Summary

In this chapter, Fraser details the close editorial cooperation between Laura and Rose between 1937 and 1938. To help Rose write "Free Land," which was Rose's last major serial for the "Saturday Evening Post," Laura and Almanzo sent Rose long letters about Almanzo's former experiences as a homesteader. In part, they were trying to help their daughter emerge from crushing debt. Rose first wrote a story called "Silk Dress" about her parents' lives as a frontier couple. Fraser writes that these stories were derivative and stale in nature, "a virtual Sears, Roebuck catalogue of her parents' lives and her mothers' fiction" (399). Rose also included antigovernment attitudes in her writing and did not include any understanding of the way in which the Great Plains were affected by ecological problems that affected farmers.

Laura started writing what would become By the Shores of Silver...