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 of stories and children's books. We are going to focus on three of her early works today.

First we'll take a look at Freckles (1904), then A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) and finally The Harvester (1911). Together these novels form a sort of literary triptych, giving the reader a full and complex view of the Limberlost marshland in north central Indiana. Each story stands on its own, and you do not have to read them all together, but my personal opinion is that they are best appreciated when read together, in publication order.

Freckles is the story of an orphan from Chicago, not as old as 20, who is missing his right hand. The only name the boy has is "Freckles", and as soon as the orphange considered him grown, they bonded him out to cruel farmer, whom Freckles has just run away from. Hoping for honest work, Freckles walks in to a lumber camp. The others in the camp write Freckles off immediatly, as he only has one hand, is too young and too skinny, but the Boss, a Scotsman called McLean, sees something in Freckles. The boy's presence seems to call to him. A few questions later and Freckles is now the Limberlost guard. His job is to walk along the wire perimeter twice a day, keeping an eye out for signs of lumber theives. Freckles is billetted with the Duncan family, and soon is considered a regular member of the household. Over time, Freckles achieves great things along his line; the birds will eat from his hands, and he obtains books to learn them all by name. He transplants plants he finds all along the line to one specific area where Freckles stops for his midday meal, and with all of his work, builds a living cathedral. When Freckles finds a vulture's nest, he tells Duncan who directs him to town to see "The Bird Woman", who will want to know. This allows Freckles to cultivate a friendship with the daughter of a local businessman who is an assistant to The Bird Woman called The Angel, who has stolen his heart with a single look. 

Freckles is learning about his environment, we the reader learn, too, so its organic storytelling. Freckles' dialog and a few of the other supporting characters, is written in dialect, so prepare yourself for that. Also, lumber pirates are the men in black hats. Like the B movies that would come later, this is very much that type of story. Also, some of the occurances may make a modern reader scoff, but remember what I said about Disney. Gene admitted that she only wrote about good people because the world, even then, had enough evil in it, so keep that in mind as you read. This is as much the world she saw and lived in as it was the world she wanted to be in. 

Moving on to A Girl of the Limberlost, we pick up about 5 years or so after the events of Freckles. This also the closest of the three to being a direct sequel. Elnora Comstock is the star of our story, our 14 (or so) year old young woman who knew Freckles, or at least of him (she refers to certain landmarks as belonging to him) and has been insistent in her desire to go to High School, completing her formal education. Her biggest foil in her search for that education is her mother, Kate Comstock. Elnora's father died in the marsh when Elnora was a child. Mrs. Comstock does everything she can to throw up road blocks for her daughter, trying to make her quit. Kate's story is a whole other thing, and its a lot to unpack here, so let's just say that any caring person would view this relationship between mother and daughter as neglectful at best, and downright abusive at worst. Poor Elnora must win her mother's love over the course of the story; thank goodness, she has others, Uncle Wesley Sinton and his wife Aunt Maggie, who care for her. 

This old couple really help Elnora out. She goes to her first day of highschool in totally the wrong clothes, her lunch gets stolen, she is told that she must purchase her school books and that there is an out of town tuition that must be paid as well. Uncle Wesley finds her crying just on the home side of what remains of the Limberlost after McLean's loggers took what they wanted, where she tells him of her misery. The Sintons decide on their own, knowing the type of mother that Mrs Comstock has been, to see Elnora outfitted properly. The couple have no surviving children and in an act of Loving Kindness set her up with proper clothes, hygiene items, and dinner things for school. They even volunteer to pay for Elnora's education and her books, but Elnora declines even a loan. The Sintons then offer to lean on Mrs. Comstock as there are several trees on the Comstock property that the sale of even one tree would see to the cost of Elnora's education, buts she declines that help, too. A posting in town sends Elnora to the home of the Bird Woman. And a one-girl industry is begun.

Like with Freckles, we the reader know nothing about the preservation of lepidoptera, so we learn with Elnora. Also, like Freckles, Elnora has people around her willing to help and encourage her, even if Mrs. Comstock is a roadblock personified. 

