I've recently just discovered this wonderful writer, Gene Stratton-Porter, i've started her first novel The Song of the Cardinal, I just love her writing style and of course being a bird lover helps too. The Keeper of Bees is on my nightstand and I'm going to start it as soon as I finish Pride and Prejudice. I've read the first few pages and I can tell I'm going to enjoy it.

We have members from Indiana and I was wondering in anyone else has read her work.  It's old fashioned and beautiful. Her book Freckles was in the juvenile section...I would highly recommend it for a fifth or sixth grade girl.

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April, go take a look in The Worst Book You've Read thread.  Someone posted about her, one of her books, and rocked me right back into my seat.  Rascism?

Anyway, I love, and have a bunch of those old books that belonged to my mother and my grandfather.  I never read The Song of the Cardinal, but Girl of the Limberlost is one of my life's favorite books.  Thoroughly enjoyed Freckles, too.  I have her books, along with the Anne books, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Just David, etc.  While I can't remember the story behind Just David, I do remember bawling everytime I read it.

And yes, these will usually be found in YA, but I read and reread them into my adulthood.  It is time again...

I love  Gene Stratton Porter. Girl of the Limberlost is the sequel to Freckles, and it is one of my favorites.

Her Father's Daughter is also excellent; however, there is a lot of typical for the time anti-Japanese sentiment.

I remember a grad class in which this woman kep tediously making the statement that Chaucer was a rascist.  I think it meaningless to apply such labels ex post facto, in such a revisionist fashion.

When you say Gene Stratton Porter I immediately think of the best times of my childhood.  I was lucky that my mom saved all of her Porter books and I loved them.  I have saved them for my daughter (alas I think it is hopeless) but no matter.  When I take them down to dust I give them each a big hug.  Girl of the Limberlost is at the top of the list.  I also own the movie.  It wasn't bad.  I have in my possession the following:

The Keeper of Bees, A Girl of the Limberlost, The Harvester, The White Flag, At the foot of the Rainbow, Her Father's Daughter, Laddie, Freckles, Michael O'Halloran and A Daughter of the Land.

Now I want to read them all over again.  Thanks for posting this.

Racist? hmm..well she was a writer during a time when women weren't supposed to have careers or own property. Many female writers back in those days used a male pen name...I believe she was a very forward thinking person in her day. People forget that old literature is a reflection of the times...

Actually there is a book between Freckles and Girl of the Limberlost, Frecckles Come Home ( Maybe).

My mom loves her books. I tried to read some when I was a kid but didn't like them much. Maybe I'll try them again.

I have Girl of The Limberlost on my TBR pile.  I didn't know she wrote bird books; just found this out recently! Added a whole bunch to my wishlist. They sound wonderful.

I, too, have wonderful memories of Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles.  Probably the first time I cried while reading a book.  As far as racism, some people just can't seem to put these and other books in the context of the time period they were written, like all the hoopla over taking Huckleberry  Finn and Tom Sawyer out of school libraries because of the "racist" language.  We cannot change the past, only learn from it, and how can we learn from it if we don't read works written in that past?

very well said

Note that not all of her books are suitable for middle school aged and below readers. A Daughter of the Land is a really good book. It's as if Elnora never gets a break. Poor Kate Bates is the last daughter of a prosperous farmer and really wants to farm; however, the parents and sibs decides she is to be the old maid who stays home to look after the aged Ps. She makes a truly disastrous, abusive marriage. WIll she ever have her dream come true and get her land.

I may be wrong, but I think this is the Porter book that talks about the Chautaquas.

Porter is a favorite of both my parents (born in the early 1900s) and me.  Laddie was their favorite.

I understand and agree with the discussion about racism in her books.  While it is deplorable, it reflects many of the attitudes of the time her books were written.  She is probably ahead of her time in many ways, particularly with her strong women characters.