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

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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

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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

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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.

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CHAPTER ONE

BIOGRAPHY OF STRATTON PORTER’S LIFE

Come with me, and you shall know

The garden where God’s flowers grow.

Come with me, and you shall hear

His waters whisper songs of cheer.

And if you lift your eyes on high

To see the larks fly in the sky,

Let them rove on to the Heavens above

And meet the miracle of God’s love. 1

(qtd. in Meehan 288)

Personal Life

Those who have read books by Gene Stratton Porter often think she grew up in a forested swamp like that of Limberlost. In reality, her birthplace was the 240 acre Hopewell Farm in

Wabash County, Indiana, and she only lived near swamp land after she was married. On August

17, 1863, during the time of the Civil War, Geneva Grace Porter was born to 50 year old Mark

Stratton and 46 year old Mary (Schallenberger) Stratton. Mark, of English ancestry and Mary, of

Dutch decent, were homesteaders who originally came from Wayne County, Ohio. Geneva was the youngest and twelfth child of the northern Indiana couple. Two sisters closest in age to

1 Stratton Porter wrote this poem on her daughter’s copy of Music of the Wild and Meehan includes it on the final page of her mother’s biography. 6

Geneva died of either whooping cough or scarlet fever2 and their mother was greatly weakened by that illness after tending to them, according to biographer Bertrand F. Richards (20). Mary, having a lifetime of excellent health, was now not physically able to train Geneva in the usual domestic tasks, but she still had chores and often collected herbs and roots for her mother. Most of the time she was able to roam around the farm, following her father and brothers, falling asleep in the fields, and making friends with the birds, as long as she appeared at the appointed meal times (Meehan 18). Mary was known for her skill with plants and taught Geneva how to start, root, plant, and cultivate a variety of trees, plants and bushes (Meehan 12-13). Mark, a farmer and Methodist minister, loved to read to the children and taught her how to proceed quietly and slowly up to a birds nest. Geneva had such an extreme sensitivity of nature that with a doctor’s advice, her father gave her the special assignment of caring for all of the birds that lived on their land. Judith Reick Long, records Porter’s memory, “Even while he [my father] was talking to me I was making a flashing mental inventory of my property, for now I owned the hummingbirds, dressed in green satin…the plucky little brown wren… green warbler…” (qtd. in

Long 49).

Her father may have encouraged her naturalist bent, but Gene’s story telling side was also quite evident at a young age. Her father read to her often and she recalls tugging on her mother to stop what she was doing so she could write down Gene’s stories or poems (Long 51). Stratton

Porter could read and write very well before she started school and her sister, Ada, remembers the great gusto with which she recited and acted out a poem or a story between four to eight years of age (Meehan 26-27).

2 Judith Reick Long labels Mary’s illness as typhoid fever (45). 7

When Geneva was eight years old she lost her older brother, Leander, who had spent time with her and was exceptionally kind, when he drowned in 1872.3 She had a significant keepsake dollar bill from “Laddie” dated 1863 (her birth year) on which he had written, “The way to be happy is to be good, Leander Elliott Stratton to Geneva Grace Stratton” (qtd. in Meehan 25).

Other siblings, Irvin, Lemon,4 and Ada all contributed to Geneva’s initial learning of the alphabet and reading skills. The freedom of the outdoors made it difficult for Geneva to dress and act reserved in church or Sunday school, and she began elementary school with a rebellious spirit. One incident that did not bode well for Geneva is relayed by her biographer daughter,

Jeannette Porter Meehan. It occurred when her teacher used a phrase about birds for a class lesson: “The sentence read: “Little birds in their nests agree’” (29). By this time, Geneva had a vast experience with birds and excitedly told the teacher this wasn’t true: “They fight like everything! They pull feathers and peck at each other’s eyes until they are all bloody!” (qtd. in

Meehan 29).

The family sold the farm, because Leander, now deceased, had been the only son interested in its upkeep, and Mark was no longer able to care for it by himself. They moved to the city of

Wabash, Indiana to be closer to doctors and schools, but Geneva’s mother died within four months. During her school days in Wabash, Meehan reveals that her mother was known as

Geneve (31). As part of the curriculum for her sophomore class, each student was assigned a topic for an essay. Geneve was assigned mathematical law, for which she had no inclination. She procrastinated on the assignment, and chose a subject to her own liking. Stratton Porter told the audience:

3 Leander was coaxed to swim across the river by friends when returning from town with sister. Stratton Porter remembered it as “Laddie” trying to save Wallace Cornutt’s life, but a news article affirmed the opposite was true (Richards 81, Meehan 22-4). 4 Lemon teased Stratton Porter and “hanged” her in play, but she raised his daughter, Leah Mary Stratton, as her own after his death in 1913 (Meehan 21, 146-47). 8

I waited until yesterday because I knew absolutely nothing about my subject – the

audience laughed – and I could find nothing either here or in the library at home, so last

night I reviewed Saintine’s masterpiece, “Picciola.”5 (qtd. in Saxton14)

Fortunately, her essay was so masterful that the faculty, principal, superintendent, and entire assembly of students were impressed (Saxton 14-15). This encouraged her to practice writing poems and stories on her own.

Long interprets a scenario differently than relayed by Meehan. Documentation shows that

Gene Statton Porter’s sister, Anastasia, died in a clinic that was one hundred sixty miles from

Wabash. According to Meehan, Geneve missed the last three months of high school, and never returned to complete her education. Stratton Porter claimed her absence was due to caring for her ill sister who died that spring (Meehan 38). Long presumes Geneve’s absence from school was her response to failing grades and being “forced by her father to give up her pet birds and put their cages in storage” (93). Though she may have also been grieving her sister’s death, she used this opportunity to control her circumstances. Essentially, Stratton Porter compared herself to

Thoreau and believed that she could learn better than those receiving a diploma by studying the subjects of her greatest interest and use (Meehan 38-39).

Mark Stratton opened doors of learning for Geneve in other ways. When she expressed an interest in painting, he had an easel made for her and then provided the funds for painting lessons. Music also drew her attention, and her father, seeing some ability, started her in music lessons (Meehan 43-44). Meehan records that her mother continued violin lessons after her

55 Picciola (1836) written by French dramatist Xavier Boniface Saintine, is a story about a political prisoner who maintains his sanity because of a flower growing in his prison yard. 9 marriage (88). Later, this new instruction contributed to bird illustrations and her keen sense of hearing linked to the music of nature.

Chautauquas were a popular form of learning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. These were outdoor gatherings that provided special speakers on a number of subjects

(originally interdenominational church instruction) as well as entertainment. Stratton Porter especially enjoyed one that took place in Rome City, Indiana, because she also had time to fish and explore Sylvan Lake with her friend, Cora (Long 95). Long notes that another element

Stratton Porter appreciated about the chautauqua was “its emphasis on clean living and culture for the uneducated” (90). It was on one of these occasions, in 1884, that Charles Dorwin Porter saw Geneve, and upon obtaining her address indirectly, eventually began a correspondence with her. The correspondence turned into a courtship, and daughter Meehan reported that Charles was the cause for the third and final name change from Geneve to Gene: “She liked this name very much, and it was in deference to her wishes that the family all accepted and used the name,

Gene…” (59). It should be noted that Floraves was a name Gene enjoyed experimenting with later in life. While dreaming about new plans for her property in California she said, “My name is Floraves, because Flora means flowers and Aves means birds” (qtd. in Long 245).

Gene married Charles in 1886 and they lived in Decatur, Indiana, which he felt was more pleasant than Geneva, Indiana and closer to his branch drugstore in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Two years later their first and only child, Jeannette, was born. Charles Porter was constantly commuting to his pharmacy in Geneva, so they later moved there when the conditions were more suitable. Finally, Stratton Porter was close to the Limberlost swamp that became part of her legacy. Limberlost got its name, Richards recounts, when Jim Corbus, who was nicknamed 10

“Limber” because of being tall and lean, disappeared in the swamp (29). Stratton Porter drew upon this and other experiences of life for settings and characters in her novels.

Charles Dorwin Porter is absent from much of Stratton Porter’s biography and it is difficult to define their relationship. Charles is busy with his pharmacy and bank throughout much of their marriage, but he also accepts Gene’s pursuit of nature. His concern channels Gene’s explorations to the river bank instead of the swamp for some time.6 When a neighbor informs Gene about a baby vulture lumbermen have seen, Charles goes with her into the depths of the swamp, crawling into a hollowed log to obtain the baby for her photograph. Long describes the scene and notes that he also goes with her as she photographs the young vulture’s development for the next three months (155-58). When Stratton Porter moves to California she is more concerned about her contact with siblings, daughter and grandchildren than Charles. In the end, Long states, “The sole legatee of this estate, which approximated half a million dollars, was her daughter Jeannette.

