Gene Stratton-Porter

Gene Stratton-Porter (1863–1924) was an American novelist, naturalist and wildlife photographer. The youngest of twelve children on an Indiana farm, she grew up roaming the fields and woods and later lived beside the Limberlost swamp in Geneva, Indiana, where she photographed birds and moths and wrote nature studies. Her novels, set largely in that landscape, include Freckles, A Girl of the Limberlost, The Harvester and Laddie, and they made her one of the best-selling American authors of her time. She moved to California, founded a film company to adapt her books, and died in a car accident in Los Angeles.