Tag: Trinity Christian College

Back to School 2025

returning to Western Pennsylvania in October

Back to school time is upon us. Gas prices in my neighborhood have spiked to nearly $4 a gallon ahead of the Labor Day weekend. And classes at Trinity Christian College began on Monday. This semester I am teaching the first half of the United States history survey—U. S. History to 1860—for the first time since 2021. Back then it was a Monday-Wednesday-Friday course. Now it is a Monday-Thursday course, since Trinity reworked the weekly schedule to make room for Wellbeing Wednesdays as part of our Transformative Colleges Initiative. I have also flipped the classroom; I made 25 videos this summer and no longer lecture in class; we do activities and discuss primary sources. So far my students are doing great.

In July I recorded a podcast episode for the website Mere Orthodoxy. They have a new podcast titled “Christians Reading Classics.” The host is Dr. Nadya Williams, who is a classicist and has a book about the Greek and Roman Classics coming out late this year. The podcast has a little broader definition of “classic,” and she asked me to join her to talk about Little House on the Prairie, which was published 90 years ago in 1935. I had a great time discussing the book and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and faith with Nadya and Dr. LuElla D’Amico, a Professor of English and Gender Studies at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. The episode dropped several weeks ago and I have a link to the podcast at the end of this post.

This month I also found out that A Prairie Faith was reviewed in the academic journal Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. The review came out in the September 2024 issue, which was published online in February 2025. The reviewer, Dr. Melinda Marchand, teaches history at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. The review provides an excellent summary of the book and my argument. The author was generous even as she pointed out particular contexts that readers of that journal would have been interested in the book addressing in more detail. The journal is behind a paywall, so I think the best way to find it online is to see if your local public or university library has access.

I will be returning to Western Pennsylvania in October to sign books at Geneva College’s Homecoming. The event will be in the West Reading Room of McCartney Library on Saturday, October 25, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. I graduated from Geneva thirty-four years ago, and I was a student worker in the library all four of the years I attended. Many thanks to Beckie Cottage and the Alumni and Advancement team at Geneva for making this possible.

I also just picked up a copy of Pamela Smith Hill’s Too Good to Be Altogether Lost: Rediscovering Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Books. It came out this year from the University of Nebraska Press. It looks pretty fascinating. I will have to carve out some time in my schedule to read it this semester.

As always, if you’re interested in having me speak, please let me know (john.fry@trnty.edu). Thanks for reading!

Links

Trinity Christian College

Wellbeing Wednesdays

Transformative Colleges Initiative

Mere Orthodoxy

Christians Reading Classics

Nadya Williams

LuElla D’Amico

Church History, September 2024 issue at Cambridge Journals

Melinda Marchand

Geneva College – Homecoming 2025

Iowa and Missouri

two book events in April

Photo by Michelle Underwood

Summer has arrived in Chicagoland. Finals week at Trinity was the last week of April and Commencement was May 2. May 15 was the last day for faculty members on nine-month contracts. As June approaches, I’m in fewer meetings. I’ve begun thinking about the two history courses I will be teaching in the fall: History 204, the first half of the American History survey, and History 401, the Senior Seminar.

I enjoyed two book events in April. The first was an online Iowa History 101 event sponsored by the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) on April 10 at noon. The zoom session was attended by about a dozen people. My talk addressed what we know about Laura’s faith and about Laura and Rose’s contributions to the Little House books, particularly as they address Christianity and the church. I also discussed the Ingalls’s family’s one-year stay in Burr Oak, Iowa, in 1876 and 1877. There were some great questions at the end. The session was recorded and a link is at the end of this post.