Charles Porter was not mentioned in his wife’s Last Will and Testament” (253).7 Also, in 1999,

Gene Stratton-Porter’s and her daughter Jeannette’s gravesites were the only ones of the family relocated to Wildflower Woods.

Scholarly Review

Gene Stratton Porter’s fiction was very popular during the early 1900’s, but never gained the full respect of the academic community. In an article from America magazine, July 21, 1934,

Francis Talbot discussed this phenomenon in what he calls, “Some Old Best Sellers.” In the first decade of the twentieth century, Stratton Porter’s and other authors’ writings of the romance

6 Charles was concerned for Gene’s safety when he found she had been in the swamp, so he arranged permission for her to roam the riverbank on the farm of a “business acquaintance” (Long 141). 7 Stratton Porter died on December 6, 1924 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Her chauffeur ran her Lincoln into a “speeding streetcar” (Long 250). 11 genre experienced outstanding sales. Stratton Porter’s Freckles, published 1904, sold 2,000,000 copies; A Girl of The Limberlost in 1909, 1,700,000; and The Harvester, for1911, 1,600,000.

Also Sheldon’s In His Steps, sold 8,000,000 books since its publishing in 1899; more than a million copies of two books by John Fox, one being, Trail of the Lonesome Pine; and Rebecca of

Sunnybrook Farm, by Kate Douglas Wiggin, sold 989,000 copies since being published in 1903.

Many popular authors of the twentieth century such as Zane Grey, Harold Bell Wright,8 and

Edgar Rice Burroughs also were not studied by academics (Talbot 352-53).

Talbot maintained that public sentiment drove popularity in each of these decades. Zane Grey and his constituents wrote the “strong-man adventure,” while Stratton Porter and her contemporaries exemplified the Victorian romantic tragedy (Talbot 353). Though Talbot appreciated the inspiration and idealism of these popular best sellers, he believed that’s all they were, just entertainment (353). In further support of common literary assumptions Talbot said,

“In many of them, the style is fumbling and awkward, the construction is amateurish and lacking in art and subtlety, the theme is flimsy, and has no vital significance, and scarcely a trace of complexity” (353).

Stratton Porter would have argued with Talbot’s conception that good literature must have more “malign tragedies of life, that [are] more adult and sophisticated” (Talbot 354). One of the greatest issues she had with critics was their belief that her stories were too morally idealistic.

Stratton Porter’s stated: “To save me, I cannot see why a book that tells of womanly women and clean men, if it be true to types that live, or have lived, is not as great a book” (qtd. in Meehan

248). Stratton Porter defended her stories because she felt she was being criticized for not having enough adult complexity and characters with evil motives. Bertrand Richards thought she should

8 Stratton Porter stated that she liked being in company with Harold Bell Wright and appreciated his integrity in life and in writing (Meehan 250). 12 not base the appeal of her books on their morality, but on the fact that they were interesting.

Even more complimentary, Richards said that a modern reader could pick up one of her books and would, “likely be gripped and carried along by the genuine interest of her story” (134).

Many critics appreciated Stratton Porter more when they grasped the depths of research in her comparative nature books. The difficulty often arose in the fact that critics often were by circumstance city dwellers and not involved in natural history. These urbanites did not understand the experiences and settings that comprised a substantial portion of Stratton Porter’s narratives. Bertrand Richards relayed a particularly harsh critique by Frederick Tabor Cooper.

He called her a ‘“nature-faker”, and said, “At times her imagery is unconsciously grotesque, as when she tells us that the female bird ‘blushed with embarrassment to a colour even brighter than her natural red’” (qtd. in Richards 132). Stratton Porter did not believe she was portrayed accurately in Cooper’s critique for two reasons. The quote he gave as an example was not in The

Song of the Cardinal, which he was reviewing. Also, Stratton Porter, who was very knowledgeable about cardinals, would not have referred to a female being red when they are in fact gray (132).

Shortly after Freckles was published, Stratton Porter received a positive reception that cheered her from an academic. Oren Root, professor of mathematics and natural sciences at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York said, “I have a severe cold this morning, because I got my feet very wet last night, walking the trail with Freckles, but I am willing to risk pneumonia any time for another book like that” (qtd. in Long 178). 13

Stratton Porter is one of the authors mentioned in an article by Sarah Wadsworth,9

“Canonicity and the American Public Library: The Case of American Women Writers”. She explores the discrepancies between authors who are honored in the literary system and those who gain wide public approval, as seen through library records. One way to be excluded from the cannon, Wadsworth notes, is to not fit into the role expected by the ruling class of the late nineteenth century. In her article, Wadsworth compares the value of several books in five small- town Midwest libraries from1890 – 1970, in relation to their academic acceptance. Women writers, including Stratton Porter, fair well with publishers and public libraries, but do not meet with the same approval as male authors with textbook publishers and scholarly editors.

Wadsworth’s concern with a cultural control of the canon addresses the exclusion by the ruling class due to race, gender and other nationality. Of those areas, gender bias is the most obvious to

Stratton Porter. In a letter to friend, Mrs. J. W. McCamish, concerning The Fire Bird, a book of poetry, she wrote, “These critics are mostly men and they persist in handing the literary honours to men…” (qtd. in Meehan 195).

As a Midwestern author, Gene Stratton Porter may also have been affected by regionalism.

Sarah Wadsworth found that academic anthologies include New England and Deep South writers disproportionately compared to that of Midwest and Western writers (717). Curiously, Gene

Stratton Porter had a greater statistical presence in the “Main Street libraries,” or American public libraries, than books listed academically. It is possible some of the rating is due to Stratton

Porter’s books being in the young adult category, but Alcott’s books are similar and qualify as classics (Wadsworth, 714-18). Locally, Indiana University Press is republishing some of her

9 Sarah Wadsworth Ph.D. is Department Chair and professor of English at Marquette University. 14 books under the auspices of Indiana classics, but this does not assume any broader academic approval (720).

Writing about her region could have affected Stratton Porter’s critical acclaim because her scope of experience was limited. Richards contemplates that her imagination was fenced within the boundaries of the people and location of swamp, farm, and woods of Northeast Indiana (138).

At the same time he notes, “Perhaps this [her] keen observation…of a small segment of America could justify Gene Stratton Porter a place in history of American letters as a local colorist” (138).

A regional setting may have resulted in some negative evaluations of her work, but the people and places of the area are part of what makes her stories distinctive. Extensive knowledge of other environments was not necessary. Ultimately, it was the uniqueness of her setting and characters, and the inclusion of nature that advanced her popularity.

The Naturalist’s Publishing Career

Stratton Porter began her naturalist lifestyle at a young age with feeding birds, tending her own little garden, and practically living out doors much of her childhood. This continued as she cared for a menagerie of pet birds, mended injured animals, and grew moths indoors. Once her family moved to Wabash, Indiana she eventually had to give up the pet birds, and was greatly distraught. When she married Charles, she began to acquire living creatures again and even designed a special place for birds to fly into the house at the newly built Limberlost cabin.

Proof of the importance of nature for Stratton Porter comes from her daughter, Jeanette Porter

Meehan, in the book, Lady of the Limberlost: The Life and Letters of Gene Stratton Porter:

Almost any place in our house you might find a glass turned down over a little patch of

moth eggs on a rug to protect them . . . a wounded bird, which was being doctored, 15

perched almost anywhere . . . several different size boxes containing baby caterpillars just

hatched, feeding on the particular kind of leaves that they ate . . . cocoons pinned almost

anywhere, and newly emerged moths and butterflies flying through the house and feeding

on the flowers in the conservatory. (119-20)

Gene Stratton Porter enjoyed illustrating birds and moths, but it was the special gift of a camera from daughter Jeannette on the Christmas of 1895 that became a catalyst for the author’s eventual magazine publications. It prodded her into greater wildlife observation. Later in an interview she encouraged readers to follow her example, saying: “How many people know anything about moths? There are trees you never before have seen, flowers and vines the botanists fail to mention and such music as your ears cannot hear elsewhere” (Richards 49).

