named Eliza and a younger sister called Alice. Davy's bride Mary, while not exactly the Laura of the Little House books, is nevertheless a spirited young girl eager to start a new life out west and not afraid of hard work. Davy and Mary move to Dakota territory to take a homestead and a tree-claim. In other words, Rose uses pieces of her own family's stories freely and the result should have been an engaging story geared for adults. But the narrative is in terse sentences, with stilted dialog that doesn't flow naturally. The storytelling is tedious and the characters never seem to come to life. I forced myself to finish the book and was rewarded with an abrupt ending that felt exactly as if the last chapter had been left out.
A disappointing book that makes me question whether Rose Wilder Lane actually had much talent as a novelist. -
I don't know how anyone could read this, and still believe that Rose was the driving force behind her mother's books. She may have been a good editor - but she was a terrible writer. This book is flat and lifeless and there's no power behind any of it. Occasionally she awkwardly drops in some political propaganda (mostly, the Government is your enemy). I have no doubt that all the stories herein are probably true, but here it's just a mish-mash. And WTH is up with David and Nettie? That seems like a complicatedly strange authorial choice, on top of everything else.....
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Engrossing and beautifully descriptive. I so appreciated the attention to detail which really brought home the deprivations these brave souls endured. Characters spring to life from these pages, and in their understated way, rise to heroic heights. I especially appreciated the sacrifice of the wife, who longed to go home to Minnesota and made it known on more than one occasion.
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Rose Lane is Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter, and this book is both a fictionalized version of her parents' homesteading story and a critique of the American government's land policies during the westward homesteading rush around 1900. If you are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, you will find many echoes of them in this book. I don't know for certain, but I am guessing every major event in the book really happened to someone--either Laura and Almanzo, someone in their town, or Rose heard about it through neighborhood gossip or the newspapers. All these events are fictionalized together in the characters of Mary and David Beaton and the Peters family. David Beaton is obviously based on Rose's father, Almanzo, and Nettie Peters is based on Rose's mother, Laura. The strange thing is that they are never married to each other, although there is a strong attraction between them. It's just a little odd, and I keep wondering why Lane chose to arrange her story this way. The story is not fast paced, but it is incredibly gripping. One just keeps wondering if they will even survive to the end of the book. The ending has a deus ex machina feel and is rather abrupt, although I believe that event also really happened in Laura and Almanzo's life.
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If memory serves, RWL took the material for this book from her mother's first attempt at a memoir, Pioneer Girl, before the draft was reimagined as a multi-volume series for children (The Little House books). As a result, there are a lot of familiar incidents and characters, along with some things evidently judged too grim for children, like the occasional posse and lopping off of gangrenous limbs.
The most interesting change I thought the author made was that even though there were two characters in the book obviously based on her mother and father, the two never marry (considering the main character, David/Almanzo, gets engaged on about page two of the book, I don't consider this a spoiler). Instead, they have a casual almost-family friendship, with a very occasional hint of something more. I know Lane had some complicated feelings regarding her mother, but...perhaps I am reading too much into it.
I would have given this book five stars, but the ending was ridiculously abrupt, giving the whole story preceding it a certain amount of futility. -
Blizzards, droughts, fires, cyclones - that's life for a homesteader. Many of us grew up with a rosy-hued view of pioneer life, courtesy of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books. But Free Land, by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, depicts a harsher reality.
In Free Land, written in 1938, Rose chronicles David Beaton and his new wife, Mary, as they struggle to make good on their Dakota homestead. Rose is uniquely qualified to write this tale as her own parents, Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder, homesteaded in Dakota during the 1880s as well.
America's Homestead Act, in place from 1862 to 1935, aimed to settle western lands by giving pioneers "free land" on the condition that they would farm and "tame" it for five years. The promise of free land lured thousands from the east to the west, although most were unaware of just how harsh this free land would be.
Laura Ingalls Wilder fans will recognize many things right away. David has sisters named Alice and Eliza, just as Almanzo Wilder did. Eliza is even depicted as a bossy schoolteacher, as she was in Laura's books. Early in Free Land, we learn that David's great-grandfather has opined, "My life has been mostly disappointments" - a quote originally attributed to Almanzo Wilder late in his life.