Then I was able to travel to the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield, Missouri. I was there on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26. The mornings and early afternoons of both days I was able to sell and sign books (I took copies of both A Prairie Faith and my second book, Almost Pioneers) in Marshfield’s Community Center, along with a number of movie and television stars from the mid to late twentieth century. Nine actors were there from “Little House on the Prairie,” including Dean Butler, who played Almanzo, and Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie Oleson. There were also three actors from “The Waltons,” and others from “Leave it to Beaver,” “Dallas,” “Barney Miller,” It’s a Wonderful Life, and a variety of other shows and movies. Michelle Underwood, a southwest Missouri author who also works at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home in Mansfield, had a table next to mine. She has written a book giving a “behind the scenes” look at the Wilder Home. We enjoyed talking while we worked to attract the crowds who waited in line to get autographs from the “Little House on the Prairie” stars. I ultimately sold about twenty books.

On Friday afternoon I went to the Marshfield Assembly of God church to receive the Ella Dickey Literacy Award. Bill Anderson presented me with the award. The other awardees were the Rev. John Marshall, a retired Baptist Pastor who has written a book on the faith of Abraham Lincoln, and Paul Landis, a Secret Service Agent for John F. Kennedy who has written a memoir about his experiences. I was honored to receive the award, which is named after a beloved, long-time librarian in Marshfield.

John Marshall, me, and Paul Landis. Photo by Sarah Manley

Later Friday afternoon, I attended the Dred Scott Reconcilation Forum, hosted by Lynne Jackson, a descendant of Dred and Harriet Scott. She interviewed Dr. Bryan Moore, the pastor of Jubilee Community Church in north St. Louis and a distant relative of Nat Turner. I also got to judge a cherry pie contest. On Saturday morning, I attended Rev. Marshall’s session about Lincoln; his comments were very insightful. It was great to catch up with Bill Anderson and Sarah Manley. Many thanks to Sarah for taking the pictures during the ceremony. Many thanks also to Rev. Nicholas Inman, Director of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home in Mansfield and the driving force behind the Festival, for his gracious invitation.

Now I’m just waiting to hear the announcement of the Book of the Year for Biography from the website Foreword. A Prairie Faith is one of eight finalists. Lord-willing that will be announced in June.

If you’re interested in having me speak, please let me know (john.fry@trnty.edu). Thanks for reading!

Links:

Trinity Christian College

Iowa History 101 Recording

STL listing of events at Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival

My second book: Almost Pioneers: One Couple’s Homesteading Adventure in the West

Michelle Underwood’s website

Michelle’s Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Rocky Ridge Farm: A Detailed Look Behind the Scenes

Bill Anderson’s website

Paul Landis’s The Final Witness: A Kennedy Secret Service Agent Breaks His Silence After 60 Years

John Marshall’s Lincoln and Christianity: Essays on Lincoln’s Religious Life

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield

Foreword Book of the Year Finalist Announcement

List of Foreword Book of the Year (INDIES) Finalists for Biography

Foreword’s Listing for my book

Picture of Bill Anderson giving John Fry the Ella Dickey Literacy award.

Bill Anderson presenting me with the Ella Dickey Literacy Award. Photo by Sarah Manley

A New Year (2025)

Christianity Today published a review

Image courtesy of Christianity Today

Happy 2025. It was nine years ago this month that I started this project (and this blog). And it’s past time for an update on several developments with the reception of the book since the middle of last November.

On November 20, 2024, the magazine Christianity Today published a review of A Prairie Faith. It was written by Monika B. Hilder, a professor of English at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. (The school has no connection with Trinity Christian College where I teach.) She has written multiple books and articles about C. S. Lewis and his works, and apparently she has long appreciated the Little House books. Titled “The Quiet Faith Behind Little House on the Prairie,” the review was overwhelmingly positive. I think that Dr. Hilder really understood a lot of what I was trying to do in the book, and for that I am very thankful. A friend of mine asked me if the book got a bump in sales as a result of the review; according to Wikipedia, Christianity Today has a circulation of over 100,000 in print and over 2 million digital subscribers. He told me to check my Amazon best sellers rank. Sure enough, for a week or two, the book was under #50,000. It’s back over #500,000 now. I’ll find out how sales are going when I get a royalty report later this spring.

