In honor of Women’s History Month I felt it would be important to mention a female author who did not live far from South Bend. Gene Stratton-Porter dedicated her life to writing and nature. Want to learn more about her? Read on!
By JENNA SULE
Gene Stratton-Porter was an American author, naturalist and nature photographer from Wabash County, Indiana. Porter was formally educated in the Wabash schools. Though, she never officially finished Highschool.
Early on in her life, she took an interest in the nature that surrounded her home. Her father has a farm which fostered in her an appreciation for animals. The Indiana Historian, a magazine which explores the history of Indiana states that birds were her favorite. She also really enjoyed the local swampy areas; she later used her fame to help preserve these areas.
She married Charles Dorwin Porter in 1886 and became a mother a year later. Still she found herself wanting to be more than a mother and a wife. According to The Indiana Historian, she was allowed a certain amount of freedom in her marriage and she was able to seek out a way to make her own income. As a result, she found her way into writing about nature.
Her first book, The Song of the Cardinal, was written in 1903. This book was written from the perspective of a male cardinal who sings to find a mate. While singing, he helps a farmer and his wife rekindle their marriage. Later, she wrote Freckles (1904) and The Harvester (1911). She also dabbled in books that had to do with her love for nature. She wrote Moths of the Limberlost (1912) and Wings (1923), both strongly focus on nature.
Encyclopaedia Britannica also includes that she was “remembered for her fiction rooted in the belief that communion with nature holds the key to moral goodness”.
After the success of her novels, she used her influence to help push conservation legislation in the Indiana wetlands that she loved. Even today, you can still tour her home in Limberlost Swamp.
Sources say that because of her fame and lack of privacy she moved from Indiana to California. She was one of the first people to build a house in what is now Bel Air in Beverly Hills. Stratton-Porter died in 1924 due to a car accident. According to The Indiana Historian, she was unable to complete her dream of building a bird sanctuary.
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