The Washington herald., 1921-09-18
NATURE WRITER'S
CREED EXPLAINED
IN NEWS LETTER
Gene Stratton : Porter's
Folk Clean, Beasts
Unfaked.

Mrs. Gene strattan-Porter be-
lieves that she has a definite faith
to keep with the readers who have
learned through her books to love
the furred and fsathered neighbors
of the outdoors, the overs and In
sect life of the forests and have
felt the share of the clean, whole
some life Of ideals which her story
people live.
Just before the publication of her
latest novel. Her Fathers Daugh-
ter" by Doubleday, Page and Com
pany, Mrs. Porter wrote for the
Los Angeles Times a little declara-
ton of faith, a statement of the
creed which she has followed in
writing the books which touch and
influence so many millions off lives
Characters Cast Clear.
TN the language of the old hymn.
A Charge to Keep I Have with my
reading public, 1 have taught 49,
ooo, 900 men, women and children to
expect from me a. story Of: men
and women who for most part are
living up to their highest ideals, or
are being punished because they
are not. have left detailed de-
scriptions of intrigue to these men
and women who feel qualified to
handle these subjects in a manner
faI a. raodino nnhlin L
am neither blind nor lacking in
perception as to the waywardness
and complication of human nature.
It is merely that my call has been
to reproduce the lives of clean,
moral men and women. who are
spending their time and strength
in an effort to make the world u
better place for themselves and for
their children.
While / was arranging for the
publication of my first book, an edi-
tor whose judgment l learned later
to respect highly, said to me that
il / would cut the natare part from
my book, he would guarantee that
it would earn thousands of dollars.
II left 1t as 1 had originally writ
ten it. i might perhaps hope to
clear $500. My reply was that since
1 had written the book for the ex-
press purpose of putting nature
work before the people in a form In
which they would accept II,
should insist on having 1t pub
lished as IL was written, and
would be satisfied with whatever
fnacial returns 1t brought. Nei-
ther of us imagined nor hoped that
fifteen years later the book would
be living and selling steadily year
after year. / attribute this to the
fact that all natural history / ever
have put into a book has been the
result of personal investigation.
clean, straight stun. scientifically
verified in every instance. And all
characters that 1 ever have incor-
porated in a book I have tried sin
cerely to use in the working out of
recognized and high principles of
conduct. These books have made
their way around the world, where
ever English is understood. and
have been translated into seven
foreign tongues. and many of them
raised in Braille print for the blind
Never Worked for Money.
II have at command at least two
never worked for money. That
the books have earned large sums
has been a greater surprise to me
than to any one else, and in this
fact lies my first basic proof that
love OF nature and love of my fell
bowman inspired them. Certainly II
will tax no ones mentality to un-
derstand, that when these nature
stories began bringing large re-
turns, IL l had been interested IN
accommodating a fortune never
should have taken the time or spent
much of the returns from the ma
ture stories, in illustrating and
writing every other year a book of
natural history, when I know, in all
reason. that 1t would find an audi
ence of from $4,000 to 10000 read
ers. where a novel would attain to
the neighborhood of 100000. Know
ing this, for the past fifteen years
have gone on deliberately writing
a nature book every other year. be-
cause 1t was natural history In
which I,really wished to interest my
| readers.
From the letters which daily
| flood my mall l have come to feel
that Freckles and Elnora, that the
Harvester and Danny and Laddie
and Mickey and Kate, are every
body's children, even as they are
the children of my heart and brain.o'