Gene Stratton Porter- Forgotten Hoosier Titan
A retrospective by Elleanore G. Vance Gene Stratton-Porter was the Nora Roberts of her era, having sold more than 10 Million copies by the time of her death in 1924. She was Disney before Disney was Disney; a rare artist who got to enjoy the popularity of her work and the riches it brought. Born August 17, 1863 in Wabash County Indiana, young Geneva was fascinated by the natural world around her. The locals would come to call her The Bird Woman due to her own prowess with healing and raising local birds. In 1884, Gene met Charles Porter; two years later they married, and a year after that their only child Jeanette was born. Sometime after that, Gene began writing nature pieces for magazines, learned photography and watercolor so that her pieces weren't just illustrated, but illustrated with lifelike full color. Her first accredited novel was Song of the Cardinal in 1903. She would go on to write eleven more novels, eight nature studies, two books of Poetry, and four collections