''Free Land'' is a novel by Rose Wilder Lane that features American

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept t ...

ing during the 1880s in what is now

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

. It was published in ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'' as a serial during March and April 1938 and then published as a book by Longmans.

Summary

The newlywed Beatons migrate to

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...

during the 1880s to claim of grassland. But their struggle to survive includes brutal isolation from the rest of the world as cyclones and

blizzard A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling ...

s hit, and

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

challenges their ability to live off their land.

Historical background

The author, Rose Wilder Lane, grew up herself in the time and place of which she writes. Her parents homesteaded in Dakota. Many of the events described in the book, actually happened to either her parents (

Laura Ingalls Wilder Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, mostly known for the '' Little House on the Prairie'' series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood ...

and

Almanzo Wilder Almanzo James Wilder (; February 13, 1857 – October 23, 1949) was the husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the father of Rose Wilder Lane, both noted authors. Biography Early life Almanzo James Wilder was born on February 13, 1857 a ...

), or her grandparents ( Caroline and Charles Ingalls). The book is similar in a way to the Little House series, only it is darker and more serious.

Reception

'' Kirkus Reviews'' published a starred review concluding, "It is a vigorous and moving story – a slice out of the American scene. And eminently readable." Regarding its 1933 predecessor in particular, it "

ears An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists o ...

perhaps too close a resemblance to Let The Hurricane Roar in general pattern and some details, but howsa distinct advance in handling."

Adaptations

''Free Land'' was adapted as a radio drama starring Martha Scott (1914–2003), whose audio recording was distributed for American Armed Forces only as a 1973 LP record."Free land (Sound recording)"
LC Online Catalog. Retrieved 2015-09-17.

References

{{Little House 1938 American novels Western (genre) novels American young adult novels Little House series Novels set in Dakota Territory Midwestern United States in fiction Longman books Novels adapted into radio programs