[3][4][5] He called himself "the adopted grandson" of a family friend, writer and libertarian political theorist Rose Wilder Lane,[6] whom he met when he was 14 years of age.

[7][8] Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, noted author of the Little House series of books, designated MacBride as her "political disciple," executor, and sole heir.

[3] MacBride worked for White & Case, a law firm on Wall Street, for several years before opening a small practice in Vermont.

[9] He was author of record for three additional Little House books and launched the Rocky Ridge Years series of children's novels, describing Lane's Ozark childhood.

[11][16] Political pundit David Boaz later commented in Liberty magazine that MacBride was "faithless to Nixon and Agnew, anyway, but faithful to the constitutional principles Rose Wilder Lane had instilled in him.

"[17] After casting his electoral vote in 1972,[11] MacBride gained favor within the fledgling Libertarian Party, which had been founded the previous year.

[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 the Old Right, the rugged-individualist, anti-New Deal, anti-interventionist spirit of Rep. Howard Buffett, Albert Jay Nock, H. L. Mencken, Isabel Paterson, and Lane.