Mrs. Porter's answer was the issuing
of such books as "Music of the Wild" and "Moths of the Limberlost."
No argument is necessary. Mr. Edward Shuman, formerly critic of the
Chicago Record-Herald, was impressed by this method of work and
pointed it out in a review. It appealed to Mr. Shuman, when "Moths
of the Limberlost" came in for review, following the tremendous
success of "The Harvester," that had the author been working for
money, she could have written half a dozen more "Harvesters" while
putting seven years of field work, on a scientific subject, into a
personally illustrated work.
In an interesting passage dealing with her books, Mrs. Porter
writes: "I have done three times the work on my books of fiction
that I see other writers putting into a novel, in order to make all
natural history allusions accurate and to write them in such
fashion that they will meet with the commendation of high schools,
colleges, and universities using what I write as text books, and
for the homes that place them in their libraries. I am perfectly
willing to let time and the hearts of the people set my work in its
ultimate place. I have no delusions concerning it.
"To my way of thinking and working the greatest service a piece of
fiction can do any reader is to leave him with a higher ideal of
life than he had when he began. If in one small degree it shows
him where he can be a gentler, saner, cleaner, kindlier man, it is
a wonder-working book. If it opens his eyes to one beauty in nature
he never saw for himself, and leads him one step toward the God of
the Universe, it is a beneficial book, for one step into the
miracles of nature leads to that long walk, the glories of which so
strengthen even a boy who thinks he is dying, that he faces his
struggle like a gladiator.
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