I also discovered that the book has been reviewed in the Annals of Iowa. It is in the volume 83, number 3, summer 2024 issue. Sarah Uthoff, an Iowa librarian and a good friend wrote it. Sarah’s Trundlebed Tales website is a multi-media collection of materials about “Laura Ingalls Wilder, one-room schools, historic foodways, and living history.” This review was also quite positive, and I appreciate her careful reading and her kind words. I have written book reviews for the Annals in the past, so it was great to see my book reviewed in it.

Iowa will also be the site of my next speaking engagement—online Iowa. I will be speaking at an Iowa History 101 event on April 10 at noon. Iowa History 101 is a zoom meeting which was started by the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) during covid and which has continued ever since. The twice-monthly meetings address all kinds of different Iowa history topics. I will be talking about Laura’s faith and also doing a quick dive into the Ingalls family’s brief sojourn in Burr Oak, Iowa, in late 1876 and early 1877. There are some great stories about their time there in Pioneer Girl, but she left it completely out of the Little House books. I would love to see you in the zoom and chat! The link to register for my talk is below.

This is the end of week four of Trinity’s spring semester (we started the Monday after New Year’s Day), and my classes are going well so far. I am teaching a Thinking and Writing course about Communities and a Foundations Course about vocation. It was bitter cold in Chicago last week, but today it is in the thirties (and raining).

If you’re interested in having me speak, please let me know (john.fry@trnty.edu). Thanks again for your all your support!

Links

Christianity Today Review – this is normally behind a paywall, but you may be able to read the entire review if you don’t go there often; I think they’ll let you read a couple pieces before asking you to subscribe.

Monika B. Hilder’s page at Trinity Western University

The Annals of Iowa

Annals Volume 83, Number 3, Summer 2024 – If your local library doesn’t have a copy, I think that you can order one from the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Trundlebed Tales

Iowa History 101 and my upcoming talk on April 10 (includes registration)

Trinity Christian College

Late Fall 2024

almost a thousand copies

So it’s half-way through the month of November. Thanksgiving is late this year, so after that Trinity only has one week of classes before finals. Students in my Senior Seminar course read A Prairie Faith earlier this semester. It was a real treat; I wrote it for readers like them. They are now finishing paper drafts based on their own research projects. Students in my first-year course are working their way through a historical monograph on the use of the atomic bomb during World War II. I’ve also begun preparing to teach two new courses in the spring.

A Prairie Faith has been available for ten months. I recently received my first royalty statement from Eerdmans. Almost a thousand copies were sold between February and the end of June. That number is more than my first book sold in twenty years. My deepest thanks to all those who purchased a book for themselves and/or for someone else. I believe that the book also makes an excellent Christmas gift.

About a month ago, on an October Saturday, I was able to do a book signing at the Barnes & Noble store in Orland Park, Illinois. It was a new experience to have to attract people’s attention. All my previous events were either connected with Laura Ingalls Wilder or were talks where people came particularly to hear about Wilder’s life and faith. Even though the table they gave me was close to the entrance to the store, I found that I had to say something to everyone who entered in the hope that some would come over. Fortunately, Eerdmans had made me bookmarks, so I offered people a bookmark and then made a quick pitch if someone accepted one (“It’s a biography of the author of Little House on the Prairie”). I saw two Trinity graduates who had me as their history teacher, and I met a high school student who is hoping to become an author. The store had bought twenty-five books and I ended up selling eight of them. I signed the rest and said that I would advertise on my social media that signed copies are available at the store in Orland Park Place. Many thanks to Val Martinez for setting things up for me.

Thanks again for your all your support!

Links:

Trinity Christian College

Book Signing

Barnes & Noble, Orland Park Place, Orland Park, Illinois

Book Tour – Fall 2024

Missouri!

