Smithsonian 03.2020

America, was enormous. She was one

of the real ‘big sellers,’ her novels be-

ing eagerly read and re-read by all sorts

and conditions of people, children and

adults. It is rare indeed for a writer to

appeal, as she did, both to experienced

readers equipped with standards of lit-

erary taste and to the most unsophis-

ticated, who live apart from the world

of books.”

Porter was such a beloved author that

New York State commemorated her

with a grove of 10,000 trees along Lake

George. During “Gene Stratton-Porter

Memorial Week,” programs across the

country celebrated the literature and

landscapes that were her legacy.

But the greatest tribute to her by far is

the Loblolly Marsh Nature Preserve. In

the grass on the side of the road there,

I see a rusty horseshoe from a passing

Amish buggy, cast off like a message

from another era. I reach down, pick it

up, and pop it into the back pocket of my

jeans like a lucky charm. I will hang it

above my greenhouse door in England.

I walk through the wildfl ower mead-

ow and skirt the pond. I am on the look-

out for blue grosbeak, kingbirds and

maybe pelicans. Instead, a red-spotted

purple butterfl y sails through the air

followed by an orange viceroy, bounc-

ing over autumn goldenrod and purple

thistle. In a landscape that has been

erased, rewritten and restored, Gene

Stratton-Porter’s handwriting is every-

where.

70 SMITHSONIAN | March 2020

Gene Stratton-

Porter

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