Author. She was an American 20th-century author, who was remembered for her fictional writings involving nature, romance, and morals. She wrote twenty-six books, which included twelve novels, eight nature studies, two books of poetry, and four collections of stories and children's books. Born Geneva "Gene" Grace Stratton, the youngest of twelve children of a farmer and part-time Methodist preacher, she was 12 years old when her mother died on February 3, 1875 from typhoid fever. Living in various homes after her mother's death, she received very little formal education, but loved nature and was self-taught. Becoming a nurse-maid for her sister, who was dying from cancer, she left school without a diploma. At least four of her siblings died by 1883. In 1886 she married Charles D. Porter, a pharmacist. The couple had only one child, a daughter, born one year after the wedding. After the death of one of her brothers, her niece came to live with them. She had an independent personality, which led her to be a non-traditional wife and mother. Professionally, she used her maiden surname along with her married surname, and at times with a hyphen. When oil was found on the couple's property, their financial status changed from comfortable to wealthy. The couple settled in Geneva in a beautiful 14-room home the was called the Limberlost Cabin. After a gift of a camera, she would tour the nearby wetlands taking nature photographs. As an amateur naturalist, her writing career began in 1895 with a wildlife photography column in the magazine "Recreation," which followed with a column in the "Ladies' Home Journal" and "Outing." By 1901 she was writing short stories for the magazine, "Metropolitan." Her first novel was "The Song of the Cardinal" in 1903, which followed with "Freckles" in 1904 and selling four million copies. After three unsuccessful novels, she wrote "A Girl of the Limberlost" in 1909, which was as successful as "Freckles." Her novel "The Harvester" in 1911 reached the best-seller list. In 1912, the nearby swamp was drained and the family relocated to Rome City on a 148-acre property with another mansion called "The Cabin at Wildflower Woods," but her life was not as satisfying as before. Exhausted physically and mentally, she spent a month of rest at Clifton Springs Sanitarium and Clinic in New York. In 1920 during the silent film era, she relocated to California to make adaptions of most of her novels into film at least once. She is credited as the first woman to form a film studio and production company, Gene Stratton Porter Productions. Starting with silent films and ending in the 1940s, both "The Keeper of the Bees" and "A Girl of the Limberlost" were adapted to films four times. The made-for-television movies of "A Girl of the Limberlost" aired in 1990 and "City Boy," which was based on "Freckles," aired in 1992. Besides her Hollywood mansion, the family had a home on Caterina Island and in the mountains. Her novel "Her Father's Daughter" reached number two nationwide on "Publisher Weekly's" best-seller list in 1921 and number three on "The Bookman's" best-seller list in 1922. While being a passenger in a chauffeur-driven automobile, she was killed in an auto vs streetcar accident in 1924. Including internationally sales, ten million copies of her books in 20 languages sold by her death. Her home "The Cabin at Wildflower Woods" has become the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site. In 2013 the Indiana Historical Bureau and Gene Stratton-Porter Memorial Society erected a historical marker in Rome City. Several schools and scholarships have been named in her honor. Her remains were moved three times: they were held in a private vault until 1934 before being interred in Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In 1990, her family decided to have her remains re-interred with other family members at Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site in Indiana.