In the gift shop at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum, Mansfield

Last week I was able to travel to Missouri for several engagements. On Wednesday, September 25, I from Chicagoland to Branson and stayed overnight there. The next day I drove to the College of the Ozarks (they call it the C of O), which is just south of Branson. There, Dr. Aleshia O’Neal gave me a wonderful tour of the campus before I spoke in her class. Dr. O’Neal is an English Professor at the C of O who grew up on a farm in Missouri. So we enjoyed looking at all the tractors and barbed wire in the college’s tractor museum.  We also went to Patriot’s Park, Williams Memorial Chapel, and the scripture garden that overlooks the White River. The C of O is a work college, meaning there is no tuition, but all students work fifteen hours a week on campus or in the local community. I did not realize how many different on-campus business operations this would require. We visited the stained glass studio and grist mill, and I saw the greenhouses and barns for the cows. We finished at the Ralph Foster Museum, which has artifacts from all periods of Ozarks history. I then spoke about my research on Mrs. Wilder in English 3023, the American Novel, to eight students and several faculty members. The English Department treated me to lunch at the C of O’s Keeter Center, which features an excellent restaurant, as well as a hotel and conference center. Many thanks to Dr. O’Neal and to Dr. Ethan Smilie, Humanities Division Chair, for their invitation and hospitality. I met Dr. Smilie at LauraPalooza in 2017, and we’ve corresponded ever since.

Me with Dr. Ethan Smilie and Dr. Aleshia O’Neal

That afternoon I drove from the Keeter Center to West Plains, a town of about 12,000 people in south-central Missouri.  I spoke at the West Plains Public Library at 5:00. There were about thirty people there, including a woman who was originally born in the south suburbs of Chicago. There were also several families from Covenant Reformed Church, which is a congregation in my Presbytery. That night I stayed with a family from that church and really enjoyed my time with them and their daughter and three sons. They reminded me of my family about 20 years ago. Many thanks to Greg Carter and Dianna Locke for hosting me at the Library, and to the Nortons for their hospitality.

West Plains Public Library

On Friday, September 27, I drove from West Plains to Mansfield for the 49th Annual Wilder Days celebration.  I went by way of Ava, which is a town that Laura and Almanzo Wilder often visited on Sunday afternoons, but which I had never been to. This got me off the four-lane highway, which meant I saw some really beautiful views of the Ozarks. Certain areas really reminded me of Western Pennsylvania, where I grew up. Once I got to Mansfield, I went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum outside of town and reacquainted myself with the site.  I walked through the farmhouse, over the path to the rock house, and through the rock house—tours were self-guided because of Wilder Days. I also went through the museum and saw that my book was for sale in the middle of a bookcase of works about Mrs. Wilder.  There now is also a recreation of Almanzo’s garage, just opened this year. I also visited the Mansfield Area Historical Museum in downtown Mansfield.  It is housed in a replica train station and has a variety of artifacts from local history, including materials about Carl Mays, who played major league baseball fifteen years for the Red Sox, Yankees, and Reds. I also got to see the Mansfield public school fourth graders sing in the square. They did great.

Friday evening, I went to the Fifth Annual Wilder Dinner, a fundraising event for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum. It was held at the Mansfield High School. Before the prayer, a local musician played two songs on Pa’s Fiddle, the violin that belonged to Charles Ingalls. It gave me chills to hear the instrument that Laura wrote so much about. After dinner, there was a live auction of a variety of pieces of Wilder memorabilia. Dean Butler also spoke; he played Almanzo in the TV series “Little House on the Prairie” from 1979 to 1983. I had previously heard him speak at LauraPalooza in 2022. Friday night, I was able to stay at a house owned by the Wilder Home.

David Wilson playing Pa’s Fiddle

Saturday morning, I was able to hear Pa’s Fiddle again, this time for forty-five minutes, in front of the Wilder Home. I then signed books in the entryway to the museum from 10 am to noon. Dean Butler was signing copies of his new book, Prairie Man in the back of the museum. The line for him wound through the museum, out the front door, down the steps, and along the parking lot. At lunch, I went downtown and bought a pie from the Historical Museum’s fundraiser and a bag of kettle corn. I also got to see the Mansfield Wilder Days Parade. I then went back to the museum and signed books from 2 to 4 pm. I then drove back to Chicagoland. Many thanks to Rev. Nicholas Inman, Director of the Wilder Home and Museum, and to staff members Susie, Vicki, Marie, Tana, Clinton, and everyone else who made my visit there excellent.

