Rose Wilder Lane(1886-1968)
- Writer
Rose Wilder Lane (1886-1968), was a prolific fiction writer, biographer and
political theorist, as well as the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder,
author of the Little House series of children's books. Lane's skillful
editing and publishing connections assisted her mother in making the
transition from rural Ozark journalist to world-renowned children's
author. Lane had left her parent's impoverished Missouri farm at the
age of 17 and soon began to make her mark on the world. After a stint
as a Western Union telegrapher, she sold real estate in California and
later began a successful career as a reporter for the San Francisco
Bulletin. Her 1918 divorce from Gillette Lane, after several years of
separation, officially ended an relationship that had never recovered
from the death of an infant son, around 1910. She never remarried.
After her divorce, Lane continued to carve out a successful career as a
writer of novels, short stories, biographies and tales of her extensive
world travels. Her work as a war correspondent dated from post-WWI
Europe to a tour of Vietnam in 1965 (when she was nearly 80 years
old). She was a well-known literary figure of her day. Later in life,
Lane's writing focused on her increasing political conservatism, her
distaste of Communism, Socialism and any other form of government that
denied the freedom of the individual. She is widely regarded as one of
the leading figures behind what has grown into the American Libertarian
Party.