When other girls her age were experiencing their first
crushes, Melissa Sue Anderson was receiving handwritten
marriage proposals from fans as young, and younger, than she
was. When other girls were dreaming of their first kiss,
Melissa was struggling through hers in front of a camera.
From age eleven in 1974 until she left the show in 1981,
Melissa Anderson literally grew up before the viewers of
Little House on the Prairie. Melissa, as Mary, is
remembered by many as “the blind sister”; and she was the
only actor in the series to be nominated for an Emmy. In
Growing Up Mary, she takes readers onto the set and inside
the world of the iconic series created by Michael
Landon—who, Melissa discovered, was not perfect, as much as
he tried to be. In this memoir she also shares her memories
of working with guest stars like Todd Bridges, Lou Gossett,
Jr., Mariette Hartley, Sean Penn, Patricia Neal, and Johnny
Cash. In addition to stories of life on the set, Melissa
offers revealing looks at her relationships off-set with her
costars, including the other Melissa (Melissa Gilbert) and
Alison Arngrim, who portrayed Nellie Oleson on the show. And
she relates stories of her guest appearances on iconic
programs such as The Love Boat and The Brady Bunch. Filled
with personal, revealing anecdotes and memorabilia from the
Little House years, this book is also a portrait of a child
star who became a successful adult actress and a successful
adult. These are stories from “the other Ingalls sister”
that have never been told.
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