Bio Bit: Gene Stratton-Porter

Here is my very first Bio Bit. Every week I will be writing a short bio for that week's "person of interest." This one was a trial run before my actual school starts, to try and get my mind into the researching and writing mindset. And without further adieu...

A Woman Ahead of her Time: Gene Stratton-Porter

 "What you are lies with you. If you are lazy, and accept your lot, you may live in it. If you are willing to work, you can write your name anywhere you choose, among the only ones who live beyond the grave in this world, the people who write books that help, make exquisite music, carve statues, paint pictures, and work for others. Never mind the calico dress, and the coarse shoes. Work at you books, and before long you will hear yesterday's tormentors boasting that they were once classmates of yours." - Gene Stratton-Porter, A Girl from Limberlost

indianahistory.org

Author, photographer, naturalist, entrepreneur, Gene Stratton-Porter was often referred to as a woman ahead of her times. Living a lifestyle quite in contrast to the typical house wife of the time, Porter followed her love for nature and helped ignite some of her passion in our own hearts. Born in the farming country of Wabash County in 1863, Geneva Grace Stratton was the youngest of twelve siblings. From the very beginning her father, who was a part-time preacher, taught Gene that plants and animals were gifts from God and were to be valued. In her early childhood, nature was her classroom and she had very little formal education. After her mother died her family moved to the city where Gene attended high school all the way up to the last semester before graduation; she was frustrated with the ridged public education system and dropped out. Grown up and married to Charles D. Porter and having one daughter, Gene was unlike other women in that she spent a large amount of her time out of the house, exploring the Limberlost swamp that they lived on. This swamp was described as being a “treacherous swamp and quagmire, filled with every plant, animal and human danger known — in the worst of such locations in the central states.” But Porter fell in love with the wild land. She would go out and explore often, always carrying with her a camera and a gun; the camera to shoot birds and plants with, and the gun to shoot poisonous snakes. Gene studied the plants and birds extensively, writing several scientific essays that were published in magazines. Her photography was also featured in several nature magazines. 

Gene's log cabin she designed herself in Limberlost kpcnews.com

Eventually, Porter decided to begin writing novels, all set in places very similar to the land she lived on and loved, including The Girl of Limberlost. Her novels became widely popular, and in her later years, as the swamp was drained, she moved to California and opened her own movie industry and had several of her novels made into movies. In a time when every woman was expected to stay close to home and simply tend to house making, Gene Stratton-Porter stands out as someone who chose to stay true to who she was, despite the fact that it was different from the culture’s norms, and through her bravery to pursue what she loved she has inflamed our hearts with the same love that she had for the beauty of nature through her stories and photography.

Bibliography

"Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites • Rental Information." Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2014.

"Gene Stratton-Porter." Indiana Historical Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2014.