Roger Lea MacBride (August 6, 1929 – March 5, 1995) was an American lawyer, political figure, writer, and television producer. He was the presidential nominee of the

Libertarian Party Active parties by country Defunct parties by country Organizations associated with Libertarian parties See also * Liberal parties by country * List of libertarian organizations * Lists of political parties * Outline of libertarianism ...

in the 1976 election. MacBride became the first

presidential elector The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia appo ...

in U.S. history to cast a vote for a woman when, in the presidential election of 1972, he voted for the Libertarian Party candidates John Hospers for president and Theodora "Tonie" Nathan for vice president. He was co-creator and co-producer of the television series '' Little House on the Prairie.''

Background

MacBride was born in 1929 in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

, the son of Elise Fairfax (Lea) and William Burt MacBride, an editor.Saxon, Wolfgang (March 8, 1995
"Roger MacBride, 65, Libertarian And 'Little House' Heir, Is Dead"
''

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''. Retrieved June 15, 2011. He called himself "the adopted grandson" of a family friend, writer and political theorist

Rose Wilder Lane Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886 – October 30, 1968) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, political theorist and daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with two other female writers, Ayn Rand and Isabel Pa ...

, whom he met when he was 14 years of age. Lane, daughter of

Laura Ingalls Wilder Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, mostly known for the ''Little House on the Prairie'' series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood ...

, noted author of the ''Little House'' series of books, designated MacBride as her "political disciple,"

executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, may sometimes be used. Overview An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker of a ...

, and sole

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

. MacBride was a graduate of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

Law career

MacBride worked for

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law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...

White & Case for several years before opening a small practice in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. By the mid-1970s, MacBride had relocated to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and was no longer practicing law full time.

Writing and television producing career

MacBride inherited Lane's estate, which granted him rights to the substantial Ingalls–Wilder literary estate, including the '' Little House'' franchise. He was author of record for three additional ''Little House'' books and launched the ''Rocky Ridge Years'' series of

children's novels Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

, describing Lane's Ozark childhood. He published two books on

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a State (polity), state, namely, the executive (government), executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as th ...

, ''The American Electoral College'' and ''Treaties versus the Constitution'', and authored a Libertarian Party

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

: ''A New Dawn for America: The Libertarian Challenge''. In the 1970s, MacBride co-created the television series ''Little House on the Prairie'' and served as a co-producer for the show.

Political career

Vermont politics

MacBride was elected to the

Vermont House of Representatives The Vermont House of Representatives is the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The House comprises 150 members, with each member representing around 4,100 citizens. Representatives ar ...

in 1962 and served one term.Lawyer Politicians in Virginia: Roger Lea MacBride (1929–1995)

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations of ...

. Retrieved July 25, 2012. While in the state legislature he proposed the abolition of the state college system. Running as a

Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president ...

Republican, he made an unsuccessful bid for the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

nomination for Governor of Vermont in 1964.

1972 electoral vote

MacBride was the treasurer of the Republican Party of Virginia in 1972 and one of the party's electors when

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

won the popular vote for his second term as president of the United States. MacBride, however, as a " faithless elector," voted for the nominees of the Libertarian Party: presidential candidate John Hospers and vice-presidential candidate

Tonie Nathan Theodora Nathalia "Tonie" Nathan (February 9, 1923 – March 20, 2014) was an American radio producer, television producer, and political activist. She was the first woman to receive an electoral vote in a United States presidential election. Sh ...

. In doing so, MacBride made Nathan the first woman in U.S. history to receive an Electoral College vote. Political pundit

David Boaz David Boaz (; born August 29, 1953, Mayfield, Kentucky) is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank. He is the author of ''Libertarianism: A Primer'', published in 1997 by the Free Press and described ...

later commented in ''

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

'' magazine that MacBride was "faithless to Nixon and Agnew, anyway, but faithful to the constitutional principles Rose Wilder Lane had instilled in him."Boaz, David "Roger Lea MacBride, 1929–1995", ''

'', March 1995, p. 13.

1976 presidential campaign

After casting his electoral vote in 1972, MacBride gained favor within the fledgling Libertarian Party, which had been founded the previous year. As the Libertarian presidential nominee in 1976, he achieved ballot access in 32 states, campaigning on a platform of support for a

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any o ...

system, a return to the

gold standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...

