Young Pioneers

Rose Wilder Lane is known in libertarian society for her book The Discovery of Freedom, a nonfiction work that champions the human spirit over the forces that attempt to control it, contain it, or guide it according to some centralized plan. The book encapsulates Lane’s worldview and intellectual outlook toward a vast swath of human experience. It’s all about the mighty human heart and its capacity for overcoming obstacles.

Young Pioneers, a story of two young lovers David and Molly, as they set up a new life in the unsettled West, is Lane’s magnificent novel that explores the same themes. It is a book that inspires in the same way as The Discovery of Freedom, and perhaps even more so. Wendy McElroy writes a detailed introduction.