Missouri Library Board Tries Again
to Claim Little House Copyrights
A Jackson County, Missouri, probate judge has ruled that the Wright County Library System can pursue copyright ownership of two of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s bestselling Little House books. Wilder had left the copyright to the popular series to the library, to be handed over after her daughter Rose Wilder Lane died. However, Lane bequeathed them to a friend, Roger Lea MacBride, who, in turn, left them to his daughter Abigail MacBride Allen.
The legal dispute over the books began in October 1999, when the board filed suit to keep the copyright from passing to Allen. In February 2000, U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith disallowed the library’s claim to copyright ownership of Wilder’s six earlier Little House titles because Lane had renewed their copyrights. However, Judge John A. Borron Jr. decided in early January that the library board could pursue its claim to Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years since their copyrights were renewed after Lane’s death, according to a January 16 Associated Press report.
Posted January 22, 2001.
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