The written word has the power to generate ideas, inspire revolutions, and change the way we view ourselves and our place in history.

This series from the University of Auckland looks at the life history of influential authors, their style and beliefs, and the works they created.

Tuesday 16 August

Rocky Ridge, 1928

Presented by Paula Morris 
BA, MA, MFA, D. Phil

In the summer of 1928, Rose Wilder Lane – a successful writer of popular fiction – came home to the US after many adventures overseas, including driving across the desert to Baghdad and sailing the Aegean Sea.  She returned to her parents’ farm in rural Missouri, bringing her friend Helen Dore Boylston, a nurse and fellow adventurer. Both worked on books – Rose typing away in the attic, Helen in a tent on the lawn. Both women had major publishing careers, Helen as the author of the Sue Barton series, and Rose as a story writer and novelist. But both were to be eclipsed by the success of Rose’s mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House series – and, starting in that summer of 1928, Rose’s collaborator and greatest antagonist.

About the presenter

Paula Morris is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and essayist who convenes the MCW at the University of Auckland. She is the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature: www.anzliterature.com

For more information, and to register, click here.