Her Father's Daughter (1921), By Gene Stratton-Porter A NOVEL

1921. Stratton-Porter was an American feminist, environmentalist, photographer and one of Indiana's most famous female authors. Many of her writings were moralistic and romantic novels. The popular author seems to have gone awry with this particular novel, which tells the story of two orphaned sisters (who it later turns out are not really sisters). The introductory paragraphs set the tone: What makes you wear such funny shoes? Linda Strong thrust forward a foot and critically examined the narrow vamp, the projecting sole, the broad, low heel of her well-worn brown calfskin shoe. Then her glance lifted to the face of Donald Whiting, one of the most brilliant and popular seniors of the High School. Her eyes narrowed in a manner habitual to her when thinking intently. Never you mind my shoes, she said deliberately. Gene Stratton-Porter (August 17, 1863 - December 6, 1924) was an American author, early naturalist, nature photographer, and one of the first women to form a movie studio and production company, Gene Stratton-Porter Productions, Inc. She wrote several best-selling novels and well-received columns in national magazines, such as McCall's. Her works were translated into several languages, including Braille, and Stratton-Porter was estimated to have had 50 million readers around the world. She used her position and income as a well-known author to support conservation of Limberlost Swamp and other wetlands in the state of Indiana. Her novel A Girl of the Limberlost was adapted four times as a film, most recently in 1990 in a made-for-TV version. She was born Geneva Grace Stratton in Wabash County, Indiana near Lagro. She was the twelfth and last child born to Mary and Mark Stratton. Early on, her family shortened her name to Geneve and she later shortened it further to Gene. Stratton-Porter's novel Laddie corresponds in many particulars with her early life, and Gene herself described this as the most auto-biographical novel. For example, the narrative takes place in the first person, with the story being related by the twelfth child of the "Stanton" family. The name of the beloved older brother (title character) "Laddie" is identical with Stratton-Porter's own treasured brother who died in an accident when she was young. As in Stratton-Porter's own family, the novelized Laddie is connected with the land and identifies with their father's vocation. Despite not finishing high school, Gene became an avid reader and lifelong scholar of ecology and wildlife.............