William Anderson (born 1952) is an American author, historian and lecturer. He is a specialist in the subject of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her times.
His interest in American frontier began after reading Little House on the Prairie. He is a director of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri, and he lives and works as a teacher in Michigan.
He has received many recognitions for his writings, including the Western History Association's Billington Award, the Robinson award of the South Dakota State Historical Society, National Endowment for the Humanities awards and National Council of Social Studies. In September 2002, he was invited to the White House for the third of Laura Bush's American Authors Symposia. The First Lady, a former teacher and librarian, assembled scholars, authors and historians for a conference on the frontier experience.
About the Ingalls and Wilder families
The Story of the Ingalls (Mansfield, MO: L.I.W. Home & Museum, 1967), 14 pp., LCCN 71-268397; revised ed. 1993, 44 pp., LCCN 93-215817 – booklet
Laura Wilder of Mansfield (1968); reissued 1974 by the L.I.W. Memorial Society – booklet
A Wilder in the West: the story of Eliza Jane Wilder (De Smet, SD: L.I.W. Memorial Society, 1971) – booklet
The Story of the Wilders (L.I.W. Home and Museum, 1973), reissued by the L.I.W. Memorial Society – booklet
The Ingalls Family Album (L.I.W. Memorial Society, 1973), LCCN 73-173348; revised 1976, LCCN 77-356605 – 20 and 24 pp. booklets
Laura's Rose: the story of Rose Wilder Lane (L.I.W. Memorial Society, 1976) – booklet
The Pepin Story of the Ingalls Family (Pepin, WI: L.I.W. Memorial Society, 1981), 20 pp. – The Story of the Ingalls (1967), revised in Pepin with permission of Anderson, LCCN 81-183450
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pioneer and Author (New York: Kipling Press, 1987), foreword by Ruth Alexander, 54 pp., LCCN 88-138423
The Walnut Grove Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Walnut Grove, MN: L.I.W. Museum, 1987) – booklet, LCCN 87-181609
Laura Ingalls Wilder: a biography (Harper, 1988); 1992, LCCN 91-33805
Little House Country: a photo guide to the home sites of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Kansas City, MO: Terrell Publ., 1989), photos by Leslie A. Kelly – 48 pp., OCLC 20654987; Japan: Kyuryudo Art Publ., 1988; Harper, 1990, 119 pp., LCCN 89-46512
Laura Ingalls Wilder: the Iowa story (Burr Oak, IA: L.I.W. Park & Museum, 1990) – booklet
The Little House Guidebook (Harper, 1996), photos by Kelly – 96 pp., OCLC 32855145, LCCN 95-33200; updated 2002, LCCN 2002-279965
Pioneer Girl: the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper, 1996), unpaged picture book, illus. Dan Andreasen, OCLC 35029708
Laura's Album: a remembrance scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper, 1998) – "photographs and mementos accompany an account of the life and literary career", OCLC 865396917
Prairie Girl: the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper, 2004), 74 pp., illus. Renée Graef, OCLC 51923921
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Walnut Grove (Walnut Grove, MN: L.I.W. Museum, 2013), 96 pp., LCCN 2015-373290
The Horn Book's Laura Ingalls Wilder: articles about and by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams, and the Little House Books (Boston, Horn Book, 1987), 48 pp., LCCN 87-181392
- "Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House Books", Irene Smith
- "A Tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder", J.D.L.
- "Illustrating the Little House Books", Garth Williams
- "The Discovery of Laura Ingalls Wilder", Virginia Kirkus – Horn Book Magazine 29 (December 1953): 428–29
- "Christmas in the Little House Books", Marcia Dalphin
- "Laura's Gingerbread - Recipe"
- "A Letter from Laura Ingalls Wilder"
A Little House Sampler (U. of Nebraska, 1988), Ingalls Wilder and Wilder Lane, LCCN 87-19208
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook (Harper, 1995), LCCN 94-42326 – features recipes from Ingalls Wilder's personal collection, photos by Leslie A. Kelly, OCLC 31433784
A Little House Reader: a collection of writings (Harper, 1998), Ingalls Wilder, LCCN 97-2767
Michigan's Marguerite de Angeli: the story of Lapeer's native author-illustrator (Lapeer, MI: Marguerite de Angeli Library, 1987), 60 pp., LCCN 87-404646
The World of Louisa May Alcott: a first-time glimpse into the life and times of Louisa May Alcott, author of "Little Women" (Japan: Kyuryudo Art Publ., 1992; Harper, 1995), 120 pp., photos by David Wade, LCCN 95-24373
The World of the Trapp Family: the life story of the legendary family who inspired "The Sound of Music" (Davison, MI: Anderson Publ., 1998), 168 pp., photos by David Wade – distributed by the Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe VT, LCCN 98-156063
River Boy: the story of Mark Twain (2002), unpaged picture book, illus. by Dan Andreasen, OCLC 459795517
M is for Mount Rushmore: a South Dakota alphabet (Chelsea, MI: Sleeping Bear Press, 2005), illus. Cheryl Harness, OCLC 57201825
V is for von Trapp: a musical family alphabet (Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping Bear, 2010), illus. Linda Dockey Graves, OCLC 553368554
Magazine articles
Articles by Anderson have appeared in several periodical publications.
American History Illustrated
The Christian Science Monitor
The Horn Book Magazine
The Saturday Evening Post
Travel + Leisure