Up next for me is a book celebration at Trinity next Wednesday afternoon. There are four faculty members who have published books in the last twelve months. I will also be signing books at the Barnes & Noble in Orland Park, Illinois on Saturday, October 19 from 1 to 3 pm.  Anyone in Chicagoland is invited to attend!  (Put in link)

Thanks again for your support!

Links:

College of the Ozarks

What is a work College?

Gaetz Tractor Museum

Ralph Foster Museum

West Plains Public Library

Covenant Reformed Church

Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum

Mansfield Area Historical Society and Museum

Trinity Christian College

Book Signing at Barnes & Noble Orland Park, Illinois

Interviews and Reviews

I love invitations

Summer has passed quickly. Meetings ahead of the fall semester here at Trinity Christian College begin next week. I hope that everyone whose lives revolve around the academic calendar (professors, teachers, parents, students, etc.) have had a 1) restful and 2) productive summer, in whatever proportion you desired. All best for the new year.

In July I was able to record interviews for two more podcasts. One was for the Conference on Faith and History, an organization I have been a member of for over twenty-five years. I was interviewed by Lucy S. R. Austen, who has written the most recent biography of Elisabeth Elliot. I had a great time. I also recorded a shorter podcast with John Notgrass of Notgrass History, a publishing company for homeschool families. I greatly appreciate their support. Links are at the end of this post.

The book has also been reviewed at a number of online sites this year. I greatly appreciate the kind words from readers. Links are at the end of this page, and I’ve put some on the home page.

My trip to Missouri in September has been finalized. I will be meeting with the American Novel class at the College of the Ozarks on Thursday morning, September 26. I will then be speaking at West Plains Public Library that evening. On Friday and Saturday, September 27 and 28, I will be signing books during the Wilder Days celebration at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum in Mansfield.

As always, if you are interested in having me speak at your local bookstore, church, public library, or other community group, please contact me at john.fry@trnty.edu. I love invitations. You can also keep checking my page dedicated to Book Talks, both upcoming ones and previous ones. Thanks again for your support and encouragement!

Links:

Trinity Christian College

Conference on Faith and History Podcast

Notgrass History Podcast

Lucy S. R. Austen

Randi Baltzer, Librarian at Arizona Christian University

Cheryl C. Malandrinos’s Laura’s Little Houses

Dr. John Olds at Life is Story

Midwest Book Review – The Biography Shelf

Annette Whipple’s The Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion (the book giveway is over, unfortunately)

Kingsbury Journal, Kingsbury County, South Dakota (this one is behind a paywall, but in case there are readers who subscribe)

College of the Ozarks

West Plains Public Library

Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum

Book Tour – Spring 24

a number of opportunities

Photo by Eric Schiemer, Geneva College

The spring semester at Trinity Christian College has sped by. Today is the last day of regular classes, and finals week is next week. During the last couple of months, I have also had a number of opportunities to talk about my research.

February was online appearance month. Right after the book appeared, I got an email from the publisher saying that Shaun Tabatt wanted to interview me for The Shaun Tabatt Show. We spoke via zoom on February 15 and the interview was published online two days later. Later that month, Fred Zaspel reached out about doing an interview for Books at a Glance. We spoke on February 28 and the interview was published on March 5. Many thanks to both Shaun and Fred for their time and interest.

March was email month. I traded many emails with staff and friends at (in alphabetical order): the Ann Arbor Public Library, the Blue Island Public Library, the College of the Ozarks, Geneva College, Grove City College, the Ingalls Homestead outside of De Smet, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museums in Pepin and Walnut Grove, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum in Mansfield, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes in De Smet, the Midwestern History Conference, and Schuler Books in Grand Rapids. Some of these contacts have become upcoming appearances, some are still in process.

