A Girl of the Limberlost: A 1909 novel by American writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter

A Girl of the Limberlost a novel by American writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter was published in August 1909. It is considered a classic of Indiana literature. It is the sequel to her earlier novel Freckles.The story takes place in Indiana in and around the Limberlost Swamp. Even at the time this impressive wetland region was being reduced by heavy logging natural oil extraction and drainage for agriculture. (The swamp and forestland eventually ceased to exist though projects since the 1990s have begun to restore a small part of it.)Patricia Raub (Senior Lecturer of American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston) notes that Stratton-Porter was one of the most popular woman novelists of the era who was known for her nature books and her editorials on McCalls Gene Stratton-Porter Page as well as for her novels. Raub writes At the time of her death in 1924 more than ten million copies of her books had been sold - and four more books were published after her death.Plot summary: The novel is set in northeastern Indiana. Most of the action takes place either in or around the Limberlost or in the nearby fictional town of Onabasha.The novels main character Elnora Comstock is an impoverished young woman who lives with her widowed mother Katharine Comstock on the edge of the Limberlost. Elnora faces cold neglect by her mother a woman who feels ruined by the death of her husband Robert Comstock who drowned in quicksand in the swamp. Katharine blames Elnora for his death because her husband died while she gave birth to their daughter and could not come to his rescue.The Comstocks make money by selling eggs and other farm products but Mrs. Comstock refuses to cut down a single tree in the forest or to delve for oil as the neighbors around them are doing even though the added income would make their lives easier.