It was her naturalist heart that led her to writing. She became angry when she realized that birds were needlessly being killed in great numbers to provide millinery shops with the latest fashion. She protested this activity in an article that appeared in February 1900 Recreation magazine. In the same year thirteen of her photographs and an article on her field work were published in the American Annual of Photography. She continued to provide a column called

“Camera Notes” (1900-01) in Recreation, till some disagreement led her to Outing magazine

(1901), “where she continued to write about wild birdlife” (Long 149).

The intensity of her interest in wildlife, especially birds, was demonstrated by the five years she devoted to studying them on the Wabash River bank and in Limberlost swamp. During her research, Stratton Porter remembered a time when she had climbed a telegraph pole and had worked from a pair of joined ladders. The contrivance was used to study Baltimore orioles while feeding their young. Afterwards she found her sister in the house on her knees in prayer to God 16 for Gene’s life (Meehan 171). At other times Gene used a variety of lures such as wiring beefsteak to limbs and bushes to attract birds to her camera site (Long144).

Stratton Porter tried her hand at fiction in 1901 with “Laddie, the Princess and the Pie,” and

“How Laddie and the Princess Spelled Down at the Christmas Bee,” published in Metropolitan

Magazine. Biographer Richards notes, “In 1903, The Song of the Cardinal appeared, and the career that grew out of a life was underway” (33-34). This book about the life of a red bird living on the banks of the Wabash River was recorded as her first full length novel.

What I have Done with Birds (1907) published by Bobbs-Merrill was considered her first nature book, coming from a series of bird essays originally published in the Ladies’ Home

Journal. In his article, “On Gene Stratton Porter's Conservation Aesthetic,” Kevin C. Armitage10 explains how Stratton Porter’s bird photos drew people into the avian world. This was done through the emotion that was caught on paper. The author used anthropomorphisms in her captions to draw the reader’s sympathy. A caption of an intense bird stare was labeled

“entreaty,” or a bird with a protective expression was assigned “courage” (140-41). In juxtaposition to natural historians’ habitual presentation of avian instinct, Stratton Porter believed birds should additionally be credited with mental processes in their choices. She had proof in the photos of her scientific observations (Armitage 140).

According to Meehan, Stratton Porter made an agreement with her publishers that she would alternate between a nature book and a novel in her writing (119). Inauguration of this agreement began with Doubleday, Page & Company’s acceptance of the novel Freckles (1904) for publishing. They tried to convince Stratton Porter that it would sell best if she eliminated the

10 Kevin C. Armitage was professor of history, specializing in environmental history at the University of Miami- Ohio until 2018. 17

“nature stuff” (Richards 75). Stratton Porter retained the natural elements in Freckles and it sold well. Her greatest desire was to write nature books, but by themselves little profit was accumulated over publishing expenses. She concluded that fiction with natural elements could help transform the reader to love and care for his environment through her characters’ understanding of nature. Conclusively, Doubleday, Page & Company became her main publisher

(Meehan 119).

There are two components of Stratton Porter’s career: the story teller and nature studies advocate. The more I read Stratton Porter’s novels, the more aware I become that her naturalistic view of the world is engrained in everything she writes. It is a part of her life story. Richards wisely notes, “It is not often that the life and works of an author are so intermingled that it is impossible to consider one as separated from the other” (17). Stratton Porter followed a pattern in her life and work in which she was always studying and writing about some form of wildlife.

This pattern was deeply connected to her places of residence. At each of her houses as a newlywed, she had a collection of birds, but that didn’t suffice her restless spirit. Then the pattern began. Property was bought with several acres of land. Charles had the first Limberlost home built according to Gene’s plans of an elaborate fourteen room cabin. A variety of bushes, plants and fruit trees grew around the Geneva cabin to attract birds. Stratton Porter did extensive avian research of the nearby swamp, riverbanks and fields. She used this material for articles and books. She had almost completed her field work, and was looking for other land. Then in 1913, the Limberlost swamp was being destroyed with “lumbering, oil development and drainage” for farmland (Richards 34).

It was time for a new base for research which Stratton Porter bought with her own money.

Eventually, she acquired 150 acres of land, and again designed and directed the building of a 18 magnificent cabin. The twenty-two room building was personalized to fit the rescue and study of animal and plant life, as well as a darkroom.11 She also developed the surrounding vegetation, and hired a tree surgeon to restore valuable old trees. Replicating the past, Stratton Porter studied the surrounding area of what she named “Wildflower Woods.” She also completed three novels, one nature book, a children’s book, and innumerable magazine articles” while living there (34).

Unfortunately, the land around this second cabin near Rome City, Indiana also became part of a drainage project. Porter frantically worked to move native flora to her own land. This occurrence, plus a medical condition and the unwanted attention of neighbors and fans caused

Stratton Porter to live at Wildflower Woods for only three to four years.

The next home was a long way from Indiana. Land was purchased at two locations in the Los

Angeles area. Catalina Island was the first area in which she was able to live and conduct research. Stratton Porter said, “My doctor’s orders were to keep quiet and to rest this winter. But the rest was not much success, as there are such a world of unusual and interesting things to see”

(qtd. in Meehan 182). Of course the landscape, plant life, and animal life were totally new to this native Indianan who rarely traveled. Since there were highways being built on the island, she made it her mission again to rescue life that would be destroyed and brought it back to her new home. Always appreciating nature, Stratton Porter’s daughter once found her in a canyon dictating one of her novels to the secretary, because of its inspirational atmosphere. In each location she lived she acquainted herself with the working class people, though she was more involved in society in California. Even here the model continued - a new home, setting, and people of the area became a part of her narratives.

11 A representative from a photography paper company visited Stratton Porter to learn her secrets of high quality photo developing. At the first Limberlost she was using the family bathroom as a darkroom, so she was very vague in her methods and told him “the difference in results might lie in the chemical properties of the water” (Meehan 106). 19

This was her pattern at each residence: she explored flora and fauna of the area, rescued endangered plant and animal life, and formed relationships with area workmen and women, truly getting to know them. She conducted nature studies through observation and photographs or painted her subjects. She compiled the information in a nature studies book as well as fictional narratives which included characters that were knowledgeable about the same birds, moths, plants, or bees and were caretakers of them. It is fascinating that many of her books were connected to one of these locations as seen with A Girl of the Limberlost, The Harvester, and The

Keeper of the Bees. A Girl of the Limberlost uses the landscape of the Wabash River and

Limberlost swamp, with characters who understand moths and birds. David Langstrom in The

Harvester has a vast knowledge of herbs, roots and bark and is situated in the woodlands similar to Wildflower Woods. The flora and fauna of Catalina Island, California is the backdrop of The

Keeper of the Bees, and the WWI vet learns his trade from a skilled keeper. In this manner,

Stratton Porter was able to involve the reader emotionally in conservation of life.

For further revelation about Stratton Porter, it is important to know about the Nature Study

Movement which began in the 1890’s and peaked during the early twentieth century. At the time of Gene Stratton Porter’s writing, the country had gone through the process of changing from an agrarian society to more of an industrial and metropolitan one (Richards “Preface”). Naturalist

Kevin Armitage, in his book The Nature Study Movement, explains that Nature Studies was very important during the second industrial revolution. Nature Studies was defined as sympathy with nature, and school systems like those under John Dewey made nature study a part of the curriculum. Popular naturalist writer, John Burroughs (1837-1921), argued that the new industrialism and subsequent scientific methods separated people from the experience of nature, and led to a lack of sympathy along with poor treatment of birds and plants (Armitage 37-38). 20

There is an interesting connection of authors: Thoreau was an advocate of nature conservancy and one of the authors that influenced Stratton Porter. In turn, Stratton Porter was one of many authors read by conservationist author, Rachel Carson (1907-1964) who wrote the book Silent

Spring, decrying the use of chemicals such as DDT on agricultural land and nature preserves

(Armitage 210-11). Biographer Long also credits Stratton Porter (defender of wetlands) for being a major force, along with Theodore Roosevelt (establisher of many national parks and forests)12 for wildlife advocacy through their “books and public works” (1).

Richards realizes that Gene Stratton Porter, a visionary in many ways, initiated the thought that widespread destruction of trees and swamps would lead to “permanent, irreversible changes in rainfall patterns” (111). A disciple of Thoreau, she remembered his words: “Thank Heaven, they cannot cut down the clouds!” (qtd. in Richards 111). She stated that unfortunately men “cut down the clouds” when they “cut forests that preserve and distil moisture, clear fields, take the shelter of trees from creeks and rivers until they evaporate…” (qtd. in Richards 111).