April has been in-person appearance month. On April 4, I spoke at the Blue Island Public Library. About ten people attended and we had a great talk. Many thanks to Dennis Raleigh for making that event happen. I also taught a SALT course at Trinity Christian College from April 2 to 16. SALT (Seasoned Adults Learning at Trinity) courses are for residents aged 50 and older from communities surrounding the college. There were eight students, and over the three weeks we read and discussed the book. I also shared some photos from my research trips and visits to the Ingalls and Wilder historical sites. Many thanks to Dewoun Hayes for her enthusiasm and faithful support.

On Monday of this week, I flew to Pittsburgh and drove to Grove City, PA. There I got to have lunch with my longtime friend Michael Coulter, who teaches Political Science at Grove City College, and dinner with Jan and Katie Dudt, old friends from when we lived in western PA. I spoke to about forty people that evening, about half students (all women – not entirely surprising) and half people from the community. Several were high school classmates from Grove City Christian High School and Portersville Christian school. One I had not seen for probably 30 years. It was a great time. It was also a great blessing to stay with the Dudts on their beautiful farm outside Grove City, close to where I grew up. Many thanks to Mike for his work and to Grove City’s Institute for Faith and Freedom and Departments of English and History for sponsoring the talk.

Then on Tuesday, I drove from Grove City to Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA. It was a nostalgic trip, especially the stretch down the hilly and twisty back roads between Portersville and Eastvale. It is still pretty early spring, so it wasn’t always beautiful, but it was home. At Geneva I got to spend some time with Jeff Cole and Eric Miller, members of the History Department, and Kae Kirkwood in the Archives. Geneva is my alma mater, so I knew Kae from when I attended in the late 80s and early 90s. And two of my sons, Ben and Daniel, currently go to Geneva, so we were able to get together for dinner (and ice cream after my talk). There were probably sixty people at the talk; most were students, but some were from the community, including several from Grace OPC in Sewickley, the church I attended when I was in college. The talk was part of Geneva’s Visiting Artist and Lecture Series (GVALS). Many thanks to Jeff and Eric, Provost Melinda Stephens, and Marlene Luciano-Kerr for the invitation and their hospitality.

I now have a page on the website dedicated to Book Talks, both upcoming ones and previous ones.

If you are interested in having me speak at your local bookstore, church, public library, or other community group, please contact me at john.fry@trnty.edu.

Thanks again for your support!

Links:

Trinity Christian College

Eerdmans Publishers

Midwestern History Conference

Blue Island Public Library

SALT at Trinity (click on Classes and then Session 3A to see the information about my course)

Geneva College

Grace OPC

Today is the Day!

shipping to readers

The last several months at Trinity Christian College have been challenging. Small Christian colleges are working to reach students who will benefit from what we offer in the post-Covid higher education world, but that world is dominated by elite universities, large state schools, and online programs. At the same time, the last several weeks have been extremely exciting for me. The first copies of my book, A Prairie Faith: The Religious World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, have been shipped by Eerdmans, the publisher. These include review copies sent to journals and magazines and complimentary copies sent to scholars, blog authors, and historic sites. Amazon has also been shipping to readers. In January I received my author’s copies and was able to give them out to family members, colleagues at Trinity, and friends at my church. I then purchased some additional books from the publisher for future gifts.

Now the official book release date is today! Links to places to buy the book are below and on my homepage. The Trinity Christian College Bookstore has copies and is featuring it on their webpage. (Full disclosure: my wife Paula works at Trinity’s Bookstore.)

What’s next? I’m working to line up opportunities to talk about what’s in the book. I’ve sent a paper proposal to the Midwestern History Conference, which is held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the end of May. It is confirmed that I will be attending Wilder Days at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri, at the end of September. On that trip, I will also be speaking at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri. I am also hoping to speak at some bookstores and public libraries in the Chicagoland area, and perhaps some of the Wilder historic sites in the Midwest during the summer. I will put up information on this site as dates are finalized.

If you are interested in having me speak at your local bookstore, church, public library, or other community group, please contact me at john.fry@trnty.edu.

Thanks again for all of your support and encouragement over the last eight years!

