Melissa Gilbert talks about 'Prairie' book

Melissa Gilbert felt at home during the 10 years she played Laura Ingalls Wilder on the popular family TV drama "Little House on the Prairie." Now, at 58, she feels even more at home in her little house in the Catskills, where she lives with her husband, actor-director Timothy Busfield. Cooking, feeding chickens, gathering eggs are all part of her daily routine at the farmhouse which sits on 14 wooden acres in Sullivan County.

The actor, who also has an apartment in Manhattan, tells the story of her rustic life far from the Hollywood spotlight in her inspiring and amusing memoir "Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered" (Gallery Books, $28). When her friend, former congressman Steve Israel, invited her for a book talk and signing hosted by his Oyster Bay store, Theodore's Books, on May 14, she couldn't resist. Israel and author Carol Hoenig will moderate the discussion, which will take place at Cana Foundation in East Norwich (a portion of the proceeds benefits the organization, which aids wild horses).

"He was my mentor when I ran for office," Gilbert said referring to her 2016 bid for a Congressional seat in Michigan's 8th District. Though she had to withdraw from the election due to health reasons, she and Israel remained friends. 

"When I was in Congress, I admired her work as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and she was one of the first authors that I contacted when I opened my bookshop in Oyster Bay.," Israel said. "She’s a national treasure." 

CREATING HER DREAM HOUSE

"Back to the Prairie" is a follow-up to Gilbert's 2010 memoir "Prairie Tale," which dealt with her acting career; her romances with actor Rob Lowe and rocker Billy Idol; two earlier failed marriages; drug and alcohol addictions, and her eventual sobriety.

"The two memoirs I’ve written have been reflective of where I was at that time in my life. Where I was at in the end of the first book is completely different from where I am now," she said.

In the new book, she speaks lovingly of Busfield, who she married in 2013, and of the farmhouse they purchased in 2019. "The land was exquisite," Gilbert recalled of the first time they saw it. "The house itself was very sort of storybook cottage, but the very sad version … still it looked very sweet on the outside."
Inside was another story. "It was sort of musty, damp, almost like a cave," she said. "It also gets very humid during the summer, and for over 20 years with no one living there and that kind of humidity, no heat, no air, nothing circulating through, everything was just kind of wet and decrepit. But the more we stood in there, the more we looked at it and thought, this could actually be something."

Over the course of nearly 300 pages, she details the extensive renovations that took place to create what would become the couple's haven during the pandemic. "Once we did the kitchen and we put in the plumbing and the heating and the insulation and we painted and threw down the carpeting, we knew that this was the dream house that we didn’t realize we had dreamed about."

Peppered throughout the book are recipes for everything from slow cooker baked potato soup to gingersnap pumpkin pie, a touch that she said was inspired by Wilder. "In the 'Little House' books, she talks about food and meals so vividly and described how things are made and what they ate." Gilbert said. "Without even realizing it, as I was writing I was doing the same thing, so I thought, I’m talking about them so much I might as well share the recipes."

AN ACTOR'S LIFE

Gilbert was 9 when "Little House on the Prairie" premiered on NBC in 1974 and was 19 when the show ended in 1983. Still she shared fond memories of working on the show, especially getting to know its star and executive producer Michael Landon.

"He was a mentor and a second father to me," she said. "Whenever we traveled, Michael Landon made sure we had a private plane and everyone and their significant others and families would go."

Another close friend was Patty Duke who played Annie Sullivan to Gilbert's Helen Keller in a 1979 TV remake of "The Miracle Worker." "Patty was the first person I had ever been around that intensely who had an experience similar to mine growing up as a child actor," she said. "A lot of the pressures and a lot of the hurdles that we had to jump over were very, very similar."

Gilbert continues to act and has some potential projects in the works, as well as an outline for a mystery novel. Whether any of those projects happen, she's content with her life in her mountain haven.

"The closest I ever came to imagining this would be where I am now was just my desire to have a peaceful, gentle life free of a lot of self-inflicted drama," she said, "because I am very good at self-inflicted drama."