Books Impact: Gene Stratton-Porter

I just spent some time looking over the list of books I read this year and a few things struck me. I didn't read nearly as many books as I have in past years. Probably because of my growing family staying up a bit later and thus my personal reading time being shortened. I would like to find more time to read, but then...who wouldn't?!

My list truly serves as a memory of times and events. Books impact our lives! "The All-New Square Foot Gardener" lead to our first ever vegetable garden, which in turn supplied us with many fresh veggies over the summer.

"Created To Be His Help-Meet" was such a fabulous (albeit controversial) book. I cannot even begin to tell you how this book has changed my perspective, my marriage, but mostly my relationship with my Heavenly Father.

But it was one special author that shared most of my year: Gene Stratton-Porter. Never have I come across a stack of books that has meant this much to me from a literary perspective. They are just the most amazing books written by a native of my own state. It's been pretty obvious that her eternal perspective was Biblical. Her characters stir me. I don't say that lightly. Whether we're talking about Little Sister in "Laddie"(I wrote about it here) or Mickey in "Michael O'Halloran"...so different, so sweet and honorable and honest and real!

Her books are about real life. They are about relationships that are awe inspiring. They are about nature and our life amongst it. They are also about God and His Providence in all things. She weaves love, loss, mystery and redemption in a way I've never read, and I've read quite a lot. She champions nature in a pure and Godly way. She tells of history and of science.

Stratton-Porter wrote about nature from a Creationist perspective, too, and her books educate. In "Keeper of the Bees" a small child, Scout, tells a veteran, Jamie, about bees...and about God. It's the most beautifully written pages describing bees, and the evidence of God, that you'll ever read. In the chapter entitled "Because of God" we read,

"First question I ever asked was, 'Why is the bee garden blue?' And I'll have to tell you the answer because you would never guess it in a thousand years. The answer is, 'Because of God.'"

"Yes," said the little Scout. "That's what makes bees so interesting. About half the things you'll have to learn are because of God, and why the bee garden is blue is the very first thing. Now, you listen and I'll tell you the reason."

Scout goes on to teach the grown up about God's perfect design for all living things, and specifically bees. The skeptic is soon awed and the Scout concludes by telling him...

"One time I asked the Bee Master if I couldn't see God and if I couldn't touch Him, how I was going to know that He was here. And he said, 'Because of the hair on a bee.' So that's one of the ways you can know."

At the end of the chapter, the Scout addresses books...and Darwin! Love this!:

"I don't know as I've told you so very well. In there in the library you can find the books like I showed you that tell what people used to think. The books that are the bunk. Then you'll find the books like Lubbock and Swammerdam, which have the wonderful pictures, that will tell you what really happens. Then there are the books like Fabre and Maeterlinck that the Bee Master says are three things at one time. First they are the truth, and next they are poetry, and third they are the evidence of a Master Mind that plans every least little tiny thing. He says the only name for that Master Mind is God. He doesn't see any use in trying to dodge God and side-step Him and call Him 'the Spirit of the Hive' and Instink and Nature and things like that. He says a great scientist, one of the best, almost went crazy trying to do that very thing. His name was Charles Darwin and the Bee Master sayd C.D. would have been a heap bigger Injun if he'd been willing to put God in where He belongs. He says when God does anything 'with such care, and puts so much thought in it, and deals out such splendid justice' as there is in a beehive, that a wise man will just take off his hat and lift his eyes to the sky and very politely he will say, 'Just God.'" (bold mine)

And this book says it was published in 1925--a year after her death.

To say I'm hooked on this author would be an understatement. Each story has captured me and moved me to laughter and tears. These are books to own! To read again and again and to pass down. These are books you only loan out to your nearest and dearest for fear they'll disappear. These books go in the "grab in case of fire" pile!

The hunt for many of these books published around the turn of the century, is just now starting to get fierce. The most popular (of course) were easy to find, many still be published by Indiana University Press. But they are mostly the titles she wrote about Indiana, while living in Indiana. Surprisingly, I found a couple of goodies at the library: Birds of the Bible (a nature book). I glanced through it and it's amazing! FULL of scripture. I look forward to reading through it. I also found "The Magic Garden" which is next on my list.

Stratton-Porter spent the last part of her tragically shortened life in California and it was there that a dear friend found another title for me, "My Father's Daughter". I'm reading it now and though it is excellent again, here she deals with a stronger than usual topic--bigotry. I look forward to seeing how she resolves the issue with her characters.

Here's the list I've read in my order of preference:
1. Laddie
2. Keeper of the Bees
3. Girl of the Limberlost
4. The Harvester
5. Michael O'Halloran
6. Freckles
7. My Father's Daughter

You want to read these books! You really do.

PS. They actually made paper dolls of Gene Stratton-Porter!