With just over 300 pages we follow Elnora through high school and on to her graduate work and Teacher training. She makes friends and enemies. Mrs. Comstock is told a bit of information that the neighbors have kept from her for many years, and we see a drastic overnight change in her relationship with her daughter. At that point, Mrs. Comstock is no longer a roadblock, she is the foundation her daughter builds upon. 

Unlike Freckles where the romance is a good solid "B" plot, Elnora's romance is much farther down the alphabet, not even being introduced until around 2/3 of the way through the novel. This story is so much less "Elnora Falls In Love" and so much more "Elnora Perseveres And Attains her goals". That alone is a big reason I adore this book. It does make me sad to realize that Elnora is in fact participating in the deforestation of the thing she loves : the Limberlost. 

This finally brings us to The Harvester. David Lanston lives on the land his ancestors settled with his livestock and his trust dog Belshazzar. His harvests aren't just the corn and soybeans of modern Indiana farmers, but violets, mushrooms and hebs from the Limberlost. He sells these in Onnabasha (the nearest Town to the Comstock homestead), and for 6 years or so its been a good life. 

On the same day every year David asks Bel, like one would a fortune teller at a fair, what he should do over the next year: stay home to harvest from the Limberlost as he has done, or go to town, get a job and go a-courting (to him, you must have the funds to support a wife, and the only way to do that to join the "rat-race" of business). This year is not like the others, as Belshazzar signals at both "stay home" and "find a wife". Feeling betrayed by his companion, David goes into a rage until he falls asleep on his porch. 

There he dreams of his perfect mate. When he wakes, David is convinced that she is a real girl, he must only locate her. As you might suspect, David finding his dream girl is the A plot. The lengths to which he goes to find someone that everyone else is certain was only a dream is humerous, and i think even for 1911, must have been a bit on the ridiculous side. Even David's doctor friend believes the man's brain has been addled by only having animals as his primary companions. Yet David continues his search.

As it is with this type of story, David stumbles on his dream girl when he least expects it, and spends a good portion of the rest of the story wooing her. While dedicated to Thoreau, it puts me more in mind of Austen. 

The lengths that David goes to is above and beyond chivallry that even King Arthur would find commendable can be found in these pages. David really longs for this woman to be happy and healthy, even if it isn't with him, but she seems to flow right in to his life as though she had always been there.

Together these three form what I think of as the Onnabasha Trilogy. A trilogy like no other. Since it isn't written to be a trilogy at all, allows us to see the Limberlost in three stages. The first is almost untouched by human hands, the second shows that the marshes still hold life after she's been plundered. And the third shows a conscious attempt at conservation. In the end, conservation just wasn't enough. The Lumber barons of the early 1900s overharvested the Limberlost and all the other Indiana wetlands to extinction. It is only with a great deal of love, perseverance, and money that we have the Limberlost conservation area.

Similar to the Totoro Forests of Japan. This reclaimed area is an effort to correct the mistakes if our ancestors who took more than they needed. This is the work of Friends of the Limberlost and the Limberlost Conservation Association. In these relatively early days it is hard to tell if these groups will see even a fration of the success of the Totoro Forests, but in the novels it is still healthy and vibrant. Healing. 

These novels; Girl specifically, are lauded as prime examples of Hoosier Literature, and have been printed in more than 20 lanuages, jncluding Braille. Best sellers in their day, these novels of early Indiana deserve a chance. 

If you're in the mood for a protagonist who doesn't know how to stop; if you need some pluck and grit and a happy ending; if you need a gentle story to act as a balm for your soul, I can only suggest a Onnabasha book. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 Freckles

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 A Girl of the Limberlost

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 The Harvester

P.s. If you want to learn more about Gene and the Limberlost, visit the Limberlost Cabin in Geneva, Indiana, and take a tour. 

Limberlost Cabin

200 6th st Geneva, IN 46740

(260)368. 7428

7.14.21

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7.21.21

https://consortiumofsevenyeartwo.blogspot.com/2021/07/pgene-stratton-porter-retrospective.html