About Me
My Little House Journey Began at a Young Age
The idea of being a cowboy and riding horses began for me at our family ranch in northern California. In this picture I'm holding our horse, Cricket, with my sister Meg in the saddle. Those beautiful summer days in the country with my family all around me shaped my entire life and prepared me for what was to come in the years ahead. Now, on the occasion of Little House on the Prairie's 50th Anniversary in 2024 I'm sharing the details of my young life as an aspiring cowboy through one of the most surprising and unexpected occurrences of my life -- my journey to becoming a published author.
Finding the Audience
There is no performance without an audience. I'm pictured here with my Into the Woods cast mates after my final performance on Broadway. Throughout my life I have been blessed to prepare, refine, and deliver performances on stages and for cameras in front of audiences all over the world. My gratitude for those opportunities is boundless. I'm grateful to everyone who has given my dreams the honor of your attention and applause.
Join My Journey
I hope you will do me the honor of reading Prairie Man; My Little House Life & Beyond, and that you enjoy both the look back at Little House on the Prairie and the more personal episodes of my life and career.
Those who have been watching all these years are partners in my adventure. For me writing a memoir has been a sincere and often surprising exercise in the mining of my memories. As Laura Ingalls Wilder said of her books, "They are the truth, but not all the truth."
Its my hope that this effort, perhaps my first and only, will be enjoyed by all who pick it up.
About Prairie Man: My Little House Life & Beyond
Prairie Man: My Little House Life & Beyond: An illuminating, insider’s journey through the world of Little House on the Prairie from Dean Butler, who starred as Almanzo Wilder, the man Laura “Half Pint” Ingalls married—on the iconic show still beloved by millions of fans as it reaches its 50th anniversary.
Cast just before his twenty-third birthday, Dean Butler joined Little House on the Prairie halfway through its run, gaining instant celebrity and fans’ enduring affection. Ironically, when the late, great Michael Landon remarked that Little House would outlive everyone involved in making it, Butler deemed it unlikely. Yet for four decades and counting, Butler has been defined in the public eye as Almanzo Wilder—a role he views as the great gift of his life.
Butler had been cast as a romantic lead before, notably in the made-for-TV movie of Judy Blume’s Forever, opposite Stephanie Zimbalist. But Little House was, and remains, one of the most treasured shows in television history. As the eventual husband of Laura “Half-pint” Ingalls—and the man who would share actress Melissa Gilbert’s first real-life romantic kiss—Butler landed as a central figure for the show’s passionately devoted fans.
Now, with wit and candor, Butler recounts his passage through the Prairie, sharing stories and anecdotes of the remarkable cast who were his on-screen family. But that was merely the beginning of a diverse career that includes Broadway runs and roles on two other classic shows—Moondoggie in The New Gidget and Buffy’s ne’er-do-well father, Hank, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Coming of age during a golden era of entertainment, Butler has evolved along with it, and today enjoys success and fulfillment as a director and producer—notably of NBC Golf’s Feherty—while remaining deeply loyal to Little House.
The warmth, heart, and decency that fans of Laura and Almanzo fell in love with on Little House echo through this uplifting memoir, a story, in Butler’s words, about “good luck, good television, and the very good—if gloriously imperfect—people who made it so.”
ABOUT KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORPORATION:
Kensington Publishing Corp. is an independent, family-owned book publisher founded in 1974 and based in New York City. Known for the diversity of the authors and books it publishes, Kensington releases more than 300 fiction and non-fiction titles each year, providing readers with a range of popular genres such as thrillers, romance, historical fiction, cozy mysteries and non-fiction, as well as true-crime, western, sci-fi, and speculative fiction titles. The house of New York Times bestselling authors, including Fern Michaels, Lisa Jackson, William W. Johnstone, Joanne Fluke, Mary Monroe, Dr. Jen Gunter, Ellen Marie Wiseman, and many others, its imprints include Kensington Books, Dafina, Zebra, Pinnacle, Kensington Cozies, John Scognamiglio Books, Citadel Press, Lyrical Press, and Erewhon Books. Visit them online at KensingtonBooks.com.
