Laddie: A True Blue Story
I recently was considering all the people that I tweet with on Twitter. There are Laura Ingalls Wilder people of many stripes, L.M. Montgomery/Anne people, Maude Hart Lovelace/Betsy-Tacy people, children’s literature people, general writing people, history people, living history people, museum people, etc. But I hadn’t found any people yet tweeting about two other authors I really enjoy, Mary J. Holmes (who I recently posted about) and Gene Stratton-Porter. So I decided I better start making some noise about them myself.
Porter, best known today in her native Indiana, combined nature writing with romantic stories. Never popular with the critics her books were very popular with readers of the day. Her most famous series begins with Freckles and includes Girl of the Limberlost. The Limberlost being a swamp near her Geneva, Indiana home. Today two of her homes in Indiana are preserved. Make sure you go to the right Geneva, Indiana, there are two, this is the one further east.
The book that was my Grandma Uthoff’s favorite book and also among the favorites of the same great-grandmother whose favorite book was Homestead on the Hillside, was Laddie: A True Blue Story. Those of you who have seen my book design presentation about Laura (the one I gave at Laurapalooza last year) saw an illustration from the book that I used to show Williams original plan for re-illustrating the books. Porter liked to work in her own life experiences (photography, collecting moths, studying birds, etc.) into her work. This time she tells the tale of her childhood. However, she makes one alteration. Her favorite older brother had gotten sick and died as a young man. Porter, in true writer fashion, wanted to undo this tragedy she never quite got over. So instead she sets out to tell the story that might have happened to this most beloved brother if he lived. Porter’s own life story is just as interesting as one of her books. I’m sure I’ll post about her again. For now, look for Laddie and make sure you get the one by Porter, James Terhune which now I think about it deserves a post of his own, also wrote a book called Laddie about the same time.
August 2, 2011 at 3:30 pm |
I loved “Girl of the Limberlost” and “Laddie”- I think you would enjoy seeing what Elsie (my grandmother) read when she was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in 1913. Perhaps I will include that as my next “tidbit” added to my website. I think I will enjoy your blog.
January 21, 2012 at 1:30 am |
[...] Read more about Stratton-Porter’s work and why I love her here: http://trundlebedtales.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/book-laddie-a-true-blue-story [...]