She knew—she had to have known—what was coming when the terrifying news of Black Tuesday hit the papers, describing its cataclysmic aftermath, the run on the banks, and the alarming (if fictitious) reports of investors jumping out of windows. In response, she did what she had always done. She got busy. In this atmosphere of instability—grieving for her sister, distressed for her daughter, anxious about money—Laura Ingalls Wilder decided to write a memoir.
