The Song of the Cardinal.NOVEL By

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 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.[2] 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.[3] Despite not finishing high school, Gene became an avid reader and lifelong scholar of ecology and wildlife.