THE BIRD WOMAN TAKES HER STAND : GENE STRATTON PORTER’S CONSERVANCY AS SEEN IN A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST AND THE HARVESTER By Elisabeth D. Knight A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate Studies Division Ohio Dominican University Columbus, Ohio MASTERS OF ARTS IN ENGLISH SEPTEMBER, 2019 ii CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL THE BIRD WOMAN TAKES HER STAND: GENE STRATTON PORTER’S CONSERVANCY AS SEEN IN A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST AND THE HARVESTER By Elisabeth D. Knight Thesis Approved: _________________________________ _______________________ Dr. Kelsey Squire, Ph.D. Date Thesis Director Associate Professor of English _________________________________ ________________________ Mr. Jeremy Glazier, M.F.A. Date Reader Associate Professor of English _________________________________ _______________________ Dr. Martin Brick, Ph.D. Date Program Director Associate Professor of English iii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………..iv INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………..1 CHAPTER 1: BIOGRAPHY OF GENE STRATTON PORTER……………………………….5 CHAPTER 2: THE IMPORTANCE OF LIMBERLOST………………………………………22 CHAPTER 3: WILDFLOWER WOODS……………………………………………………….32 CONCLUSION: ………………………………………………………………………………...44 WORKS CITED:………………………………………………………………………………...48 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all I would like to thank Dr. Kelsey Squire and Prof. Jeremy Glazier for their timeliness in reviewing and guiding this work. Your direction and counsel was greatly needed and appreciated. Gratitude also goes to friends who encouraged me. Thanks to Ruth Ann Lewis for traveling with me to explore Wildflower Woods in Rome City, Indiana. Judy Kalich and Nancy Sprunger, your probing questions on the direction of my thesis and Nancy’s discussion on Stratton Porter’s other homes was reminiscent of your support during our undergraduate years. Family, you continue to be there, even at the close of the project. In memory of Mom and Dad, thank you for a godly heritage, a strong family unit, and always believing in me (and yes, that first Stratton Porter book). Thank you, sisters Carolyn & Rose, for listening. Thank you children for being my cheerleaders: to Madison and Emily for letting me bounce ideas off of you; and to Rachel, Ben, Maria, Nathanael, and Brieana for your affirmation. There’s even a spot for you, Daisy cat. No thanks for your distractions, but every thanks for your constancy during many long hours of the writing process. Finally, thanks to God for helping me to continue when the road looked obstructed. 1 INTRODUCTION Interest Ignited Gene Stratton Porter’s novel Freckles (1904) had been on our family’s bookshelf when I was a child, and her novel A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) was on the school’s reading list for a possible book report, but I never ventured to read either of them until I was a young adult. Later when invited to a friend’s cottage on Sylvan Lake, Indiana, the author of these books came back to mind. Out on a pontoon, my friend, Bonnie, said that Gene Stratton Porter’s place was a few miles across the lake. That triggered a memory of the author’s book Freckles with a ruddy youth in a woodsy green background pictured on the dust jacket. Ironically, I also knew I had a pamphlet from the Gene Stratton-Porter Historic Site in Rome City, Indiana. I had never investigated it, but now was strongly considering the idea. Curious about this once popular Indiana author who had faded in public recognition, I reread her books A Girl of the Limberlost and The Harvester. This time I was more observant, noticing her novels had a different style than other historical fiction or romance novels. There were elements of romance, realism, and inspiration. Often the plot line was unpredictable. In these stories I could visualize many of the nature scenes from my rural experience and I found the details of the flora and fauna were fascinating. My interest in Gene Stratton Porter grew when I realized a drive of less than sixty miles was all that separated me from her Rome City home and the setting of some of her books. To obtain a better understanding about Stratton Porter and the source of her knowledgeable setting descriptions, I finally visited her cabin in the Wildflower Woods of Rome City, Indiana. I found that the Gene Stratton-Porter Society, which cares for the property, was equally devoted to 2 her work as an author and that of naturalist. One room in the visitor center displayed all of her books and another was dedicated to nature studies. Terrance, the historical guide for her home, supplied many interesting facts about Gene, her family, and research and writing habits that helped provide the connection between her environment and scenes from her novels. From the conservatory with a grid plotting the placement of all of her plants, and bushes to the fireplace made with pudding stone - a glacier conglomerate stone composed of sand, red and blue jasper, and white quartzite pebbles - Stratton Porter’s design and creativity could be seen throughout