The March 2020 issue of Smithsonian magazine took me back in time with its article on Gene Stratton-Porter in “The Legend of the Limberlost.” Her given name, Geneva Grace Stratton, became “Gene” as an affectionate name from her husband. Today’s wealth of young adult literature did not exist when I fit that category, but there were a few authors that I came to enjoy. Gene Stratton-Porter, introduced to me by my mother, was a favorite. Her first books were at the height of their popularity when Mama became addicted to reading. The setting for Gene’s novels was as important as the story line, always in nature among the birds, bees, dragonflies, and especially moths and butterflies. Mama passed along her passion for these books to me, and both of us claimed A Girl of the Limberlost as a favorite.
After enjoying the article in Smithsonian, I thought I would reread the book to see if it withstood the test of time. I came away a bit unsure. Stratton-Porter certainly was ahead of her time with the strong female protagonist Elnora and her concern for conservation of nature. However, her characters were rather wooden. The good ones were good, the bad ones were bad, with rather sudden redemption their cure. There was also one superfluous scene with the children playing a game of cowboys and Indians in a stereotypical fashion. The importance of dress seems overdone in today’s world, but probably fit if one recognized the work as historical fiction and a picture of the times. I would recommend reading with that in mind and with an appreciation for how forward looking she was in her concern for preservation of nature.
Like Elnora, Gene could be found in a silk gown with pink taffeta rosebuds and an ostrich plume in her hair or in khaki breeches carrying a gun. She once answered a fan letter, “In the first place will you allow me to suggest that you forget hereafter to tack the ‘ess’ on to ‘author’, because one who writes a book or a poem is an author and literature has no sex.” Apparently, her husband not only tolerated this strong woman, but encouraged her pursuits. Reading the Smithsonian article back-to-back with the book seemed to uncover where Gene may have found her model for her protagonist.
I would say I found the article more interesting than my return to the book with its underlying theme of the restoration of the area in Stratton-Porter’s books. I particularly liked its ending, “In a landscape that has been erased, rewritten, and restored, Gene Stratton-Porter’s handwriting is everywhere.”