Gretchen then wrote a thank-you note to Microsoft: "I felt like Laura Ingalls Wilder, " the author of novels about pioneer families.

FORBES: Dial-an-ER

Rather, they occupy a place in the minds of Americans everywhere, thanks to the prairie literature of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Willa Cather.

ECONOMIST: Building houses

The company has become a landmark in Mansfield, population 1, 296, but the area is perhaps better known for the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum and home, where the author wrote her "Little House" books.

WSJ: A Homestead Sprouts in the Ozarks

The author won a number of awards for his work, including the Hans Christian Andersen medal for illustration in 1970 and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association in 1983.

BBC: Wild Things author Maurice Sendak dies at 83