the cedar log house. Like Wildflower Woods, each of Gene Stratton Porter’s residences plays an important role in the settings of her novels and nature books. The Limberlost State Historic Site in Geneva, Indiana is an excellent place to see her moth collection, native wildlife, and wetlands used in novels such as Freckles (1904) and A Girl of the Limberlost (1909). What I Have Done With Birds (1907) and Moths of the Limberlost (1912) are examples of nature books from this site. Stratton Porter’s castle-like Bel-Air home is privately owned and journalist Sam Watters of the Los Angeles Times describes her garden as once being a “bird and wildlife sanctuary” (1). A visit there or to the Catalina home impart a visual backdrop for Her Father’s Daughter (1921), The Keeper of the Bees (1925) and other novels she authored there. While in Los Angeles, Stratton Porter saw her novels made into motion pictures, and in 1924 became a film producer with her own company (Long 243). Although few scholarly works are dedicated to Gene Stratton Porter, there are four books that are essential to understanding her life and work. The following is a description of them. Gene Stratton-Porter A Little Story of Her Life and Work and Ideal of “The Bird Woman” edited by Eugene Francis Saxton, is a booklet compiling material from Chambers Journal of London and 3 Ladies’ Home Journal in the United States. It was printed in 1926 by Doubleday, Page & Company (Richards 17). One year later Stratton Porter’s daughter, Jeannette Porter Meehan published Lady of the Limberlost: The Life and Letters of Gene Stratton Porter (1927).The biography portion is fairly brief with letters and her daughter’s memories filling the remainder of the book. A gap of close to fifty years occurred before the next life history of Stratton Porter was written: Gene Stratton Porter by Bertrand F. Richards, published in 1980. In his initial chapter Richards explains that it was challenging to find authentic biographical material, other than Meehan’s work. Stratton Porter guarded her privacy and limited scholarly research had been done (17-18). Although Richards found Meehan’s book was the most helpful, there were contradictions in it between dated records and memories of Jeannette or of her mother. For instance, Meehan said that her mother stated Charles Porter was twenty years younger than Gene, and in another place the age difference was recorded as only thirteen years. However, Stratton Porter’s magazine articles clarified some of the discrepancies (18). Richards’ biography includes a helpful chronology, and describes her life and subsequent career. He also analyzes her many areas of writing: magazine articles, nature studies, fiction, poems, and children’s books. The most recent biography to date is Gene Stratton-Porter Novelist and Naturalist by Judith Reick Long, published in 1990. She presents a more modern perspective by challenging the accuracy of portions of Stratton Porter’s autobiographies and referencing the find of another Stratton Porter book The Strike at Shane’s written anonymously and published in1893. In addition to sources used by other biographers, Long’s volume includes information from: newspaper articles, national archives, state archives of Indiana, California, Ohio and New Jersey, genealogical archives and hospital archives. 4 Background of Study Gene Stratton Porter (1863-1924) was a naturalist, nature photographer, best-selling author and silent movie producer, originally from Wabash County, Indiana. She was especially passionate about the ecosystem of Midwest forested wetlands and began her career by submitting nature photographs and articles to outdoor magazines, actuating her fame as “Bird Woman”. Throughout her life, she continued to write numerous magazine articles as well as twelve novels, eight nature books, three books of poetry and children’s books. Many of her novels were translated into more than twenty different languages, including Braille. Her core beliefs permeated her writing with the message that a good life comes from living clean and doing what is right, including the proper knowledge and care for nature which benefits all humanity. Stratton Porter’s nature books brought a fresh and anecdotal approach to the science of ornithology and lepidopterology. Her novels were an inspiration to many during the changes that came to the United States from industrialization, increased immigration, growing urbanization, and World War I. Critiques of both her nature books and her novels at the time gave mixed reviews, possibly due to accepted scientific practices and literary tastes. Today, ecocriticism paves the way for new literary study of her naturalist work and its inclusion in her novels. Her core moral values may not entice analysis, but her work and writing as a conservationist may bring this author back to the spotlight. It is the aim of this thesis to review the life and work of Gene Stratton Porter, evaluate the literary and popular acceptance of her work, and to argue the singularity of her contribution to conservation in her novels as demonstrated in A Girl of the Limberlost and The Harvester.