As a rule, I don’t find much to like about Gene Stratton-Porter’s novels, but her 1918 bestseller, A Daughter of the Land, is head and shoulders above the rest.
It’s one of the novels on my must-read-again list.
Kate Bates, the daughter of the land, wants an share of her father’s property equal to that he gave his sons. She doesn’t get it.
Nor will her father let her pursue a teaching certificate that might allow her to earn money to buy the farm she wants. So Kate takes matters into her own hands.
Unlike most of Stratton-Porter’s leading characters, Kate seems like a real person.
She wants a 200-acre farm and a fashionable hat, too.
She doesn’t just have set-backs.
She totally messes up and creates her own misfortunes.
She develops a tough hide and retains a warm heart.
The artists who designed these covers for A Daughter of the Land never read the novel.
© 2017 Linda Gorton Aragoni
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