, the abolition of the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

, an end to corporate welfare, the abolition of the FCC, a foreign policy of non-interventionism, and the abolition of

victimless crime A victimless crime is an illegal act that typically either directly involves only the perpetrator or occurs between consenting adults. Because it is consensual in nature, whether there involves a victim is a matter of debate. Definitions of vic ...

s. MacBride and his

running mate A running mate is a person running together with another person on a joint Ticket (election), ticket during an election. The term is most often used in reference to the person in the subordinate position (such as the vice presidential candidate ...

David Bergland David Peter Bergland (June 4, 1935 – June 3, 2019) was an American politician who was the United States Libertarian Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1984 presidential election,Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, where he received 6,785 votes, or nearly 5.5%.

Republican Liberty Caucus

MacBride rejoined the Republican Party in the 1980s and helped establish the Republican Liberty Caucus, a group promoting

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

principles within the Republican Party. He chaired this group from 1992 until his death in 1995.

Family

MacBride married Susan Ford. They then adopted a baby whom they named Abigail MacBride.

Laura Ingalls Wilder literary estate

MacBride was designated by

as her heir. He gained control of her literary estate on her death in 1968. In 1971 he published ''

The First Four Years ''The First Four Years'' is a compilation album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag. It was released in 1983 on SST Records. The compilation consists of all of the group's material released before Henry Rollins became the band's voc ...

''. In 1974 he edited and published Laura Ingalls Wilder's letters to her husband Almanzo as ''West From Home''. He later created and produced the ''Little House on the Prairie'' television series. He was the credited author of a fictionalized series on the life of Rose Wilder Lane.

Death

MacBride died of heart failure on March 5, 1995. A controversy ensued when the local library in

Mansfield, Missouri Mansfield is a city in Wright County, Missouri, Wright County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,296 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History Mansfield was platted in 1882 by F. M. Mansfield, and named for him. A post o ...

, contended that Wilder's original

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

gave her daughter ownership of the literary estate for her lifetime only, and that all rights were to revert to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Library after her death. The ensuing court case was settled in an undisclosed manner, but MacBride's heirs retained the rights.Margolis, Rick (June 1, 2001
"Settlement on 'Little House' Books"
''

School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with ...

''. Retrieved July 26, 2012. In an obituary for MacBride, David Boaz wrote: "In some ways he was the last living link to the best of the Old Right, the rugged- individualist, anti-

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

, anti- interventionist spirit of Rep.

Howard Buffett Howard Homan Buffett (August 13, 1903 – April 30, 1964) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He was a four-term Republican United States Representative for the state of Nebraska. He was the father of Warren Buffett, the Ameri ...

, Albert Jay Nock, H. L. Mencken,

Isabel Paterson Isabel Paterson (January 22, 1886 – January 10, 1961) was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary and cultural critic of her day. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three f ...

, and Lane."

Partial bibliography

* Series on the early life of Rose Wilder ** ''Little House on Rocky Ridge'' (1993) ** ''Little Farm in the Ozarks'' (1994) ** ''In the Land of the Big Red Apple'' (1995) ** ''On the Other Side of the Hill'' (1995) ** ''Little Town in the Ozarks'' (1996) ** ''New Dawn on Rocky Ridge'' (1997) ** ''On the Banks of the Bayou'' (1998) ** ''Bachelor Girl'' (1999) * ''A New Dawn for America: the Libertarian Challenge''

References

External links

* (previous page of browse report, under 'MacBride, Roger Lea, 1929–' without '1995')
Interview with Roger Lea MacBride
about ''Little House on Rocky Ridge'', ''All Abut Kids! TV Series'' #143 (1993)
Interview with Roger Lea MacBride
about ''The Little Farm in the Ozarks'', ''All About Kids! TV Series'' #186 (1994) {{DEFAULTSORT:Macbride, Roger 1929 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American politicians American children's writers American legal writers American male non-fiction writers American political writers Candidates in the 1976 United States presidential election Faithless electors Harvard Law School alumni Libertarian Party (United States) presidential nominees Members of the Vermont House of Representatives Monetary reformers New York (state) lawyers Non-interventionism Old Right (United States) Politicians from New Rochelle, New York Princeton University alumni Television producers from New York (state) Vermont lawyers Vermont Republicans Virginia lawyers Virginia Libertarians Virginia Republicans Writers from New Rochelle, New York Writers from Vermont Writers from Virginia