According to biographer Bertrand F. Richards, Stratton Porter made great efforts to controvert the origination of drainage ditches in swamps lands of the second Limberlost cabin at Rome

City. When that failed, she personally preserved as much native flora as possible, with readers from around the world sending plants for her conservancy project (35). Robert Michael Pyle,13 in his article, “Who Lost the Limberlost? Education and Language in a Mis-Placed Age,” discusses the results of involvement in the Nature Study Movement that produced literature from 1890 to

1940. Anna Botsford Comstalk, a contemporary of Stratton Porter, assumed the Nature Study program at Cornell, organizing Junior Naturalist Clubs all over New York and published a

12 Stratton Porter and Jeannette Porter Meehan visited with Theodore Roosevelt for an afternoon on Long Island [undated] (Richards 91). 13 Robert Michael Pyle, Ph.D. in ecology and environmental studies from Yale University is winner of the 1986 John Burroughs Medal for distinguished nature writing. 21 handbook of Nature Study. Audubon Nature Clubs formed as Gene Stratton Porter and Theodore

Roosevelt had great influence with her novels dating from 1903 to1927, and his philosophy and writings from1885 to 1921. More contemporary writings from nature writers Joseph Wood

Krutch and Edwin Way Teale also made an impact. As Pyle explains, this entire culture of nature study had one goal: “essential nature literacy” (26). Stratton Porter could not save her Limberlost swamps; as Pyle says, Limberlost was lost because local farmers drained land they believed was wild and useless to make productive farmland, and we in turn have all lost for what we have misplaced in America (32). The next possibility for Stratton Porter was to fight for parallel landscapes through the creation of fiction sympathetic to conservation.

22

CHAPTER TWO THE IMPORTANCE OF LIMBERLOST

The Limberlost swamp, woods and area fields were an inspiration for Stratton Porter’s initial nature studies and writings. She was determined to save the forested wetlands and wildlife where she lived. Limberlost as a setting to her books provided an ideal platform for promoting nature and a lush habitat for Terence in Freckles and Elnora in A Girl of the Limberlost. Both of them grew through personal struggles and their narratives infused readers with hope for the future.

Stratton Porter, in “The Music of the Marsh,”14 made predictions in reference to swampland that were before her time. When speaking of the damage to the ecosystem of her region she said:

If men in their greed cut forests that preserve and distil moisture, clear fields, take the

shelter of trees from creeks and rivers until they evaporate, and drain the water from

swamps so that they can be cleared and cultivated, - they prevent vapor from rising; and if

it does not rise it cannot fall. Pity of pities it is; but man can change and is changing the

forces of nature. (qtd. in Richards 111)

In A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) the author embeds, with scientific accuracy, her passion to conserve moths and marshes in the unlikely conveyance of a romance. While the novel provides insight into the author’s life, it paints a picture of a forested wetlands habitat of the Midwest.

14 “Music of the Marsh,” from Music of the Wild which is divided into three sections: forest, fields, and marsh or swamp. Stratton Porter recognizes the sounds of nature from each biome and she displays her” talents as a photographer of subjects other than birds” (Richards 106). 23

Infusing romantic sentiment in this story with a lot of nature is pivotal in creating an emotional attachment between the reader and the environment which Stratton Porter wishes to preserve.

A Girl of the Limberlost is the story of a girl raised in poverty with the wealth of the forest and swamp around her. Along with poverty, protagonist Elnora must battle the actions of an emotionally unstable mother and shaming from classmates for her country appearance and mannerisms. Elnora excels in academics despite her struggles with obtaining books and making friends. She learns to play her father’s violin which had been hidden from her and uses it to replicate sounds from her beloved woods at a school concert.

When her mother Mrs. Comstock refuses to pay school expenses or share in her dream of college, Elnora discovers a means to earn money for herself through selling collections of Indian artifacts and moths in various stages of life. One of the buyers is known as the “Bird Woman” who befriends Elnora and ultimately supplies her with a much needed dress for graduation.

The book also introduces a wealthy young Chicago man named Phillip who comes to the country to recuperate from an illness and gain strength. He shares in Elnora’s interest and helps her obtain cocoons and moths for her collection. Phillip lets Elnora know of his engagement, and continues to visit with her and Mrs. Comstock. Over time and circumstance, he comes to realize

Elnora’s great worth over his betrothed Edith. In this novel, Stratton Porter portrays a resilient, inspirational character in the person of Elnora, while teaching the reader compassion for nature through Elnora’s extensive learning and knowledge of birds, moths and plants.

Parts of the narrative appear to be autobiographical. Several characters provide a parallel with

Stratton Porter’s life. Meehan recalls a time when her mother made her first public speech at a

Chautauqua in Coldwater, Michigan. The year is not mentioned, but it was a time when she had 24 gained in popularity from her articles in nature magazines. She is referred to as the “Bird

Woman” (Meehan 110). In A Girl of the Limberlost, the Bird Woman is an expert ornithologist and wise friend in whom Elnora can confide. Perhaps Stratton Porter makes an appearance in the novel through the Bird Woman.

Stratton Porter’s identity may also play a role in the way in which Elnora conquers the humiliation of her experiences with country attire and awkwardness at school. Gene found difficulty in adjusting to Wabash schools as a young girl “in Wabash she felt she was being judged by her peers on the basis of her clothing” (Long 75). Elnora’s erudition of nature and maintenance of a healthy outdoor lifestyle also emulates Stratton Porter. When Elnora made sounds of the woods heard through her violin it is reminiscent of Stratton Porter’s book, Music of the Wild published in 1910. It is dated later than A Girl of the Limberlost, but in discussing it

Jeannette Porter Meehan explains her mother’s excellent auditory perception: “She could sit perfectly quiet under a tree in a forest, hear each sound, distinguish it from the others, and tell you what it was” (131).

Like Stratton Porter, Mrs. Comstock only has one daughter who she dearly treasures though only demonstrated in the second half of the novel. Mrs. Comstock is also a spokeswoman for the author’s view on the importance of preserving trees on her land and sparing wetlands from drainage of the swamp for farmland and oil drilling. Mrs. Comstock is a personality in which

Stratton Porter was very pleased: “I regard the character of Mrs. Comstock as the best thought- out and the cleanest-cut study of human nature I have so far been able to do” (30).

In A Girl of the Limberlost, Mrs. Comstock is one of the better developed characters. She is unpredictable in the first half of the book and her actions showed mental instability. However, 25

Mrs. Comstock is able to grow and change when she learns the truth about her deceased husband’s infidelity and fears the disintegration of her relationship with daughter Elnora.

Gene Stratton Porter was not always satisfied with scholarly critiques, but she appreciated the response of the common public. Jeannette Porter Meehan recorded some of the following people who wrote to her after reading A Girl of the Limberlost: a soldier in France, an Army Chaplain, and a Scottish businessman in London were all grateful for the book. A Missouri teacher wrote how she read A Girl of the Limberlost to her eighth grade class and a girl named Ruby was inspired to work toward a High School University course despite her home life with an alcoholic father and “shif’less” mother (124). Gene Stratton Porter spoke of other fans of A Girl of the

Limberlost who lived a much greater distance from Indiana. There were English teachers in

Peking, China and Cape Providence, Africa who wrote to thank her. A professor of literature even requested permission to translate A Girl of the Limberlost into Arabic for schools in Egypt

(Meehan 245-46).

When asked why she wrote A Girl of the Limberlost, Stratton Porter responded in a 1911 article for World’s Work Magazine.15 She said she wrote it to give earth and sky “to workers inside city walls, to hospital cots, to those behind prison bars, and to scholars in their libraries...”

(qtd. in Meehan 127). She admitted her fiction writing did not conform to all standards: “It is probably because very little of what I write is fiction and people know it” (qtd. in Meehan 127).

Judith Reich Long also noticed the inspirational value of Stratton Porters writing from reader’s letters. She said, “letters began to come by the hundreds, each testifying that her

15 World's Work Magazine was a monthly magazine that covered national affairs from a pro-business point of view. It was produced by the publishing house Doubleday, Page and Company 1900-1932. 26

Limberlost novels of swamp and field helped readers meet life with a braver front, to find a new joy in the out-of-doors previously unknown” (188).

