A Daughter of the Land

A Daughter of the Land (1918) by Gene Stratton Porter is, above all, a love song of a woman and the land from which she sprung. Kate Bates, tireless and hardworking, strapping and robust, stubborn and headstrong, is a sterling example of the American work ethic, the youngest daughter of a tight-fisted land baron -- Adam Bates, the Land King of Bates Corners, Hartley, Indiana -- and the sibling of a whole brood of Bates sons and daughters. The family has an intense relationship with the many acres of land they possess. Kate is the only one who rebels against her father, running away to make a difficult life for herself on her own terms -- and to escape the one man she cannot have and who has touched her heart. Her world is filled with "man's work," with tough loves and passionate hates, with seasons of cultivating land other than her own, despair, disappointment, and fulfillment in the eleventh hour. All throughout, Kate makes the best of things and "takes the wings of morning" until she can truly fly. And always, the land, in its glory, beckons.