Great Lives4 Des 2018

Samira Ahmed on Laura Ingalls Wilder

In the summer of 2018, the name of Laura Ingalls Wilder was erased from a children's literary medal set up in her honour six decades ago.

Readers of the 'Little House on the Prairie' series of books were widely perplexed, but the original American pioneer girl now finds herself at the centre of the culture wars in the US.

Nominating Laura is broadcaster and super-fan Samira Ahmed, who has been to Rocky Ridge Farm, now an historic museum in Missouri and Laura Ingalls Wilder's home.

Joining Samira in studio is novelist Tracy Chevalier, president of the Laura Ingalls Wilder club at the age of eight.

At the centre of the controversy - the depiction in these books of native Americans. “Her works reflect dated cultural attitudes toward indigenous people and people of colour that contradict modern acceptance, celebration, and understanding of diverse communities,” was the judgment of the ALSC.

Also featuring Laura Ingalls Wilder's biographer, Pamela Hill; plus the Commanche writer Paul Chaat Smith in an extract from The Invention of the USA. "I feel worried," says Samira Ahmed, "that we've lost the ability to have nuance. I cannot read these books without feeling aspects of racism, but why shouldn't we be able to read them and still see the beauty in them."

Presented by Matthew Parris.

Producer: Miles Warde

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2018.

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