Rose Wilder Lane

Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886 – October 30, 1968) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist and the daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson, Lane is noted as one of the founders of the American libertarian movement.

Early life

Wilder was the first child of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder and the only child of her parents to survive into adulthood. Her early years were a difficult time for her parents due to successive crop failures, illnesses and chronic economic hardships. During her childhood, the family moved several times, living with relatives in Minnesota and then Florida, and briefly returning to De Smet, South Dakota, before settling in Mansfield, Missouri in 1894. There, her parents would eventually establish a dairy farm and fruit orchards. Wilder attended secondary school in Mansfield and Crowley, Louisiana, while living with her aunt Eliza Jane Wilder, graduating in 1904 with a class of seven. Her intellect and ambition were demonstrated by her ability to compress three years of Latin into one, and by graduating at the top of her high school class in Crowley. Despite her academic success, Wilder was unable to attend college due to her parents' financial situation.