William Holtz is the same person who wrote the biography of Lane: The Ghost in the Little House (1993). As Holtz has shown, Lane was the ghostwriter of her mother's books, the Little House on the Prairie series. At the same time that her mother's books became wildly popular, Rose struggled with her own writing. Holtz says that Lane put the best part of herself into her correspondence, that she wrote some of the best letters of the 20th century.

The letters cover the years 1921-1960. For a good biography of Dorothy Thompson, see American Cassandra by Peter Kurth. ( )