Michael O Halloran

This early 20th-century classic chronicles the adventures of an orphaned newspaper boy in his "hand-to-hand scuffle" with life in a midwestern metropolis. Gene Stratton-Porter's faith in the healing power of nature is also apparent, in a lovingly depicted tamarack swamp set near the city.

Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was born on a farm in Indiana. She later lived in a cabin adjoining the Limberlost Swamp, immortalized in her best-selling A Girl of the Limberlost. In 1923 she moved to California for her health, but was killed in an automobile accident in 1924. Other Stratton-Porter novels reissued by Indiana University Press include Freckles, Laddie, The Harvester, and The Keeper of the Bees.