Links:

Trinity Christian College

Eerdmans

Westminster Presbyterian Church (OPC)

Midwestern History Conference

Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum

College of the Ozarks

Where to get the book online:

Trinity Christian College Bookstore

Christianbook.com – Now has additional information about me and the book at the bottom of the page, under “Author/Artist Review”

Bookshop.org

Thriftbooks

Alibris

Amazon – My author’s page at Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Cokesbury

Lord-willing, you can also get it at your local bookstore.

A Book in My Hands

Reminiscing about the journey of discovery

Two weeks ago, on December 1, I received a package at work. I did not know what it was until I opened it and there was a copy of A Prairie Faith with a congratulations note from the staff at Eerdmans Publishers. December 1 is my birthday. It was a great birthday gift.

I thought that I’d close 2023 by reminiscing about the journey of discovery that eventually resulted in this book. One could track the development of the book by re-reading the 75+ blog posts on this site, but here’s a summary with some links at the end:

  • In January 2016, I began a new research project by sitting down to read Little House in the Big Woods and write a blog entry about how it engaged faith, Christianity, and the church. I ultimately hoped to write an article for a historical journal about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s faith.
  • During the rest of spring 2016, I read the rest of the Little House books, Pioneer Girl, and several biographies of Wilder and posted blogs about their engagement with her faith.
  • During the summer of 2016, I visited the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa, and looked at the letters, manuscripts, and other materials they have from Laura and Rose.
  • During the fall of 2016, I presented a paper about Wilder’s faith at the Conference on Faith and History Biennial Meeting, held at Regent University in Virginia Beach.
  • After the presentation, Heath Carter, one of the editors of the Library of Religious Biography, a series published by Eerdmans, reached out to me to ask if I wanted to write a full biography of Wilder that paid particular attention to her faith. I said that I would consider it.
  • During the spring semester in 2017, I taught an Honors seminar at Trinity about Wilder and the Little House books, and I wrote a book proposal for Eerdmans.
  • The proposal was accepted, and in July I signed a contract with them to deliver the manuscript at the end of August in 2022. I was planning for ten chapters and figured that I could write two chapters each summer for the following five years.
  • Also in July 2017, I presented a paper at LauraPalooza for the first time.
  • I took a research trip in June 2018 to Burr Oak, Iowa; Pepin, Wisconsin; Walnut Grove, Minnesota; and De Smet, South Dakota. I stayed with John Miller one night and we went to De Smet together and spent a day in the archives at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes.
  • I had planned to travel to Missouri to do additional research in summer 2020, but Covid happened. John Miller also passed away that spring, depriving the United States of a great historian and me of a good mentor, encourager, and friend.
  • In late May of 2021, I did take a research trip to Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, to Mansfield, and to Independence, Kansas.
  • Trinity granted me a sabbatical in spring 2022 to work on the book. I also did a research trip in March to the University of Missouri and the Missouri State Historical Society in Columbia and to the Missouri United Methodist Archives in Fayette.
  • I had finished a draft of the entire book by the end of March. During the next four months, I went through multiple revisions. I submitted the manuscript in August 2022, several weeks ahead of the deadline.
  • In July 2022, I presented at LauraPalooza again.
  • The manuscript was reviewed by two scholars, and I made revisions during the fall of 2022. The revised manuscript was accepted by the publisher in this year in early March.
  • Since then, I have worked on publicity materials, copyediting, proof-reading, and writing the index.

It has been a long road, and I appreciate all the help and encouragement provided by you, the readers of this blog. I’m also thankful to the Hoover Presidential Foundation for giving me a research grant in 2016 that kicked off the project, and to Trinity Christian College for supporting my research with three Summer Research Grants, travel money for research and presentations, and the Sabbatical.

Other developments during the last several months: I purchased a paid account with WordPress so that there are no longer ads on this site (good for everyone). I cleaned up my Amazon author page. I also submitted my list of people to get complimentary copies from the publisher when the book ships.