While reading the Little House books gives one a feel for the harshness of pioneer living, Free Land is much harsher. It's Little House with the nice, polite veneer stripped away. When Mary Beaton cries at the primitive nature of her new home, a friend "consoles" her: "Don't cry, Mary. People get used to things they can't stand."
We also see a relationship between David and Mary that is far from sugar-coated. David once tells Mary to "shut up" and later says, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it." Can you imagine Pa Ingalls speaking to Ma that way?
The overall feel I got from reading Free Land was one of anxiety. And that's not necessarily a bad thing; perhaps that helped me share a bit of what the homesteaders must have felt every day out on their claims. Whether it was a blizzard, a cyclone, or a gang of horse thieves, there was always something ominous around the corner, threatening to destroy what you'd worked so hard for.
A recurring theme in Free Land is debt. Rose Wilder Lane, as an early libertarian, was vehemently opposed to government aid and highly valued independence. This comes through in her writing, as David and Mary constantly struggle to pay off the debt they must incur to begin their farming venture.
When they harvest 15 acres of turnips, which they joyfully sell for 14 cents per bushel, David offers Mary half the proceeds to spend as she pleases. Does she wish for a new dress or glass windows? No: "All I want on earth's to get rid of the debts so we can draw a free breath."
One can't read Free Land without being truly impressed with the amount of work the pioneers did. David worked 26 hours straight one day, trying to get the wheat harvest in before yet another disaster would strike. For a rare social outing, an oyster soup supper, one pioneer woman had nothing nice to wear and so she totally re-made an existing dress, turning every ruffle inside out and sewing it together again. Add that to the hours spent twisting hay for fuel in winter, and cooking meals for threshers, and you begin to see just how difficult life was 150 years ago.
Free Land obviously wasn't written recently, because parts of it would never get past the politically-correct police in today's society. Indians (no "Native Americans" back then!) were described as making a row about something, "as if they had human feelings." It's amazing to think that some pioneers apparently saw Indians as a different, sub-human species.
I recommend Free Land highly as an interesting way to learn more about our country's history. I guarantee you'll come away with a renewed appreciation for our forefathers (and mothers) and their work ethic. -
Free Land certainly had the potential to be a great book. Inspired by many of the event's of Laura and Almanzo Wilder's lives, Rose creates a vivid story of determination, strength and endurance. The storyline is good. David leaves his family farm to settle a new frontier, overcome many obstacles in the process. The constant struggle and the trials he and his wife face are realistic. As a little house fan it was fun it see the parts taken from either Almanzo or Laura's life. Like the fact David is based loosely on Almanzo, his siblings have the same names and his sister Eliza is a spirited, independent, bossy school teacher.
But Mary is certainly no Laura. And unfortunately Rose's writing let it down. She tries to cram to much in. Instead of just a story of a man and woman fighting the elements to make a life together, she decided to add in another romantic subplot. David develops feelings for a much young girl from a nearby family (a family I think is loosely based on the Ingalls), and she likes him too - but they both know it can never be; if he had not been married things could have been different. This cheapens the story, making it feel too much like a bad TV soap. And it makes it so hard to like David. Plus its' so strange when you can see the David is based loosely on her father, that she would write him this kind of story-line. That's...uncomfortable. It is clean. Nothing happens, but it was still unnecessary. And Rose's language is a little too modern still for what she was trying to write. She tried to modernise the story, but instead made it feel gritty - like having everybody 'cure' all the time and creating the character of Gay who was slick and bad and lazy, and who for some reason Eliza admires.
I so wanted to enjoy Rose's writing because I am such a fan of her mothers. But I have been so disappointed. I personally don't understand why Rose was the famous author long before Laura was. Laura's writing style was so much pleasanter, her characters were more realistic and seemed to sparkle with life. Rose's didn't. If it wasn't for the storyline - which was inspired by her parents - it wouldn't have been worth the read. -
I picked up Free Land because rumor has it Lane based the events in the books on her mother
Laura Ingalls Wilder's family stories. And who doesn't love more LIW stories? But maybe Lane's writing wasn't for me. She lacks her mother's elegant descriptions and glosses over episodes that could have used more embellishment to get the full impact. Likewise, there's not a whole lot about the feelings behind the characters.
