Gene Stratton Porter, Best-Seller

by Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County

Her first book of poetry, FIRE BIRD, was published in 1922. This was a definite attempt to meet the requirements of the literary critics with a work of top literary quality. Its reception, however, was disappointing; as poetry, it failed to communicate itself to its readers. “Euphorbia,” another poem, which ran as a serial in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, was never published in book form and immediately passed into the realm of the forgotten.

Throughout her career Mrs. Porter disciplined herself to a definite amount of time for work each day; from this regimen, she was unwilling to be diverted. Although neighbors and acquaintances sometimes refused to understand, the author persisted in her schedule. At times Mrs. Porter also placed restrictions on invasion of her privacy at Sylvan Lake. She remarked that her property rights were not respected and that as an example, on one occasion, thoughtless fishermen dug angle-worms in her carefully cultivated gentia bed.

For reasons of health, Mrs. Porter decided in 1922 to make her home permanently in California, where she had been wintering for several years. Since royalties from the purchases of fifty million readers were pouring into her purse, and she could buy almost anything she wanted, she planned to build two houses in California; one was at Bel-Air, near Los Angeles, and the other was at Avalon. The work on these began in 1923. Here she wrote MAGIC GARDEN and KEEPER OF THE BEES.

Turning her attention to the possibility of screening her stories, she organized Gene Stratton Porter, Inc., a Delaware corporation, to produce motion pictures of her novels. She was assisted by her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. James Meehan, and Mr. Meehan became her director. Some attempt was made to deflect these screen stories toward a sensational love interest both untoward and foreign to the original story. Mrs. Porter protested stoutly, so the stories were screened with great fidelity to the original text.

Mrs. Porter’s health throughout life was unusually good. However, at one time, she received serious injuries in a fall; later she submitted to four severe surgical operations on her jaws and facial bones because of impacted teeth. In 1923, Gene Stratton Porter, while driving her car in Los Angeles, became involved in a collision with a city streetcar and was killed instantly.

For many years, some of Mrs. Porter’s works have been required reading for pupils in the English classes of the Fort Wayne high schools, which has reinforced the demand for these titles. Inquiry into the holdings of this Library reveals that at present (1953), there are 650 active copies of Mrs. Porter’s titles. In all, this Library has purchased, during the last half-century, 2,580 of her books. Of these FRECKLES is the most widely read; 353 copies have been worn out and 119 copies are still active. GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST ranks second with 377 worn out and 90 still available.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of Mrs. Porter and her books was to induce people to wander in the out-of-doors and investigate nature. Her considerable ability as a story-teller enabled her to hold and influence her readers.

A boulder, known as Elephant Rock, lay in the St. Mary’s River a few miles north of Decatur and is probably the largest of its kind in the state. Youths called themselves skaters only when they could reach Elephant Rock and return. Since Mrs. Porter wished such a rock as a monument when she died, the school children of Adams County accordingly placed it across the street from the old Porter homestead.

The State of Indiana has now taken over both the home at Rome City and the one in Geneva as state memorials. When she moved to California, she offered all her Sylvan Lake property to the State of Indiana on the condition that she be reimbursed for the cost of the buildings and the expense of the garden, but the State was not prepared to act on the proposal at that time.

Mrs. Jeanette Meehan, daughter of Mrs. Porter, has written two books—a biography of her mother, LADY OF THE LIMBERLOST, and a novel, FRECKLES COMES HOME. In 1927, Mr. Meehan, in his capacity as director of films for Gene Stratton Porter Inc., came to Sylvan Lake with a group of thirty-five persons to film HARVESTER.