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| MacBride's version of Little House |
I am constantly surprised by how much I don’t know.
Just as I was getting over my surprise that Herbert Hoover was a humanitarian I discovered that Rose Wilder Lane’s agent, Roger Lea MacBride, had been a Presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party. I knew that MacBride was the author of ‘additional’ Little House books but I was imagining a nerdy, Little House fan pining away for life on the prairie.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
MacBride was a Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate, an active member of the Republican party, a Presidential candidate for the Libertarian party, the co-producer of the Little House T.V. series and the heir to the Wilder fortune. Roger MacBride was the son of Burt MacBride, Rose Wilder Lane’s editor at Reader’s Digest.
Just as I was getting over my surprise that Herbert Hoover was a humanitarian I discovered that Rose Wilder Lane’s agent, Roger Lea MacBride, had been a Presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party. I knew that MacBride was the author of ‘additional’ Little House books but I was imagining a nerdy, Little House fan pining away for life on the prairie.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
MacBride was a Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate, an active member of the Republican party, a Presidential candidate for the Libertarian party, the co-producer of the Little House T.V. series and the heir to the Wilder fortune. Roger MacBride was the son of Burt MacBride, Rose Wilder Lane’s editor at Reader’s Digest.
Rose met Roger when he was still a teenager, he was taken by her stories and political theories and despite their age difference they became close friends. Much later in her life, Rose actually admitted that she was grooming him to become a future Libertarian! When Roger grew up and was established, he became Rose’s attorney and business manager and remained close to Rose for the rest of her life.
So here’s the part of the story that make me squeamish. When Rose died in 1968, MacBride was her sole heir and gained the rights to the Little House books. In three years he had Laura’s manuscript, The First Four Years, published and in another three years he edited her letters to Almanzo and published West From Home. He used the royalties from the books to finance his campaign for President. Then he decided to continue the Little House series with Rose as the main character and published EIGHT more books. Talk about beating a dead horse...but he wasn’t done exploiting Laura yet.
Studios had been trying to get the movie rights to the Little House story since the 1940s. They knew a good thing when they saw it. Laura repeatedly said no to Hollywood; she was afraid they would stray too far from the “true story”. Imagine.
So here’s the part of the story that make me squeamish. When Rose died in 1968, MacBride was her sole heir and gained the rights to the Little House books. In three years he had Laura’s manuscript, The First Four Years, published and in another three years he edited her letters to Almanzo and published West From Home. He used the royalties from the books to finance his campaign for President. Then he decided to continue the Little House series with Rose as the main character and published EIGHT more books. Talk about beating a dead horse...but he wasn’t done exploiting Laura yet.
Studios had been trying to get the movie rights to the Little House story since the 1940s. They knew a good thing when they saw it. Laura repeatedly said no to Hollywood; she was afraid they would stray too far from the “true story”. Imagine.
When the rights passed to Rose, she, too, refused the offers, respecting her mother’s wishes. Roger, on the other hand, headed to Hollywood with the Little House rights in hand and made himself a millionaire. In fact he agreed to everything and anything Little House related that came his way including a mini-series called The Young Pioneers and a spinoff entitled The Rose Years.
MacBride became a multi-millionaire and the antithesis of everything that Laura wrote about. She must have been rolling over in her grave when Walnut Grove exploded in the last episode. And Rose? I bet she was pretty fired up and couldn’t wait to get her hands on MacBride in 1995 when he crossed over and joined them both in the great beyond.
MacBride became a multi-millionaire and the antithesis of everything that Laura wrote about. She must have been rolling over in her grave when Walnut Grove exploded in the last episode. And Rose? I bet she was pretty fired up and couldn’t wait to get her hands on MacBride in 1995 when he crossed over and joined them both in the great beyond.
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