Gene Stratton Porter
BEST-SELLER
Prepared by the staff of the
Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
April, 1953
Foreword
Although Gene Stratton Porter resided in this city only a few weeksin 1913, her life was closely associated with the Fort Wayne area. Bornin rural Wabash County and educated in Wabash, the noted Hoosier authorestablished residence successively in Geneva, Decatur, and Rome City.She was intimately connected with Coldwater, Michigan, and Winchester,Indiana; and her literary and social activities frequently brought her tothe Summit City, where she had close relatives, friends, and admirers.The G. R. & I. Railroad linked together many of the communities whereshe lived her formative years and was the chief mode of transportation inher youth.
Gene Stratton Porter was neither a classicist, nor a naturalist, noryet a realist in literature. Some critics have denominated her writings“opiates for the masses”; others characterized them as being of “molassessweetness”; still others found them too imaginary. Certainly a best-sellerin her day, she was a romanticist in the best Hoosier tradition ofGeorge Barr McCutcheon, Meredith Nicholson, and David Graham Phillips—thoseother best-sellers of that golden day of Indiana authors. PresidentWilliam Lowe Bryan of Indiana University once included her in a list offourteen best-selling Indiana authors. In the larger national field of literature,her place is with those other contemporary best-sellers, HaroldBell Wright and Harold McGrath.
Gene Stratton Porter won wide popularity and a special place in the2hearts of her readers; no contemporary author was better loved or acclaimedby the reading public. Fifty million readers of her own day enshrinedher in their affections; countless thousands of later generationsstill read her volumes avidly and experience the same pleasant and refreshingglow as did their grandparents, parents, uncles, and aunts in thefirst quarter of this century. Although the professional literary criticsfound no especial merit in her works, Mrs. Porter was amply rewarded,both by royalties from the sale of her books and the acclaim of a largesegment of the reading public who found inspiration and recreation in herwords. Indeed, the financial returns from her works were seldom surpassedin her day by other contemporary authors.
To the citizens of Fort Wayne and northeastern Indiana, the name ofGene Stratton Porter is as familiar as the names and deeds of local heroesand leaders of the present and distant past. The boards and the staff ofthe Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County are pleased to presentthis brief resume of the life and work of the Hoosier author in response tofrequent inquiries about her.
It is hoped that this publication will stimulate reminiscences amongMrs. Porter’s friends and acquaintances and reacquaint her large retinueof readers, both young and old, with their beloved author.
Geneva Stratton, later better known as Gene Stratton Porter, theyoungest of twelve children, was born on Hopewell Farm about ten milesfrom Wabash, Indiana, August 17, 1863. Her father, Mark Stratton, wasa farmer and ordained minister and had lived in Wabash County sinceabout 1834. Mr. Stratton was a high-principled man with unusual mentalpowers and some