Remember that A Prairie Faith is available for pre-order at Amazon, bookshop.com, and other online booksellers. Christianbook.com has the best discount right now. Authors love it when people do pre-orders because they encourage the publisher to do more publicity as the release of the book approaches. Amazon’s listing also now has three recommendations from Bill Anderson, Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, and Mark Noll, and a recent photo of me. The release date is February 6, 2024, one day before Laura’s 157th birthday.

Thanks for going with me on this journey!

Links:

Eerdmans

Conference on Faith and History (CFH)

Trinity Christian College

Hoover Presidential Foundation

Posts on Wilder’s works

Posts on works about Wilder

Honors Seminar

LauraPalooza 2017 and the Mansfield homes and museum

2018 Research Trip: Burr Oak, Pepin, Walnut Grove, De Smet

John Miller memorial

2021 Research Trip: Mansfield, Independence

LauraPalooza 2022: Conference, Paper

Available for Pre-Order

Summer 2023 Update

There have actually been a number of developments

Greetings. I hope that your spring is going well. Trinity Christian College’s Commencement was held in the middle of May, at a local minor-league baseball stadium. This enabled us to allow students to have as many guests attend as they would like (i. e., no tickets for students to manage, no tickets for staff to check). We also had fireworks. It was a great celebration. Included among the over two hundred graduates were five history majors. I wish Erik, Haley, Julian, Trevor, and Vern all the best.

I had meant to post this much earlier this summer (hence the first paragraph’s description of Commencement…). It’s hard to believe that it’s almost the end of June; Trinity’s summer registration event, Blueprints, was last weekend. But being delayed by Dean of Faculty work at Trinity means that I can report more developments on the book production front. There have actually been a number of developments in the production of A Prairie Faith during the last several months.

At the end of March I received the copyeditor’s report on my book. He had read the entire manuscript. He asked a lot of good questions and made a lot of proposed changes. My assignment was to read through his changes and either accept them or make a different suggestion. In almost every case, I accepted the proposed changes. Overall, his work made the work more straightforward, smooth, and understandable. Many thanks to Tom for his work with the book. It is much improved.

At the end of April, one of Eerdmans’s copywriters also shared with me the advertising copy for the book so that I could make comments and corrections. I suggested several changes, but in general, I was very pleased. In early May, the Art Department at Eerdmans shared with me a draft of their design for the front cover. I was very glad that they could incorporate a picture that I took during my research trip to South Dakota in 2018. I think that it looks really good. I can’t share it yet because of their production timeline. Many thanks to Caroline and Kristine for their work to promote the book.

Then in the middle of May, I received the entire book, laid out and typeset, for me to proofread. It was exciting to see the entire book as it will appear in print. Reading through it in a different form enabled me to catch some things that had snuck by me in earlier revisions. It also enabled me to correct some portions of the book that were wrong because of some confused communication between me and the copyeditor. I also responded to some questions from Eerdmans’ proofreader this week.

Finally, I was able to work with the production team at Eerdmans and an independent mapmaker to create two maps for the book. One is a map of Laura’s travels; the other is a map of the towns around Mansfield, Missouri. Laura did move a lot during her childhood and early adulthood, and during the sixty-plus years she lived in Mansfield, she often visited nearby towns, so there are a lot of place names in the second half of the book. Having these two maps will be helpful to the reader. I really appreciate the publisher’s willingness to include the maps. (I’m amazed that the University of Missouri Press did not include a map in John Miller’s otherwise excellent biography Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder.) The maps were finalized earlier this month. Many thanks to the mapmaker, Daniel, and to Laurel, my project editor.

I believe that the next step in production is for me to look at final page proofs for one last proofreading. At that point I’ll also be putting together the Index. I think that I have most of the index terms selected already, so I will just need to work through the proofs to get the right page numbers.

It looks like the publication date for the book will be February 6, 2024, one day before Laura’s 157th birthday.

Thanks again for all your encouragement.

Links:

Trinity Christian College – If you know someone looking for a quality, private Christian education that’s affordable, check us out.

Trinity’s Commencement 2023

Blueprints 2023

Eerdmans Publishers

Freeworldmaps.net – The gateway to the mapmaker I worked with.