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Bird Woman
"Compiled from many intimate records of the author's life by S.F.E."
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1915
330 people want to read
About the author
Gene Stratton-Porter
119 books673 followersShe was an American author, amateur naturalist, wildlife photographer, and one of the earliest women to form a movie studio and production company. She wrote some of the best selling novels and well-received columns in magazines of the day.
Born Geneva Grace Stratton in Wabash County, Indiana, she married Charles D. Porter in 1886, and they had one daughter, Jeannette.
She became a wildlife photographer, specializing in the birds and moths in one of the last of the vanishing wetlands of the lower Great Lakes Basin. The Limberlost and Wildflower Woods of northeastern Indiana were the laboratory and inspiration for her stories, novels, essays, photography, and movies. Although there is evidence that her first book was "Strike at Shane's", which was published anonymously, her first attributed novel, The Song of the Cardinal met with great commercial success. Her novels Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost are set in the wooded wetlands and swamps of the disappearing central Indiana ecosystems she loved and documented. She eventually wrote over 20 books.
Born Geneva Grace Stratton in Wabash County, Indiana, she married Charles D. Porter in 1886, and they had one daughter, Jeannette.
She became a wildlife photographer, specializing in the birds and moths in one of the last of the vanishing wetlands of the lower Great Lakes Basin. The Limberlost and Wildflower Woods of northeastern Indiana were the laboratory and inspiration for her stories, novels, essays, photography, and movies. Although there is evidence that her first book was "Strike at Shane's", which was published anonymously, her first attributed novel, The Song of the Cardinal met with great commercial success. Her novels Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost are set in the wooded wetlands and swamps of the disappearing central Indiana ecosystems she loved and documented. She eventually wrote over 20 books.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 16, 2015
I've read a handful of books by Hoosier author Gene Stratton Porter over the past decade, as well as visited her Indiana homes. I recently thought I'd like to read a little about the woman herself. I couldn't find a whole lot out there, but my library did carry a 50-page brief account of her life, based on a write-up Gene herself had done. The version at my library was actually printed in the front of a book she'd written, called "At the Foot of the Rainbow."
"Why did you want this old book?" my husband asked when he picked up the hold from the library. Indeed, it was a 1916 book and looked quite old. But, I've never been one to judge a book by its cover, and I thoroughly enjoyed Gene Stratton-Porter: A Little Story of Her Life and Work.
Things I found interesting:
*Gene was named Geneva, and was the youngest of 12 children born to her parents. At the time of her birth, her mom was 46 and her dad was 50.
*Gene did not have many books as a child, as was common for the time. "Books are now so numerous, so cheap, and so bewildering in colour and make-up, that I sometimes think our children are losing their perspective and caring for none of them as I loved my few plain little ones filled with short story and poem, almost no illustration," she wrote. If she felt this way in the early 1900s, what would she think today?!
*She relates a remarkable tale that occurred when she was in high school, and was assigned to write a paper about a mathematical topic and then read it to an assembly of students. She had no interest in the topic, and refused to write the paper. Instead, she wrote a paper 10x the assigned length, about a book she loved. When the time came to present her paper, she admitted to the assembly that she knew nothing about her assigned topic, and so she had written this instead. She began reading, and after the first page, the principal left to find the superintendent, who then came to listen to her recitation. "For almost 16 pages I held them, and I was eager to go on and tell them more about it when I reached the last line. Never again was a subject forced upon me," she wrote. From then on, she was hooked on writing.
*Gene was definitely a "different," quirky person. "Unlike my schoolmates, I studied harder after leaving school than ever before and in a manner that did me real good ... the others of my family had been to college; I always have been too thankful for words that circumstances intervened which saved my brain from being run through a groove in company with dozens of others of widely different tastes and mentality. What small measure of success I have had has come through preserving my individual point of view, method of expression, and following in after life the Spartan regulations of my girlhood home."
*Gene was quite secretive. Even after she was married and had a daughter, she did not tell them she was writing for possible publications in magazines. She took things so far as to rent a box at the post office "so that if I met with failure my husband and the men in the bank need not know what I had attempted." She felt driven to accomplish on her own: "I argued that if I kept my family so comfortable that they missed nothing from their usual routine, it was my right to do what I could toward furthering my personal ambitions in what time I could save from my housework."