That being said, I couldn't put the book down. What new and terrible thing will happen next to these poor people?
A fast and compelling read about frontier life in the late 1800s. Good if you're into that sort of thing. -
This is a well written book by the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. In fact as you read the book, some of the things that happened to David and Mary are similar to events in the Little House books. However, this was not written for children, but for adults. This book does not make light of the hardships of settling on the South Dakota prairies in the 1880s. Yet the hard work ethics and joy in the simple things evident throughout the book as well. Lane does let her political leanings quite obvious in the discussions of the farmers, but she does not let it 'drive ' the bookk.
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Free Land was written by Rose Wilder Lane and published in 1938. This novel follows a young man named David Beaton who sets out west to Dakota territory with his new bride Mary. These were the days when the government was giving out free land to whoever was willing to homestead out there. We follow David through his many struggles and hard work on the land.
Rose Wilder Lane was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. That being said, this book feels similar in some ways to the Little House on the Prairie books except that it was written for adults. You can tell Rose used her parent’s experiences for inspiration. David in particular definitely seems to be based on Almanzo, Rose’s father. I felt like this was a wonderful companion novel to the Little House books. Rose’s writing is wonderful and descriptive, which was nice after the simplistic writing of the Little House books. Rose doesn’t shy away from talking about the harsh realities of life out in the west either. The immense hard work, the privations and the horrors of blizzards ( I was reminded often of The Long Winter) were brought to life. I enjoyed the characters and their resilience as well. There was an interesting dynamic in this book between characters that I didn’t know what to make of. That is, while David seems to love his wife Mary, he also seems to have feelings and an underlying connection with their neighbor Nettie, which is never acted upon. I liked David and Nettie and found it sad they hadn’t met each other sooner. Yet I commend him for staying true to Mary. What’s particularly interesting about it is that David is obviously based on Alamanzo, but Mary was clearly not based on Laura. Nettie seemed to have the most similarities to Laura. I’m not sure why Rose created this dynamic, but it was sure mysterious.
Anyways, if you love the Little House books or want a novel that really shows you how life truly was for early settlers on the prairie, this is a novel not to be missed! I’m interested in reading more of Rose’s work as well. She’s a great writer and I don’t know why her books aren’t more well known. -
Rose Wilder Lane (1886-1968) is perhaps best known as the daughter and collaborator of Laura Ingalls Wilder, but she also enjoyed her own modestly successful writing career. Although Lane continued to produce non-fiction journalism and opinion pieces until her death, Free Land, her last published novel, was written shortly after she had abandoned her youthful socialism for what became an increasingly strident libertarianism.
Free Land is one of those fictional pieces in which the author has undoubtedly walked the ground. In fact, Lane’s fine portrayal of time and place, sun and storm, only accentuates her limited plot and bland characterization. Free Land is not a great novel, but it is certainly far better history than its contemporary, John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Mining both her mother’s homesteading stories and her own personal experience on the South Dakota plains, Lane recounts the struggles of Great Plains pioneers, not sentimentally but with far more sympathy and far less “realism” than would be acceptable in a twenty-first century novel. It should be noted, however, that when Lane herself decided to live a life of rural simplicity, she moved to Connecticut. -
An interesting look at the lives of homesteaders on the Dakota plains, drawing partially on incidents from the lives of the author's parents, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder. It proved to be a skillfully written, compelling novel, which restored my faith in Lane's literary reputation after reading her Let the Hurricane Roar, which I considered an amateurish propaganda piece. The ending of Free Land was somewhat abrupt, making me wonder if Lane was either rushing to meet a publisher's deadline or simply unable to create a fuller, more satisfying conclusion. Modern readers may be troubled by an incident in which residents perform in blackface to help entertain the gathered residents who are sheltering from a blizzard and also by the attitudes toward Indians, in one case expressed in a statement to the effect that it was surprising the Indians might have feelings "just like humans." Definitely a period piece.
