Luther Clegg didn’t discover Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books until one of the Muleshoe 6th-graders he was teaching in 1957 raved about them. That single glowing endorsement sparked such deep interest that countless others have benefited since.

Clegg, who taught children’s literature courses at TCU until his retirement as Emeritus Professor of Education in May, immersed himself in Wilder’s stories, and since 1957, the author’s life has become a passion. Clegg is a foremost Wilder myth-breaker, carefully deciphering the differences between Laura (the lead character of the popular children’s books), Laura (of the television series) and the real Laura — the wife and mother who at age 65 penned memoirs to market as children’s fiction.

“I think I was drawn to Laura for several reasons,” he explained. “But what I have learned over the years is that there is something about her experience that resonates with all of us in some way, even if the life we live is dramatically different than it was back then.”

As number 12 in a line of 13 brothers and sisters, the 70-year-old professor’s early life in Fisher County in West Texas wasn’t far from the rural environment Wilder vividly depicts. He remembers heating a brick in the wood stove so he could warm his feet during the bus ride to school, which took more than an hour.

But contrary to what many of the children he talks with seem to think, Clegg was not the author’s contemporary. His father, however, was born in 1873, just five years after Wilder. And the stories Joseph Frank Clegg told did mirror the book to some extent.

Childhood memories aren’t the only thing that motivated Luther Clegg to devote his adult years to researching Wilder. What drove him in the 1970s to spend family vacations touring the places where she grew up, raised her family and lived happily with her husband for more than 60 years went deeper than that.

“At the heart of it I want people to understand the life she led,” he said. “I want their appreciation to go beyond what they see on TV or read about. I want them to learn more about Laura Ingalls Wilder the person.”

Clegg’s journeys took him to rural towns throughout the Midwest. With each stop, each new fact, his enthusiasm grew. He has made more than 150 presentations so that others will know the woman behind the books.

“In a society full of television images showcasing violence, crime and sex, understanding more about Wilder and the times in which she lived can help the young people of this generation find some of the morality and sense of purpose we seem to have lost over the years.”

Clegg, who also documents the history and traditions of one-room schoolhouses, said the two passions mesh with his personal experiences. His mother attended and taught in a one-room schoolhouse similar to the one Wilder describes in her books.

Many of the people he interviewed for his 1997 book, Empty Schoolhouse: Memories of One-Room Texas Schools, remember the early 1900s with astonishing detail. There are lessons to be learned from their tales — ones that could, according to Clegg, begin: Life was hard. We lived off the land, did our chores in the early morning hours or evening, walked two miles uphill to go to school all day and then came home to work some more. 

“The real lesson might be that life is too short to take what you have for granted,” he said.

“Laura did not start writing her books until the end of her life. Many of the early stories she tells must have been from memories of her parents’ explanations because she would have been only 2 or 3 years old at the time. She finished in 1943. She was 76. Some say she originally intended to write about her adult life experience, but when she got down to it, childhood was just too interesting.”

Clegg said maybe that’s why Wilder’s books are so universal. Maybe that’s why when he presented at the National Cowgirl Museum Hall of Fame in February to commemorate Wilder’s 136th birthday, the place was packed. But whatever the reason, one thing is clear about his long-running love affair with the author’s life:

“I have received tremendous personal benefit from getting to know more about her. We make the world a little bit better each time we learn to care for our history, embrace our tradition and remember the past as we look forward.”