*Gene's first love was nature, and she really preferred to writing about natural topics rather than fiction. However, her publishers were always wanting more human interaction in her books. Some have criticized Gene's characters as being unrealistically "perfect" (I had that thought myself while reading "Laddie"). However, she did this on purpose: "I prefer to describe and to perpetuate the best I have known in life; whereas many authors seem to feel that they have no hope of achieving a high literary standing unless they delve in and reproduce the worst ... reading (my books) can make no one worse than he is, while they may help thousands to a cleaner life and higher inspiration than they ever before have known."
*Gene spent as much or more time in nature than she did actually writing. When she was unable to find a moth specimen she wanted to write about, she decided to raise her own. She kept the cocoons in her bedroom, and when they were close to hatching, she laid them on the pillow next to her so that, should the moths emerge during the night, she would hear them and wake up.
Very interesting read!
"Why did you want this old book?" my husband asked when he picked up the hold from the library. Indeed, it was a 1916 book and looked quite old. But, I've never been one to judge a book by its cover, and I thoroughly enjoyed Gene Stratton-Porter: A Little Story of Her Life and Work.
Things I found interesting:
*Gene was named Geneva, and was the youngest of 12 children born to her parents. At the time of her birth, her mom was 46 and her dad was 50.
*Gene did not have many books as a child, as was common for the time. "Books are now so numerous, so cheap, and so bewildering in colour and make-up, that I sometimes think our children are losing their perspective and caring for none of them as I loved my few plain little ones filled with short story and poem, almost no illustration," she wrote. If she felt this way in the early 1900s, what would she think today?!
*She relates a remarkable tale that occurred when she was in high school, and was assigned to write a paper about a mathematical topic and then read it to an assembly of students. She had no interest in the topic, and refused to write the paper. Instead, she wrote a paper 10x the assigned length, about a book she loved. When the time came to present her paper, she admitted to the assembly that she knew nothing about her assigned topic, and so she had written this instead. She began reading, and after the first page, the principal left to find the superintendent, who then came to listen to her recitation. "For almost 16 pages I held them, and I was eager to go on and tell them more about it when I reached the last line. Never again was a subject forced upon me," she wrote. From then on, she was hooked on writing.
*Gene was definitely a "different," quirky person. "Unlike my schoolmates, I studied harder after leaving school than ever before and in a manner that did me real good ... the others of my family had been to college; I always have been too thankful for words that circumstances intervened which saved my brain from being run through a groove in company with dozens of others of widely different tastes and mentality. What small measure of success I have had has come through preserving my individual point of view, method of expression, and following in after life the Spartan regulations of my girlhood home."
*Gene was quite secretive. Even after she was married and had a daughter, she did not tell them she was writing for possible publications in magazines. She took things so far as to rent a box at the post office "so that if I met with failure my husband and the men in the bank need not know what I had attempted." She felt driven to accomplish on her own: "I argued that if I kept my family so comfortable that they missed nothing from their usual routine, it was my right to do what I could toward furthering my personal ambitions in what time I could save from my housework."
*Gene's first love was nature, and she really preferred to writing about natural topics rather than fiction. However, her publishers were always wanting more human interaction in her books. Some have criticized Gene's characters as being unrealistically "perfect" (I had that thought myself while reading "Laddie"). However, she did this on purpose: "I prefer to describe and to perpetuate the best I have known in life; whereas many authors seem to feel that they have no hope of achieving a high literary standing unless they delve in and reproduce the worst ... reading (my books) can make no one worse than he is, while they may help thousands to a cleaner life and higher inspiration than they ever before have known."
*Gene spent as much or more time in nature than she did actually writing. When she was unable to find a moth specimen she wanted to write about, she decided to raise her own. She kept the cocoons in her bedroom, and when they were close to hatching, she laid them on the pillow next to her so that, should the moths emerge during the night, she would hear them and wake up.
Very interesting read!
September 4, 2016
This is a very short biography which is actually a slightly altered autobiography. I can't say I learned much more from this than what I learned on a recent trip to Limberlost. It is definitely in tune with the older style of writing. It would be good for a fan of hers to read. Be aware that this author does not come across as humble in the least (for me this was a bit of a surprise).
July 24, 2009
This is a short, simple biography of Gene Stratton-Porter. As far as I can tell, it's a somewhat altered version of an autobiographical sketch requested by her publisher. The tone's a bit dated, but it is good reading if you're a fan.
February 25, 2013
Interesting and insightful look at the authors life, the true inspirations for many of her characters, and how her stories came about. Yet, I have to say it made me like her less than the author I have envisioned all these years--but that's alright--she liked herself enough for the two of us.
July 27, 2020
This book needs a beautiful cover, illustrations and chapter breaks. But it is a quick and sweet overview of her life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews