Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

I wonder if we all have a childhood passion sleeping inside of us just waiting to be awakened. For Jill Esbaum, this was her personal connection, her way into a story about Gene Stratton-Porter. With this post and this gorgeous new book, Jill will have all of us thinking about revisiting long ago  joys.

We have a GIVEAWAY! Leave a comment below to be entered to win a copy of BIRD GIRL: GENE STRATTON-PORTER SHARES HER LOVE OF NATURE WITH THE WORLD!

Congratulations to Elizabeth Volkmann, winner of WAKE UP, WOODLANDS from Karen Jameson!! 

Discovering a Kindred Spirit by Jill Esbaum

As a child, I loved making up stories and writing about things happening around me. But while muddling my way through middle school and junior high, trying out pretty much everything, writing fell by the wayside. I didn’t give another thought to writing for pleasure until my own kids were small. While reading them stacks of picture books, I continuously felt an internal nudge:  Could I write one of these?

I eventually dove in, of course. I kept my dream secret from all but family and close friends, because what if I bombed? During those first months of writing, I kept feeling an odd sense of deja vu. What was up with that? And then my mom showed me a few of my stories and stapled-together “books” she’d kept. Hold the phone! There she still was, that long-forgotten, goofy, imaginative kid, patiently waiting to be rediscovered. For the first time in my life, I felt connected to my most authentic self.

On the surface, my upbringing in a small town was very different from Gene Stratton-Porter’s. Born into a large farm family in 1863, little Geneva was very much a free-range child, exploring every inch of farm fields, vine-choked fencerows, and orchards that surrounded the family home.

She fell in love with birds and, through trial and error, learned how to gain their trust. By the time she was nine, she was an old hand at taming blue jays (and teaching them tricks), treating injured birds, and was even able to approach nests and feed hatchlings the seeds and insects she kept in her pockets.

But when Geneva was eleven, the family moved to town. She felt like an outcast weirdo next to the town girls her age. But she worked to fit in and, like so many of us, let go of childhood passions.

Flash forward many years. Gene was married, had a child in school, and had just moved into a home of her own design at the edge of Indiana’s vast, spooky Limberlost Swamp. At last, she could renew her acquaintance with and study of birds. She’d made sure her new home had a conservatory with special levered windows to allow her winged friends to fly in and out as they pleased. Finally, she could indulge in her long-held, secret dream:  writing of her true experiences with birds.

Here’s why I instantly felt drawn to Stratton-Porter. It was that secret yearning to write, yes, but even more so, it was the fact that it wasn’t until she was an adult with a school-age child that she finally reconnected with that passion first sparked in her soul as an eight-year-old child. The one she’d repressed for thirty years, same as me.

I could also relate to her stubbornness. In my case, it was staying the course amid a growing file of picture book rejections. In her case, a magazine editor accepted an article she wrote but wanted to pair it with drawings of stuffed birds posed in unnatural ways. She declined, until …

A few months later her husband and daughter gave her a camera. She took a picture of the family’s parrot, and even though it was streaked and unfocused, she experienced a “Eureka!” moment. She’d teach herself to take photos of birds in the wild, then submit them with her articles. What did she know about the relatively new field of nature photography? Nothing. Becoming proficient took Gene nearly five years. That’s five years of stubbornly slogging through an overgrown, snake-infested swamp, lugging a forty-pound camera and glass plates. Climbing trees. Hanging over muddy riverbanks. Wading through stagnant ponds in hip boots. Talk about reconnecting with your childhood!

The woman was a force of nature. A force for nature. Over the course of her career, Gene published 26 books, all containing plenty of what she called “nature stuff.” She received thousands of fan letters from people around the world who wanted to let her know that, because of her books, they’d discovered a new appreciation for nature.

I hope those who read Bird Girl – Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World will pick up on the subtle subtheme running through her story––that those passions ignited in childhood can be resurrected years later, and that rediscovering them can provide us some of the happiest, most fulfilling times of our lives.

Don’t forget to leave a comment to enter the GIVEAWAY for your very own copy of BIRD GIRL: GENE STRATTON-PORTER SHARES HER LOVE OF NATURE WITH THE WORLD!, [U.S. addresses only, please. Winner announced 3/29/24]

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