Bertrand Richards states that A Girl of the Limberlost was promoted as a sequel to Freckles and created great interest in earlier titles by Gene Stratton Porter (78). He believes that by 1909, she really had gained recognition as both a novelist and a naturalist. (78). Earlier there was discussion that including nature may have hindered a serious reception of her books. Richards concluded that other scholars were closer to the truth when they “saw that it was the use of nature which was almost solely Porter’s own possession which lent extra value to her work”

(133).

Nature Study Movement

Elnora’s collections of various specimens which she sold to schools for their nature kits or to museums, was an evident nature studies promotion to the reader. According to Mark V. Barrow

Jr.16 in “The Specimen Dealer,” selling specimens to dealers and museums was part of the post civil war landscape (493-94). Barrow states: naturalists often sold ornithological or mammalogical specimens, “while the fictional Elnora Comstock, the protagonist in Gene

Stratton Porter's 1909 novel, A Girl of the Limberlost, sold moths and Native American relics to pay for her secondary school and college education” (498).

The fact that she was hired to travel to schools as an expert teacher on the subject is also notable. Her work correlates with the nature study movement written about by both Kevin

Armitage and Robert Michael Pyle. Progressive educators, especially those who lived in urban areas, relied on school ‘nature rooms’, traveling museums, and nature study instructors for

16 Mark V. Barrow Jr. is a professor and chair of the Department of History since 2010 and a member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 1992. 27 naturalist classes (Armitage 118-20). This thread of natural evidence in the protagonist’s life was very relevant for the late nineteenth and early twentieth century naturalist insurgence and it is amazing that Stratton Porter cunningly wove it into a romance.

Armitage saw Gene Stratton Porter as an “ambitious woman” who chose to make nature study a career (165). He notes that Stratton Porter used the roads which were newly built by developers to study the wildlife of Limberlost that in turn provided her with the setting for phenomenally successful books such as A Girl of the Limberlost (165). “In Porter’s time, it was the main point: she lived to see her great Limberlost drained and cut in 1916, well before her popular novels went to Hollywood,” states Robert Michael Pyle (26) He says that Natural History is considered less intellectual and is no longer supported by schools. An example is the closing of the

Etomology Department at Oregon State University. He also believes A Girl of the Limberlost is important for representing a specific place that once had a hardwood forest and a swamp (Pyle

67). Nature study is a thing of the past that Pyle believes should return today to lessen the concerns of water shortages and climate change (28).

Sparked by the work of one of Stratton Porter’s readers, Rachel Carson, the Environmental

Protection Agency supports the author’s concerns. The agency’s web page answers questions about the importance of wetlands. It records that wetlands are just as productive as rain forests and coral reefs. It also states: “Scientists now know that atmospheric maintenance may be an additional wetlands function” (United States Environmental Protection Agency). Stratton Porter most likely never imagined governmental protection for the areas for which she was concerned or the confirmation of her assumptions.

A Girl of the Limberlost was one of the driving forces Stratton Porter used to champion the relevance of nature studies to the public. The author thought that reading it was beneficial for 28 conservation: “The book can, and does, present a hundred pictures that will draw any reader in closer touch with nature and the Almighty, my primal object in each line I write” (qtd. in Saxton

29).

The Lepidoptera Connection

Sagacity requires a view into the depth of the inclusion of nature in A Girl of the

Limberlost, in connection with her nature book Moths of the Limberlost. Lepidopterology led

Stratton Porter on a journey to record the complete life cycle of moths that lived in the

Limberlost. A life cycle included newly emerged moths which mated, deposited eggs and then became caterpillars. The caterpillars molted, spun cocoons, had a winter sleep, and then made a spring appearance as a moth. Moths of the Limberlost17 was written in response to A Girl of the

Limberlost readers, but Stratton Porter had an equally important purpose: she wanted to write a book for common nature lovers to use and enjoy (Moths 5-6). This book on moths was still scientifically accurate though more anecdotal in presentation. Stratton Porter consulted scholarly works throughout her study to guide her in the cycle of various moth species, and to verify her findings.

Following the chronology of A Girl of the Limberlost, there is a scene in which Mrs.

Comstock asked Elnora to give her a kitchen towel to strike what she calls “a varmint” that was on the screen door. Unfortunately it was the last type of moth that Elnora needed to add to her collection and ignoring Elnora’s protests Mrs. Comstock killed it (157-58). A very similar incident occurred in real life and was recorded in Moths of the Limberlost. Friends and assistants often brought Gene Stratton Porter injured creatures for her to cure or to aid in her research. A

17 Other nature writers used dead pinned moth specimens for their illustrations and it disturbed Stratton Porter to see the moth’s faded colors, wings “in unnatural positions,” and shriveled bodies (Richards 104). 29 man brought a large moth polyphemis to Stratton Porter that was injured by a similar means. A woman was trying to beat the moth off of her screen door which resulted in it having broken antennae and three feet missing. The injured creature provided her with information for the Telea polyphemis moth and also a means to demonstrate hideous actions of her character, Mrs.

Comstock (Moths 77).

Moths of the Limberlost is full of factual and scientific information presented in an anecdotal fashion which is a glaring difference from other nature studies. A background narrative is provided for each of the thirteen moths described. Stratton Porter tells about an incident when she put a female cecropia on her bedroom screen and went to bed. At midnight, she was awakened by a sound on her screen and a large number of cecropia flying outside her cabin.

When she walked outside holding the female, many cecropia landed on her hair, gown, shoulders, and hands (39). This real life scene was duplicated in A Girl of the Limberlost with

Mrs. Comstock. Mrs. Comstock by this time was trying to make amends and help Elnora with her moth collection. Mrs. Comstock set out lanterns and attracted a moth. When she grasped the moth it sprayed something on her clothing that caused many more of its kind to alight on her dress front and arms. After an extensive narrative the mother was able to secure two of the

Yellow Emperors, like she had killed earlier (170-78). The combined accounts provide the reader with an understanding of the moth’s habits and attractions. They also present beauty to draw empathy for these creatures.

More briefly, Phillip was introduced in A Girl of the Limberlost when he helped Elnora obtain the cocoon of a cecropia. It was described as a lovely pale red cocoon (182-83). In Moths of the

Limberlost, the reader can satisfy her curiosity with knowledge of how to find a cecropia along with details of its life cycle. Just as Elnora found her cocoon Moths states that some of “the large 30 baggy ones” are “hidden under bridges” and they range in color “from almost white through lightest tans and browns to a genuine red” (37). Stratton Porter used factual descriptions in her fiction.

Mrs. Comstock surprised herself again when she found a Citheronia regalis for Elnora. The moth had come out of its case under a log. Phillip and Elnora both exclaimed about it rarity, and in Moths of the Limberlost its rareness was also emphasized. It presented a challenge for Stratton

Porter’s research and she referred to it as a “treasure” (105). The chapter title for this moth in

Moths calls it “The King of The Poets” and Elnora in A Girl of The Limberlost helped the reader understand its naming when she stated: “The Bird Woman calls it The King of the Poets, because it is named for Citheron who was a poet, and regalis refers to a king” (Girl 207).

Stratton Porter includes a scene in which Phillip, who was engaged to Edith, took time from his ballroom dance with Edith to capture a beautiful and much needed Yellow Empress moth for

Elnora’s collection. (Girl 253). The author tells readers of Moths of the Limberlost about the connection with this incident and a moth from her study. Stratton Porter’s assistant, Molly-

Cotton, was attending a party at a city park pavilion when a yellow moth flew toward the light.

The host captured it for Molly and it was an Eacles imparialis or Yellow Emperor like the one at

Edith and Phillip’s engagement party (Moths 46-47). It appears that Gene Stratton Porter enjoyed including in this account the fact that none of the other party guests knew what type of moth it was. The host was a junior from Cornell and others in attendance were from Bryn Mawr,

Harvard and Yale (Moths 46). Perhaps Stratton Porter wished to note the necessity for a better knowledge of nature studies in the realms of higher education.

This novel is continually laced with real life examples which Stratton Porter recorded in her nature books. One last example of this from Moths of the Limberlost has to do with Stratton 31

Porter’s and Molly-Cotton’s find of a moth at the close of August which was uncharacteristically late. Stratton Porter consulted with lepidopterist, Professor Rowley from Missouri, who told her the find could be a double: “In rare instances a moth will emerge from a case or cocoon two seasons old” (105). This occurrence accurately allowed for Edith Carr in A Girl of the Limberlost to find a Yellow Emperor and give it to Elnora as part of her resignation that Elnora was the woman Phillip truly loved (333-35).

