Roger MacBride | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Vermont House of Representatives | |
| In office 1963–1965 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Roger Lea MacBride (1929-08-06)August 6, 1929 |
| Died | March 5, 1995(1995-03-05) (aged 65) |
| Party | Republican (before 1972, 1980s–1995) Libertarian (1972–1980s) |
| Spouse | Susan Ford |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | Princeton University Harvard University |
| Occupation |
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Roger Lea MacBride (August 6, 1929 – March 5, 1995) was an American lawyer, political figure, and writer. After working as a lawyer early in his career, he inherited the estate ofLaura Ingalls Wilder. He edited and published additional Wilder materials and later wrote aRose Years spin‑off series set in theLittle House on the Prairie universe. He initiated the development ofits television adaptation.
In politics, MacBride served a single term as aRepublican member of theVermont House of Representatives in the 1960s. When serving as a Republicanpresidential elector in Virginia in1972, he defected from his pledged vote and became afaithless elector, casting a vote for theLibertarian Party's inaugural ticket ofJohn Hospers for president andTonie Nathan for vice president.Four years later, the party nominated him as their presidential candidate.[1][2]
MacBride was born in 1929 inNew Rochelle, New York, the son of Elise Fairfax (Lea) and William Burt MacBride, an editor.[3][4][5] He called himself "the adopted grandson" of a family friend, writer and libertarianpolitical theoristRose Wilder Lane,[6] whom he met when he was 14 years of age.[7][8] Lane, daughter ofLaura Ingalls Wilder, noted author of theLittle House series of books, designated MacBride as her "political disciple,"executor, and soleheir.[3]
MacBride was a graduate ofPrinceton University andHarvard Law School.[3]
MacBride worked forWhite & Case, a law firm onWall Street, for several years before opening a small practice inVermont.[3] By the mid-1970s, MacBride had relocated toVirginia and was no longer practicing law full time.[2]
MacBride was designated byRose Wilder Lane as her heir. He gained control of her literary estate on her death in 1968. In 1971 he publishedThe First Four Years. In 1974 he edited and published Laura Ingalls Wilder's letters to her husband Almanzo asWest From Home. He approved the creation of thetelevision series in the 1970s.[3] He was the credited author of a fictionalized series on the life of Rose Wilder Lane.[9] He was author of record for three additionalLittle House books and launched theRocky Ridge Years series ofchildren's novels, describing Lane'sOzark childhood.[3][6][10] He published two books onconstitutional law,The American Electoral College andTreaties versus the Constitution,[11] and authored a Libertarian Partymanifesto:A New Dawn for America: The Libertarian Challenge.[3]
In the 1970s, MacBride co-created the television seriesLittle House on the Prairie and served as a co-producer for the show.[2][6]
MacBride was elected to theVermont House of Representatives in 1962 and served one term.[12] While in the state legislature, he proposed the abolition of the state college system.[13]
Running as aGoldwaterRepublican,[14] he made an unsuccessful bid for theRepublican Party nomination forGovernor of Vermont in 1964.[11][12][15]
MacBride was the treasurer of theRepublican Party of Virginia in 1972 and one of the party's electors whenRichard Nixon won the popular vote for his second term as president of the United States.[16] MacBride, however, as a "faithless elector," voted for the nominees of the Libertarian Party: presidential candidateJohn Hospers and vice-presidential candidateTonie Nathan. In doing so, MacBride made Nathan the first woman in U.S. history to receive anElectoral College vote.[11][16] Political punditDavid Boaz later commented inLiberty magazine that MacBride was "faithless to Nixon andAgnew, anyway, but faithful to theconstitutional principles Rose Wilder Lane had instilled in him."[17]
After casting hiselectoral vote in 1972,[11] MacBride gained favor within the fledgling Libertarian Party, which had been founded the previous year.[18] As the Libertarian presidential nominee in 1976,[2] he achieved ballot access in 32 states,[3] campaigning on a platform of support for afree market system, a return to thegold standard, the abolition of theFederal Reserve, an end tocorporate welfare, the abolition of theFCC, a foreign policy ofnon-interventionism, and the abolition ofvictimless crimes.[19] MacBride and hisrunning mateDavid Bergland[20] received 172,553 (0.2%) popular votes but no electoral votes. His best performance was inAlaska, where he received 6,785 votes, or nearly 5.5%.[11][21]
MacBride rejoined the Republican Party in the 1980s and helped establish theRepublican Liberty Caucus, a group promotinglibertarian principles within the Republican Party.[6][22]He chaired this group from 1992 until his death in 1995.[23]
MacBride married Susan Ford. They then adopted a baby whom they named Abigail MacBride.[9]
MacBride died of heart failure at his home inMiami Beach, Florida, on March 5, 1995, at the age of 65.[3] He willed his estate, including the rights to theLittle House franchise, to his daughter.[24] In 1999, this was challenged by the public library system ofWright County, Missouri, containing the Laura Ingalls Wilder Library in Wilder's hometown ofMansfield; they contended that her will gave her daughter ownership of the literary estate for her lifetime only, and that all rights should have reverted to the library after Rose Wilder Lane's death in 1968.[25] The estate was estimated to be worth around $100 million at the time.[24] In 2001, a settlement was reached in which the Wright County library system was paid $875,000, but control of the estate remained with the MacBride family.[24]
In an obituary for MacBride, David Boaz wrote: "In some ways he was the last living link to the best of theOld Right, the rugged-individualist, anti-New Deal, anti-interventionist spirit of Rep.Howard Buffett,Albert Jay Nock,H. L. Mencken,Isabel Paterson, andLane."[17]
Transcribed from 'Roger MacBride and Rose Wilder Lane: A Libertarian Legacy'
| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Libertariannominee for President of the United States 1976 | Succeeded by |
