Wonder, Hope, Love, and Loss: The Selected Novels of Gene Stratton-Porter

By Gene Stratton-Porter and Scott Russell Sanders

Three classic stories for young adults about the wonder and power of our connections with nature and each other.

Gene Stratton-Porter was a pioneer naturalist, wilderness advocate, and author. She wrote both fiction and nonfiction about the woods and swampland that she loved so much, and her tales of finding independence and courage through building a relationship with nature touched millions of readers both when she was writing and to this day. In Wonder, Hope, Love, and Loss: The Selected Novels of Gene Stratton-Porter, three of her most timeless classics are collected in one volume. A Girl of the Limberlost, Freckles, and The Harvester demonstrate the power of Stratton-Porter’s writing for young people as she explores how the natural world can provide not just a means of sustenance, but also a source of strength in the face of the world’s difficulties and, ultimately, a place where you can be true to yourself.

In both A Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles, we see young Elnora Cornstock and an orphan boy known only as Freckles develop a love of Limberlost Swamp, using it to gain independence and find true connections with others. Taking place in the woodlands of the Midwest, The Harvester tells the story of a young man who lives on his own and who heals an ill girl. In each book, nature is a powerful force that helps the characters deal with the pain of their pasts and the uncertainty of the present. With a foreword by award-winning essayist Scott Russell Sanders, Wonder, Hope, Love, and Loss: The Selected Novels of Gene Stratton-Porter brings together three classic novels that deserve a place on any young adult’s bookshelf.

Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readerspicture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sky Pony Press
• Release date: Jun 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781632209429

Gene Stratton-Porter

Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was an American author, photographer, and naturalist. Born in Indiana, she was raised in a family of eleven children. In 1874, she moved with her parents to Wabash, Indiana, where her mother would die in 1875. When she wasn’t studying literature, music, and art at school and with tutors, Stratton-Porter developed her interest in nature by spending much of her time outdoors. In 1885, after a year-long courtship, she became engaged to druggist Charles Dorwin Porter, with whom she would have a daughter. She soon grew tired of traditional family life, however, and dedicated herself to writing by 1895. At their cabin in Indiana, she conducted lengthy studies of the natural world, focusing on birds and ecology. She published her stories, essays, and photographs in Outing, Metropolitan, and Good Housekeeping before embarking on a career as a novelist. Freckles (1904) and A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) were both immediate bestsellers, entertaining countless readers with their stories of youth, romance, and survival. Much of her works, fiction and nonfiction, are set in Indiana’s Limberlost Swamp, a vital wetland connected to the Wabash River. As the twentieth century progressed, the swamp was drained and cultivated as farmland, making Stratton-Porter’s depictions a vital resource for remembering and celebrating the region. Over the past several decades, however, thousands of acres of the wetland have been restored, marking the return of countless species to the Limberlost, which for Stratton-Porter was always “a word with which to conjure; a spot wherein to revel.”