Stratton Porter explained that one of the reasons she wrote Moths of the Limberlost was because she had numerous requests from readers of A Girl of the Limberlost to write about her experiences with the lepidoptera (Moths 4). Originally Stratton Porter’s research and photography focused only on ornithology but it expanded to moths. She stated that moths

“thrust” themselves on her while she was earnestly following birds (2). Her curiosity plus the demise of the moths’ habitat led to the instruction of the public through these titles.

Like others, Stratton Porter experienced growth in population, the economy, technology, social and cultural changes, and an introduction of the railroad which Barrow believes ignited concern for interest in natural history (494). Information from the progressive nature study movement and Stratton Porter’s notations on the intricacies of moth life coalesces to form A Girl of the Limberlost’s foundation.

32

CHAPTER THREE WILDFLOWER WOODS

As the Limberlost land of Geneva, Indiana became more developed, Gene Stratton Porter shifted her nature studies to a new property. Her readers made the transition to the second

Limberlost, Wildflower Woods, through The Harvester. The author was as deeply absorbed in conservation of forested wetlands here as in A Girl of the Limberlost, but this time the importance of herbs, roots, trees, and birds were woven into the fabric of the story instead of moths. Wildflower Woods’ significance is expressed through the beautiful descriptions of

Harvester’s “Medicine Woods.” This chapter studies the powerful nexus between The Harvester and Stratton Porter’s philosophy of life and worldview, more strongly stated than in A Girl of the

Limberlost. It mirrors her life’s work and the protagonist proves that Stratton Porter’s manifesto on nature conservancy and morality is possible.

The Harvester (1911) tells the story of a young man, David Langston, who earnestly studied and worked to succeed in the business of raising medicinal herbs which he had learned from his deceased mother. He envisioned a girl he would marry, but once she (Ruth Jameson) became a reality, he had to use his untested herb potion to save her life. Throughout the story he continually wooed and cared for her as he took meticulous care of the flora and fauna of his woods.

Gene Stratton Porter’s devotion to conservation is evident in her purposeful act of linking the

Harvester’s protagonist to Henry David Thoreau in the book’s dedication. Thoreau was well known to Stratton Porter for his conservationist ethic in Walden. Bertrand F. Richards agrees with this connection, “David Langston [Harvester] was modeled in part on the character of 33

Thoreau as Porter imagined him to be and in part on the memories of her father” (80). David

Langston always considered the thoughts and feelings of other people at the sacrifice of his own and worked hard at benefitting both man and nature. His highly moral character and strong work ethic make it understandable that an unidentified New York critic believed the Harvester was unrealistic. Meehan records her mother’s response: “There’s [nothing] I described the Harvester as saying and doing that I have not seen my father and two of my brothers do constantly for my mother and sisters…” (qtd. in Meehan 133-34). Gene Stratton Porter explained her purpose in using Langston’s character was “to state that to my personal knowledge, clean young men still exist in this world and that no man is forced to endure the grind of city life if he wills otherwise”

(qtd. in Saxton 31). Connections can also be made from Langston to Charles Porter, because Mr.

Porter had a pharmaceutical business. It was necessary for Charles to stay in the city during the week for business, so Stratton Porter may also have been suggesting with the comment “no man is forced to endure [city life]” that her husband could more readily enjoy the country life above the city if he so chose.

Harvester’s ideals and world view strongly resemble Stratton Porter’s. Langston like Porter loved the woods and took care of every living plant and creature within his scope. Stratton Porter was well read in scientific studies and classification and so was Harvester. She displayed her superior knowledge through Harvester’s explanations:

In my woods, said the Harvester, You see I grow several members of the Viola pedata

family, bird’s foot, snake, and wood violet, and three of the odorata, English, marsh, and

sweet, for our big drug houses. They use the flowers in making delicate tests for acids and

alkalies. The entire plant, flower, seed, leaf, and root goes into different remedies. (73) 34

Stratton Porter has Harvester use scientific language when discussing flora to validate his character, but also to teach the reader, similar to her use of Lepidoptera terminology in A Girl of the Limberlost.

Richards also observes that The Harvester is an example of life influencing the writer (80).

Langston’s great effort in building and furnishing his home for Ruth clearly mimicked Stratton

Porter’s life. By the time of the author’s death she had built three homes and was in the process of building another. Richards observes that although The Harvester’s setting was on the property at Rome City, Indiana, many parts of Stratton Porter’s own home in Geneva were described in

Langston’s new construction (44-45). The blue willow dishes Ruth loved were even a mirror of

Porter’s dish collection. Judith Reich Long said, “a special cupboard graced the dining room for one of Gene Stratton-Porter’s passions: blue willow Dutch dishes”18 (134). Terence, Wildflower

Woods guide in Rome City, Indiana when I visited, stated as he held a blue willow plate, that the pattern was a favorite of Gene’s. In The Harvester, Ruth unpacked these plates along with other dishes: “First, she looked where Harvester had said the dishes were, and suddenly sat on the floor exulting. There were… a complete tea set without chip or blemish, two beautiful pitchers, and a number of willow pieces” (198). Another item of extravagance lavished upon Ruth was designer coverlets by Peter and John Hartman. In the corner of each one the names of Peter and John

Hartman were woven along with Wooster, Ohio, 1837 (199). Stratton Porter was emphasizing the extent of Langston’s love with this specialized detail, a coverlet she possessed at Limberlost.

Ruth’s character fits the pattern of the damsel in distress when looking through a romantic lens. Harvester had quests that saved her more than once. He helped her escape her Uncle’s

18 The Blue Willow pattern was actually created in England in 1780 by engraver Thomas Minton. Then, Minton sold the design to potter Thomas Turner who mass-produced the pattern on earthenware. Many countries produced it, but rare, English-made china (1780-1820) is considered valuable. 35 cruelty by marrying her and giving her shelter. His blend of herbs saved her from death and he freed her from the obligation of their marriage to obtain an inheritance from newly found grandparents along with their love. Stratton Porter did not connect Ruth with any people in her life to argue Ruth’s realism, but her character made it possible for the author to develop the chivalrous qualities of the Harvester. If Ruth modeled anyone, the memories Stratton Porter had of her mother’s suffering could relay authenticity.

Stratton Porter also might have revealed herself through Ruth’s artistry. Harvester encouraged

Ruth by buying her quality watercolors and brushes that she was ecstatic about and presented her with many opportunities to paint outdoors. Painting and sketching was part of Ruth’s therapy and healing. This was also an activity enjoyed by the author. It is possible that Stratton Porter identified with its healing power, especially combined with being outdoors and using wildlife as objects. Richards says that Stratton Porter became an excellent watercolorist as she experimented with brushes, colors, and paper. She skillfully “made illustrations for The Song of the Cardinal” and could spend hours painting a moth (104-05).

According to Richards, Ruth played a vital role in Stratton Porter’s use of the theme “mortal illness” (and recovery) of a principal character” (42). Ruth was in mortal danger, beyond the help of two physicians, when Langston attempted to give her his own life giving formula. The other theme of which Ruth is a major player is “the dream or vision come to life” (43). Langston was in the midst of his annual decision of whether or not he should start dating when he saw a vision of a beautiful woman that came to him and kissed him. The memory of this vision remained with him as he searched for her and found Ruth. 36

The character of the “Bird Woman” seen in Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost also made an appearance in The Harvester. After Harvester’s dog Bel guarded Ruth while she was drawing an emperor moth, he told her about a woman who was fearless:

I know a woman who goes alone and unafraid through every foot of woods in this part of

the country. She has climbed crept, waded…Nothing ever dropped on her or sprang at her.

She feels as secure in the woods as she does at home. (115)

Harvester was speaking of the Bird Woman, but it is as if the author used him to boast about her own exploits.

Reader’s Response

Like her other novels, Gene Stratton Porter’s The Harvester received better reception from the general public than academia. Judith Reich Long notes that The Harvester was number five on the Best Seller list in 1911 and rose to number one on the Best Seller list in 1912 (190).

Jeannette Porter Meehan includes several readers’ responses in her mother’s biography. A St.

