The First Four Years (novel)
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| The First Four Years | |
| Author | Laura Ingalls Wilder |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Garth Williams |
| Cover artist | Garth Williams |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Little House |
| Genre(s) | Family Saga Western |
| Publisher | HarperCollins, later Scholastic |
| Publication date | 1971 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 135 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-590-48813-9 |
| Preceded by | These Happy Golden Years |
| Followed by | On the Way Home |
The First Four Years is a book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and found in the belongings of Rose Wilder Lane (Laura's daughter) by Roger Lea MacBride, Rose's heir, upon Rose's death in 1968. Laura wrote all of her books on dime store tablets, and the manuscript of the book was found untouched, in Laura's handwriting, as Laura had written it.
It was apparently a first draft of a book Laura had decided to write, possibly as a ninth book in her Little House on the Prairie series, possibly as a separate novel for adults (some of the material is more for an adult audience than anything in her Little House books), but her actual intent is not known. She seems to have written it sometime during the mid 1940's, and her biographers speculate that perhaps she lost interest in it after her husband Almanzo Wilder died in 1949. Roger MacBride, the adopted grandson of Rose Wilder Lane, and executor of her estate, made a decision to publish The First Four Years without any editing, so it came directly from Laura's pencil to the written pages. Because Laura never reworked the manuscript - and Rose never edited it (Rose edited all of her mother's earlier writings for publication), it is less polished in style than the books of the Little House series, but it is still unmistakably Laura's writing.
The First Four Years derives its title from a promise Laura made to Almanzo when they became engaged. Laura did not want to be a farm wife, but she consented to try farming for three years. At the end of that time, Laura and Almanzo mutually agreed to continue for one more year, a "year of grace", in Laura's words. The book ends at the close of that fourth year. The continually hot, dry Dakota summers, and several other tragic events they sustained eventually drove them from their land, but they later founded a very successful fruit and dairy farm in Missouri, where they lived comfortably until their respective deaths.
