Laura Ingalls Wilder is one of the most beloved children’s authors of all time, but William Holtz contends that she may not have been the sole author of the Little House series that bore her name. While Laura’s life did serve as the inspiration for the books, Holtz believes that her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, actually took her mother’s memoirs and refurbished them into the novels that would be read by millions. In this captivating biography, Holtz chronicles Rose’s life from childhood, to travels abroad that began at age seventeen, and finally back home to Missouri in her mid-thirties where she would fine tune her mother’s writing. Holtz does not write to expose Laura as a fraud, but instead The Ghost in the Little House explains that Laura’s books were more of a collaborative effort than anyone knew.

"Did Laura Ingalls Wilder really write the 'Little House' books? William Holtz's biography of Rose Wilder Lane, The Ghost in the Little House, answers this question in a way that will jolt fans of the much-loved children's series. . . . Holtz's vivid and sympathetic biography brings to our attention the real accomplishments of a remarkable and complicated woman who is no longer nameless: Rose Wilder Lane, co-author of the 'Little House' books."--San Antonio Express-News

"Drawing on diaries and letters, Holtz . . . details Lane's life (1886-1968) in an engrossing study that highlights her troubled relationship with an apparently cold and manipulative mother."-- Publishers Weekly"[A] respectful, penetrating, deeply detailed biography . . . that well supports Holtz's contention that 'everything that makes the Little House books stand up and sing is what the daughter did to them."--Kirkus Reviews"A significant achievement. Holtz has uncovered the buried life of a woman whose struggle to separate herself from her mother and forge her own independent identity replicates the dilemma of many women, whose dedication to writing involved the sacrifice of her own ambitions, whose experience of American life during decades of cataclysmic social and political change comprises a life worth telling. . . . In setting the record straight with fullness, fairness and detail, William Holtz has made a genuine contribution to American life and letters."--Washington Post Book World"Holtz's book makes clear for the first time that [Lane] achieved something important and lasting in her writing with the Little House books. His argument about the collaboration between the two women is entirely convincing, and the next time I see the little House series on the shelf at the bookstore, I'll imagine Rose Wilder Lane's name next to her mother's on their covers."-- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Holtz's book makes clear for the first time that [Lane] achieved something important and lasting in her writing with the Little House books. His argument about the collaboration between the two women is entirely convincing, and the next time I see the little House series on the shelf at the bookstore, I'll imagine Rose Wilder Lane's name next to her mother's on their covers."-- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A significant achievement. Holtz has uncovered the buried life of a woman whose struggle to separate herself from her mother and forge her own independent identity replicates the dilemma of many women, whose dedication to writing involved the sacrifice of her own ambitions, whose experience of American life during decades of cataclysmic social and political change comprises a life worth telling. . . . In setting the record straight with fullness, fairness and detail, William Holtz has made a genuine contribution to American life and letters."--Washington Post Book World