What I have done with birds

by Gene Stratton-Porter

character studies of native American birds which, through friendly advances, I induced to pose for me, or succeeded in photographing by good fortune, with the story of my experiences in obtaining their pictures

138 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

She 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.

Reviews

[Michele Larrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I downloaded this book from the Library of Congress website and the copy was perfect, including some color illustrations and lots of b&w photographs of birds. First published in 1906, GSP documents her endeavors to collect pictures of birds and their nests in their natural habitat. The descriptions of what she went through to get the pictures, her patience in building trust with the birds, and how she treats the birds is pretty amazing. She also describes how different species of birds interact in the wild. I read her novel “Freckles” and there is some overlap of material that is fascinating.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1906, a memoir of Gene Stratton Porter on her amazing years of groundbreaking bird photography. Porter enlisted fellow farmers and neighbors to aid her in finding nests. Her extraordinary patience allowed her to approach nesting birds and eventually, even stroke the nesting mother and feed the babies herself. She would lug heavy and cumbersome ladders and camera equipment into swamps and tangles, cutting away branches that would hamper her photographs. She was the first person to get close up photographs of many birds, nests, and chicks. If she had been male she would have ben more acclaimed in her time. As it was, she was a best-selling author for her novels and non-fiction nature books. Stratton was a self-taught naturalist and photographer. I found this book engrossing, and liked the short chapters, each about a different bird.