Fraser was born in Seattle to a Christian Science family.^[1] In 1979 she graduated from Mercer Island High School,^[2] and in 1987 she earned a PhD in English and American literature from Harvard University for a thesis entitled A Perfect Contempt: The Poetry of James Merrill.^[3]

Formerly on the editorial staff of the New Yorker, Fraser's work has also appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and New York Review of Books, among others.^[1] She is the author of God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church (1999), which describes the practices of the Christian Science church and her upbringing within it.^[4][5] Whitney Balliett, himself a former Christian Scientist, described the book as a "critical history that ... casts a clear, merciless light" on the religion.^[6]

Fraser's other books are Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution (2009), which presents a broad vision of global ecological conservation;^[7] and Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (2017), the Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.^[8] She is also the editor of the two volumes of the Library of America's Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books (2012).

• 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography for Prairie Fires^[9]
• 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Prairie Fires^[10]
• 2018 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Prairie Fires^[11]

Books edit

• Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Metropolitan Books, 2017.
• (ed.), Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books, Volumes 1 and 2, Library of America, 2012.
• Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution, Metropolitan Books, 2009.
• God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, Metropolitan Books, 1999.

Articles edit

• "Peter Rabbit and the Tale of a Fierce Bad Publisher", The Horn Book Magazine, May 7, 2013.
• "For Wolves on the Brink, A Hobbled Recovery Plan", Yale Environment 360, October 25, 2012.
• "Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Wolves", Los Angeles Review of Books, October 10, 2012.
• "The Crucial Role of Predators: A New Perspective on Ecology", Yale Environment 360, September 15, 2011.
• "As Tigers Near Extinction, A Last-Ditch Strategy Emerges", Yale Environment 360, November 15, 2010.
• "‘A Strange, Bloody, Broken Beauty’", The New York Review of Books, May 27, 2010.
• "'Rewilding' the World: A Bright Spot for Biodiversity", Yale Environment 360, February 11, 2010.
• "So Fresh and Bloody", London Review of Books, December 18, 2008.
• "Heart of Darkness", The New York Review of Books, June 24, 2004.
• "The Mormon Murder Case", The New York Review of Books, November 21, 2002.
• "Pretty in the Sunlight", The New York Review of Books, October 4, 2001.
• "Mary Baker Eddy: 'Mere Historic Incidents'", chapter one of God's Perfect Child, The New York Times, August 22, 1999.
• "Suffering Children and the Christian Science Church", The Atlantic, April 1995.
• "The Prairie Queen", The New York Review of Books, December 22, 1994.

• Personal website.
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• "Caroline Fraser", Yale Environment 360.
• "Caroline Fraser", The New Yorker.
• "Caroline Fraser", The New York Review of Books.
• "You Need A Farm! Laura Ingalls Wilder And American Farming" Fraser, Caroline (November 7, 2017). Accessed July 29, 2019.
• “Laura Ingalls Wilder & Rose Wilder Lane: The Beginning Of A Fruitful, Fateful Collaboration.” Fraser, Caroline (April 17, 2018). Accessed July 29, 2019.