Judge Dismisses Library's Claim to Little House Royalties

Staff -- Library Journal, 2/28/2000

A federal judge has determined that HarperCollins is not legally bound to pay a portion of the royalties from the sales of Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House series to a Mansfield, MI, library, which claimed that the author bequeathed it the rights to the volumes. U.S District Judge Ortrie Smith ruled that despite her mother's wish, Wilder's late daughter Rose Wilder Lane had the legal power to leave copyrights to six of the Little House titles to heir Roger Lea MacBride, who receives the royalties from HarperCollins. The courts, however, have yet to determine who owns the rights to five other volumes penned by Wilder, so the library, which bears her name, still has a chance to garner royalties.