Louis attorney appreciated Harvester’s character and ordered copies for his friends (132). Other letters of praise came from women in Cleveland, Ohio, Vreedelust, South Africa, and one from

Manchuria, China wanting to read Stratton Porter’s nature books. Of special interest was a prisoner from Comstock, New York who wrote. He had served fifteen years and currently was a stenographer to the warden. He thanked Stratton Porter for “bringing to me so much of God’s

Great Out of Doors which I have missed for so many, many years and the clean, deep love of a man for a maid” (141). The last part of the letter referring to “out of doors” underscores the mindset of the nature movement. An observation made by Barrow shows an attitude that truly mirrors that of Stratton Porter: “According to its many supporters, the pursuit of natural history 37 was a suitably purposeful endeavor that offered its practitioners healthful exercise,19 recreational opportunities, [and] the potential to ‘see the works of God in nature’…” (495).

In the later part of the narrative, David Langston presented a paper at a National Convention of Surgeons in New York. Through Langston, the author espoused her values for conservation of lake, marsh, woods, and field; the understanding of water, soil and geographical conditions; cleanliness of soul and body; courageous pursuit of a goal; unadulterated drugs; and the means to acquire herbs along with the formula for his new test drug (347-51). This is the talk to which

Meehan referred when she said, “ministers and physicians have often quoted the Harvester’s speech before the medical convention in which he sets forth the axioms of clean living” (133).

There were also letters from young men asking Gene about the woods and how they could earn money working outside (Meehan 132). Applause from the public was more due to the fact that the book was food for the common man’s soul rather than a place to examine the delicacies of form and literary substance.

Nature Conservancy and Wildflower Woods

The name “Medicine Woods” adequately represented David Langston’s work of harvesting roots, bark, and leaves for medicinal purposes. It also reflected Wildflower Woods, the name

Stratton Porter had selected for her newest property. In the author’s woods she was constantly working at transplanting wild flowers from swamp areas that were soon to be drained. In her nature book Tales You Won’t Believe (1925) Stratton Porter recalls, “I had known that I must hurry, that I must gather all the beautiful things I could that lay in the way of clearing and draining on the individual land of each farmer who wanted to increase his tillable area…” (172).

19 Stratton Porter followed a strict routine which included walking or exercise in the afternoon. It concerned an observant elderly neighbor enough that she inquired of the secretary about Stratton Porter’s activity (Long 191). 38

She describes herself as transplanting wild flowers ever since she could “toddle around alone”

(Tales 156). She said that she inherited “the gift of flower magic” from her mother (157). Her mother’s amazing talent was pictured in her mind: “Sometimes when she had carried slips of shrubs or bushes a long distance and they were wilted, she freshened them with water, cut the stems diagonally, and stuck them into a small potato, and then she planted the potato” (158).

Stratton Porter in her personal space and through The Harvester echoed the bigger picture that was taking place in the nation’s schools and communities. Armitage reports that gardening became a prominent form of conservation during what was known as the Progressive Era (1890-

1920). He even states that it resulted in “the beginnings of environmentalism” (111). Teachers saw school gardens as a means to develop children’s character and work ethic along with sympathy towards nature. (121).

A collaborative interest with gardening in the nature study movement was drawing the living world. As an advocate of school arts, University of Wisconsin Professor M. V. O’Shea wrote in

Education, “Drawing bears a very vital relation to nature-study; skill in representation may be secured by such relation; science receives invaluable aid thereby…” (qtd. in Armitage 152).

Stratton Porter followed this maxim in her detailed illustrations whether using the medium of pencil, watercolor, or photography. The character of Ruth mimicked the author with her interest and talent in artistically reproducing the nature of Medicine Woods. A number of times

Harvester encouraged Ruth to sketch as part of her recovery from illness. When she was recovering, her drawings became her way to contribute to conserving plants and wildflowers while Harvester did so physically (Harvester 303-04).

The Harvester originated from an idea an editor had for Stratton Porter to write “a magazine article with human interest in it, about the ginseng diggers in her part of the country” (Saxton 39

30). In her account Harvester treasured and painstakingly nurtured a patch of ginseng so that it would grow as long as possible for the most bountiful result. A soliloquy of his instructed the reader on the art of harvesting ginseng: “I’ll wait for this harvest until the seed is ripe, and then bury part of a head where I dig a root, as the Indians did” (Harvester 83). Today Harvester’s words are still relevant; Indiana and other states regulate the age and portion of the ginseng plant which may be harvested to guard it from extinction.

Judith Reich Long said, “For years Charles had bought wild herbs such as ginseng for resale at his pharmacy, and both he and Gene knew several persons locally who gathered various herbs for market” (190). Apothecaries and pharmacies were standard sources for medicine, and though pharmaceuticals existed they didn’t blossom until the second half of the twentieth century. Gene

Stratton Porter believed in the health of nature. She was concerned that the natural methods were being destroyed by industrialization and modern medicine. This message was interpreted as

Langston compounded bark, dried leaves of herbs and roots to make the elixir that ultimately saved Ruth’s life even though she was attended by two physicians and a nurse (Harvester 272-

75).

Stratton Porter also gave a nod to Native Americans for natural medicine origination. David

Langston, gathered herbs and roots with his mother to pay for his education and clothing while his father was a guide (Harvester 16). The narrator said, “His mother had been of different type.

She had loved and married the picturesque young hunter, and gone to live with him on the section of land taken by his father” (16). When Langston visited his friend, Dr. Carey, the nurse teasingly called him “Medicine Man,” to which he replies, “Ugh! I scalp pale-faces!” [racist language was not contemplated during this era] (18). It is speculation that Harvester’s mother was Native American, but the idea is very feasible when the author boasts of living near “the 40 camping grounds of the Potawotamies and the Miamis”20 (qtd. in Meehan 190). Stratton Porter speaks of “circulating freely” with hundreds of Chief Wacacoonah’s tribe of the Meshingmesas

“as a child and being well acquainted with the Chief’s daughters, Nancy and Susan…” (190).

Ursula K. Heise, 21 author of “The Hitchhiker's Guide to Ecocriticism,” says that literature must be more inclusive of other races to be considered for ecocriticism. The Harvester fits into this role by referencing the Native American influence Langston has through the medicinal powers of the roots, bark, and leaves that he gathers and cultivates (Heise 508).

Langston’s botanical knowledge paved the way for better comprehension of the balance of nature. Gene Stratton Porter often stressed in her desire to make nature more accessible to the common man through her nature books and novels. The Harvester took the challenge fully with the beauty displayed on Langston’s first ride home with Ruth. At the foot bridge which crossed the brook of Singing Water they saw a valley with a vibrant growth of many colorful flowers: foxfire, cardinal flower, wild tiger lilies, turtle head and moon daisies, pink mallows, and jewel flowers (164-65). The list of abundant beauty continued with hills, hedges, small trees, bushes, more striking flowers and gigantic forest trees (165). All of this beauty was Harvester’s because of his husbandry of the woods and land. This scene and many others speak of Stratton Porter’s naturalist’s zeal. In nature book Tales You Won’t Believe Stratton Porter devoted an entire chapter to the story of finding an elusive flower which was near extinction. The fringed gentian was located near a neighboring farmer’s swamp that was soon to be drained and dredged, and she was elated to save it through transplantation (Tales 86-89).

20 Most of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples were relocated from the Great Lakes region to Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma by the late 1840’s. 21 Ursula K. Heise is the Chair of the Department of English and professor at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. She is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and former President of ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment). 41

Water and soil quality is another connection made in this novel with the author’s life. In

Tales, Stratton Porter bemoans the fact that those draining the acres of swamp land near her never tested the soil: “Not one of them had taken a spadeful of soil, water soaked for ages, and had its properties examined for humus and growing qualities” (173). The author had a purpose for every part she included in Langston’s story: his speech included a discussion about water and soil (347) and each time he worked in his woods, cultivation came from scientific logic.

Stratton Porter’s concern for amelioration of fauna extended to her knowledge of ornithology and the effects of drainage and deforestation on bird habitats. David talked to the birds surrounding his home and recognized their patterns of migration and nesting. His observations each time a bird came for the spring correlates with studies published by Stratton Porter.

Harvester noticed the arrival of the blue birds on February twenty-fourth (40), and Stratton

Porter told about preparing for the arrival of martins and bluebirds by February twenty-fifth in

Tales: “Very nearly as early as the martins there always came to us the bluebirds, and we never felt the season properly opened unless we had at least three pairs nesting with us” (182-83).

Stratton Porter connected the reader to birds by using their familiar encounters with the

Harvester. And the technique in which David compared himself to the red bird inquiring of his mate (Ruth), allowed the reader to identify with the cardinal pair (Harvester 141-42).

