Often, if you want to write about women in history, the novelist Hilary Mantel has said, you have to distort history to do it, or substitute fantasy for facts; you have to pretend that individual women were more important than they were or that we know more about them than we do.8 But when it comes to Wilder, we don't have to pretend.
Novelist Hilary Mantel once remarked that writing about women in history often requires distorting facts or imagining their significance, as the historical record typically offers limited insight into individual women's lives. This challenge highlights the difficulty of capturing women's contributions accurately without exaggeration or assumption.
However, in the case of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author Caroline Fraser asserts that we do not need to engage in such distortion. Wilder's story and impact are well-documented, allowing for a genuine exploration of her life and experiences within the context of American history without resorting to fantasy or oversimplification.