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David Beaton and his wife Mary leave Minnesota in the early 1880s to homestead in South Dakota during the land rush. The land was free, but the couple paid dearly for it when they encountered blizzards, tornadoes, and drought.
Rose Wilder Lane borrowed heavily from her parents' experiences homesteading. Any Laura Ingalls Wilder fan will recognize names and basic plot points from her stories. While Wilder wrote from the optimistic viewpoint of a child, Lane wrote from the bleak viewpoint of an adult. At times the transitions were lacking so I was left confused on when events were happening. Unlike Wilder's timeless stories, Lane's is much more dated in the vocabulary and the writing style. -
At first I was disgruntled at the miseries superseding the joys of the pioneers, but I was mesmerized as I read. Tripping and stumbling over awkward phrases and colloquialisms from a bygone era were forgiven as I realized that this style is completely different from her mother’s writing. Unlike the softened stories in the Little House books, there was no sugar coating for these pioneers. It’s almost as if RWL wanted to give us a taste of each and every privation ever suffered, but what a rich experience reading from our warm beds in great big heated houses with every kind of luxurious food we can think of stuffing into our ungrateful mouths. Riches to live alongside those hardworking hopefuls for a few days in their poverty, prudence and deprivation.
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Positive, well written
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Written by Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter, this book has a very similar tone and style to the Little House books. This is a story of Mary and David, who homestead in the Dakotas.
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I am a fan of all the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and I'm a fan of the books about her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. "Free Land," is the second book that I've read by Rose. The first book was "Young Pioneers," which has the similar characters and a similar plot. I rated Free Land, four stars.
Honestly, "Free Land" is hard to follow. Reading this book is like handing me a piece of steak and asking me to swallow it whole. I may just feel this because I'm only 15 years-old but the way Rose wrote it was too hard to comprehend. One of the reasons it's hard to follow and comprehend is because it's confusing! If you've ever read any of the Little House books or know something about Laura Ingalls Wilder, than you'll know after reading this that the there are so many names or events from the Little House books and/or Laura's life! An example would be that Laura has a sister named Mary and there's a Mary in the book. This makes it confusing because you wonder if that's the character from the Little House books or if it's based on that character or if it's meant to be the same character except from "Young Pioneers," and with a different story. Confusing, confusing, confusing.
Other than the fact that it's hard to follow and confusing, the book is really good and the writing is amazing. Rose writes so fine! She makes a book about pioneers and working hard, and sweat and hard times feel elegant almost, but not in a way that makes you have no connection with the characters. The title is cool in a way because *spoiler* back in the mid-late 1800's, land was "free" from the government and if you wanted the land, you had to live there for a certain amount of years until it was actually yours. So "free land" works for the title because the land was free from paying an amount of money but it wasn't free because to live there and to work so hard cost a lot. Everyone must pay for(in some respect)what they want, right?
The two main characters, David and Mary Beaton, were written well too. *spoilers* Their personalities, characteristics, and choices are based on Rose's parents and maternal grandparents. Mary is a combination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Caroline Ingalls and David is a combination of Almanzo Wilder and Charles Ingalls. David and Mary are two good people that work for what they have and do their best to survive the pioneer days just like Rose's family members, and in this way the book is also like the Little House series and "Young Pioneers." I felt that I connected with characters even more than meant to because I kind of felt that I already knew them from the Little House series and "Young Pioneers."
The plot is often twisting and turning because of a natural disaster or a illness or famine but it works because it's based on real events that really did happen around every corner. "Free Land," by Rose Wilder Lane is a good book and I recommend reading it if you like what its about; pioneers, hardships, and people trying their best to live on the "free" land. -
This was the first novel I've ever read written by Rose Wilder Lane, Laura's daughter who was the one who got her to write her memoirs. It echos the Little House books and I would wager to say that just about everything in it happened to either her parents, grandparents, or was something they heard. I saw a lot of it in the "Little House Sampler" I read recently... even the quote at the beginning - "My life's been mostly disappointments." That was said by her father, Almanzo Wilder, during an interview she gave him when she was gathering accurate information for the writing of this book. Her main character, David, seems based off her dad (hard-working, honest, kind, a little spunk), and I'm thinking her character Nettie is more fitting of her mom, Laura (uncomplaining, strong female figure) - David and Nettie even have this unspoken "what if" side of their relationship. In wondering why she didn't just have her father-figure marry her mother-figure, of course she has to add a little more drama!