When we first encountered David Langston, winter was slowly crossing over to spring.

Harvester’s preparation for his Dream Girl was an entire process: he built her a house, searched for her, cared for her health, and then awaited her return from her grandparents as the year developed through four seasons. Thomas R. Dunlap22 who wrote “National Nature Through the

Windshield: Edwin Way Teale's American Seasons” (2010), discusses Teale’s seasonal writing.

22 Thomas R. Dunlap is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, Texas A&M University. 42

Edwin Way Teale, formerly a staff writer for Popular Science Monthly, traveled across the

United States with his wife Nellie reporting on the environmental health of wildlife and National

Parks. (644). He wrote four books on his journeys from 1951 to 1965 using the format of

America’s seasons and began with spring. (634). Teale followed the footsteps initiated by

Thoreau in Walden and continued by Stratton Porter, Muir, and other nature writers, using the pattern of seasonal change. Along with the seasonal pattern, Teale also shared Stratton Porter’s interest in making exploration of national nature a part of ordinary middle-class life. (Dunlap

633)

As a romance novel The Harvester sold at least 1,600,000 copies (Francis Talbot 352), but it was more than a human interest narrative. It was a story of a struggle for life within Medicine

Woods: “In deep woods the struggle to maintain and reproduce life was at its height” (Harvester

42). This nature novel made it possible for Stratton Porter to tell of the fight for survival in regional woods and swamps such as her Wildflower Woods. A quote from Tales You Won’t

Believe expresses her passion for man to realize his part in sustaining natural life: “It is a fact that in the days of my childhood Nature was still so rampant that men waged destruction in every direction without thought. Nature seemed endlessly lavish” (211). Stratton Porter followed the path of Thoreau whether she was writing a nature book or a novel. Parts of this narrative will not fit into the postmodern world of eco-criticism, but it can still be analyzed by Langston’s attention to the value of native plant growth, its sustenance, and humane treatment of avian life.

The greatest significance about The Harvester is revealed in David Langston’s speech. In the midst of a suspended romance, Stratton Porter uses the protagonist to verbalize her manifesto of conservancy and morality she preached throughout the book with his actions. Concurrently,

Stratton Porter displays her own life experience. Langston talks of living things all around and 43 beneath the muck he touched with his fingers, reading good books, researching subjects on his own, telling the truth, of his knowledge of forestry and plant life, his habits of health and exercise, and the sustainability of quality medicinal sources in the country (346-49). Langston ends with the anecdote of Ruth’s struggle and his ability to produce a drug to save her when doctors could not:

I shut myself in my laboratory, and from the very essence of the purest of my self-

compounded drugs I distilled a stimulant into which I put a touch of heart remedy, a brace

for weakening nerves, a vitalization of sluggish blood. … when…the president of your

honourable body, and is [he] known to all of you, said it was death, I took this combination

that I now present to you, and with the help of the Almighty…I kept breath in the girl I

love. To-day she is at full tide of womanhood. (350-51)

Stratton Porter clinches her argument with Langston’s finale. The culmination of his conservancy, diligence and hard work, and fleshing out his life principles is the prize of using his medicinal knowledge to save the life of the woman he loves. In addition he offers the potion’s formula for free to those in attendance to try on their own. It is as if Stratton Porter is telling her readers to care for the health of the environment and live this hearty and moral lifestyle like herself, and it will bring life to them, others, and especially to the ones they love.

44

CONCLUSION

Gene Stratton Porter was a prolific writer of both fiction and nature books. Richards speculates that Stratton Porter might not have been taken seriously in either camp. Fiction critics may have taken the stance of publishers, who argued against her including “nature stuff” (75).

And, those analyzing her nature books were, “perhaps influenced from the adverse criticism of the novels by litterateurs, passed over the writing of Porter in favor of those of John Burroughs,

Enos Mills, John Muir, and Luther Burbank” (Richards 139). Some authorities, however, praised her observations and photos in her nature books which were most likely overshadowed by the popularity of other naturalists of the time. It also may be concluded that the intrinsic embodiment of nature in her novels ultimately allowed for Stratton Porter to pioneer a new style of fiction that

Richards said is her “own possession” and “lent extra value to her work” (133). Today, Stratton

Porter’s inclusion of nature in her narratives creates another avenue of inquiry for scholars of eco-criticism.

This form of criticism was the result of someone reading Stratton Porter as a child. Vera

Norwood,23 author of “Women's Roles in Nature Study and Environmental Protection” noted that Nature writer Rachel Carson (1907-1964), sparked literary critique on nature writing from her 1962 publication of Silent Spring. Its subject was the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment. It also inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (12). Kevin Armitage shares: “Rachel clearly modeled her writing career on that of such pioneering and popular female nature study

23 Vera Norwood Professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico, is coeditor of The Desert Is No Lady: Southwestern Landscapes in Women's Writing and Art. 45 authors as Porter and Mabel Osgood Wright”24 (210). Though the height of the Nature Study

Movement had waned, Rachel, like Stratton Porter, embraced many of its ideas. As an example, she had previously written an article in 1956 to encourage childhood nature exploration titled,

“Help Your Child to Wonder” (210).

Conservation literature has grown since Stratton Porter’s day. Eco-fiction originated as a form of literature in the 1970’s that focuses on nature of the environment. Cli-fi fiction, which began in 2013, is short for science fiction that addresses climate change or other ecological issues. Along with these advancements, The Association for the Study of Literature and

Environment (ASLE) is an academic group that was founded in 1992. Eco-fiction encompasses many genres but most are made up of modernism or realism (ASLE). Novels of eco-fiction are often based on a dystopian society, far from the communities of Gene Stratton Porter’s sentimental romances. The approach is different but both aspire to a common goal to alert middle class America to good environmental practices.

Gene Stratton Porter was proud of her books and what they could accomplish. Positive letters from boys’ schools, inmates and service men led her to these thoughts about the value of her novels:

To my way of thinking and working, the greatest service a piece of fiction can do any

reader is to leave him with a higher ideal of life than he had when he began. If in one

small degree it shows him where he can be a gentler, saner, cleaner, kindlier man, it is a

wonder-working book. If it opens his eyes to one beauty in nature he never saw for himself

24 Mabel Osgood Wright (1859-1934) was an American author and early leader in the Audubon movement who wrote extensively about nature and birds. 46

and leads him one step toward the God of the Universe, it is a beneficial book, for one step

into the miracle of nature leads to that long walk, the glories of which so strengthen even a

boy who thinks he is dying, that he faces his struggle like a gladiator. (qtd. in Meehan 248)

Gene Stratton Porter’s mission to influence children and adults to appreciate, enjoy, and care for nature was one of the highest goals of her works, both non-fiction and fiction. She actually thought her novels were ideal for giving the reader intellectual material when they might avoid it in non-fiction (Meehan 251). Another was for the reader to pursue a healthy and moral lifestyle.

Anytime a character was ill they were prescribed clean water, hearty food, fresh air, and the emotional healing power of nature. Protagonists stayed honest and true to themselves and other during difficult circumstances. This was to encourage the reader to do the same.

Stratton Porter’s academic acceptance was not equated with the popularity of her stories. The mixture in her fiction of realism and sentimental romance did not follow a prescriptive pattern.

Stratton Porter’s work was able to gain some literary acknowledgement, but her greatest approval came from the general public. Her notoriety was brief, but her books have not been forgotten by regionalists. It is highly probable that Stratton Porter’s novels will be revisited, but this time by scholars of eco-criticism. As environmental concerns increase, writers of eco-fiction aspire to the same ideals as proponents of The Nature Study Movement: an emotionally informed public is a community involved in ecological restoration and balance.

Gene Stratton Porter worked out of her life. From her earliest years the great outdoors was part of her identity. She learned about all living things and people within in her realm and enjoyed their stories. This translated into her research, illustration, photography and writing, 47 whether non-fiction or fiction. Her life and writing was avant-garde, but everything was done with the purpose of making a better life for man and his environment.

48

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Stratton Porter, Gene. A Girl of the Limberlost. Doubleday, Page & Company, 1909.

Stratton Porter, Gene. Moths of the Limberlost. Jazzybee Verlag, 2016.

Stratton Porter, Gene. Tales You Won’t Believe. The American Reprint Company, 1925.

Stratton Porter, Gene. The Harvester. Doubleday, Page & Company, 1916.

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Long, Judith Reick. Gene Stratton-Porter: Novelist and Naturalist. Indiana Historical Society,

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