Rose Lane Says

Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, wrote a column titled “Rose Lane Says” from 1942 to 1945 for the Pittsburgh Courier, the largest circulating African American newspaper of the era. Her columns took on issues of race, equality, and liberty, offering deep analyses of themes also explored in her 1943 book, The Discovery of Freedom. The Pittsburgh Courier’s vast circulation brought Lane’s understanding of individual liberty to hundreds of thousands of readers. While Lane’s writings and role as a collaborator on her mother’s Little House books have garnered substantial attention of late, her columns for the Pittsburgh Courier, as well as her broader comments about and relationships with African Americans and civil rights, have not received their due. Her background in the rural Midwest was crucial in influencing the content of her individualist antiracism. Lane’s writings at the Courier represented the most ambitious effort of any author during this period to promote laissez faire ideas to a black audience. Through her columns, Lane creatively linked her philosophical beliefs to issues of concern to her readers, including segregation, civil disobedience, entrepreneurship, and the struggle for liberty both overseas and at home.

In Rose Lane Says, editors David T. Beito and Marcus Witcher provide annotations and an excellent introduction to Lane’s columns, which until now have been next to impossible to locate. This volume includes eighty-four columns, in print for the first time since their original runs in the 1940s.

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“Lane's writing is mesmerizing. She's direct, concise, and clear as a bell. No column—no paragraph, in fact—leaves the reader wondering what she was trying to say.” — Lawrence W. Reed, The Daily Economy blog. To read the full review, follow this link.

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Click here to listen to Marcus Witcher discuss Rose Lane Says on The Bookmonger podcast.

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To hear Rose Wilder Lane speak, download free audio files here and here.

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About the Editors