It began with David as a 19 year old, ready to go stake his claim with some "free land" through the Homestead Act... he started out 'worth' about $1500 and life looked prosperous. His character seemed still part kid, part adult, as he fought with his sister Eliza and was nervous around his dad. He and Mary got married and moved in the same day, and along came the Hard Winter of 1880... one thing after another and life was no longer so rosy. They had a baby Davy ("the little shaver") and were hardly eking out a living. By the time Mary found out she was again pregnant, she was depressed and they were so far in debt they couldn't see the horizon. Luckily she got her little girl Molly, who added immeasurable joy to their lives. They got a letter that David's parents would come for a visit and they were so nervous - he hadn't seen them since he moved away as a 19 year old, and they were worried what they'd think of their meager existence. Their parents' three week stay was the best time they'd had for years; his hard father fell in love with his grandchildren, and the relationship with David has changed to one of a man-to-man. After finding out David is in debt $900, he tells him that he can have $2000 from his part of the will... "I don't know's you noticed it when you was to home, but ever since you young ones was born to mother and me, I wanted you to have an easier time than we did." - Last line of the book. Awww. -
I may change this rating to five stars later, I'll have to let it sit for while, maybe even read it again. It was an excellent book, well-written, the characters were reasonable and interesting, the descriptions, especially of the blizzards were superb.
It's the adult version of the little house books that answers those questions you start to have when you get older. It's darker, grittier and a review on the back cover used the word "realism," I think that fits.
Quotes: said mildly and without bitterness by an old man, "my life has been mostly disappointments."
"Bare endurance becomes a kind of progress, when not giving up is the most that can be done."
The thing that baffles me, even though I've done somthing similar, is why does Almanzo or David Beaton in Free Land or Charles Ingalls in Little House in the Big Woods leave a prosperous & comfortable farm to live a life of subsistence in the wilderness? I do not have an answer to that question. -
Made a thrilling discovery! If, like me, you're a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, you might have wondered why Almanzo's family ever left their prosperous farm in Malone, NY, to go to MN. This biographical novel by his daughter Rose picks up with them on the new farm in MN. "David's" sisters are still named Eliza and Alice. Hope Laura shows up later.
I'll let you know how it goes, but I'm surprised I didn't know about this book until stumbling on that Almanzo bike race in southern MN...
Pt 2: I get what other reviewers said about the abrupt ending! And I would've liked her to tie up the Peters' more, since they had many things in common w the Ingalls. In fact, she didn't tie them up (or that plotline) at all. Nevertheless, I tore thru the book. Remind me never to try to farm in the Dakotas, even if they're giving the land away for free. -
As I discovered in Pioneer Girl, Rose Wilder Lane helped her mother by editing her original adult novel, Pioneer Girl, and then helped her edit them to children’s books. Lane then used the stories to write her own adult novels. Rose Wilder Lane was a very famous author in her day, but has been eclipsed in modern times by her mother. Lane’s pioneer books are worth a read, especially for lovers of pioneer tales. Mary and David Beaton are newlyweds that travel to the Dakota Territory to homestead 300 acres. Isolation, blizzards, and cyclones are just some of the trials they face. Their story is very similar to the real life stories of Almanzo and Laura Wilder and Charles and Caroline Ingalls.
Part of a larger blog post about Top 10 Pioneer Books at:
http://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2016/... -
I'm a huge fan of the Little House book series, and I am SO glad I read this book. It is the realistic view of things as they truly were, behind the way they are portrayed in the Little House series. It was fascinating to read the roots of what later turned into books in the series (particularly "The Hard Winter"), and even more intriguing to read the very honest descriptions of strains in relationships, something that is avoided in the children's series for obvious reasons.
My only complaint is that it desperately needs editing for the "flow" of story. It's too jumpy, often leaving one scene and diving into another with no transition at all.
And the ending is just about as odd as it gets. It. Just. Stops. No warning. No summary. Nothing.
