Gene Stratton-Porter was Indiana's most widely read female author and an ardent conservationist who used her fame to support preservation of wetlands across Indiana. Her photography and writing were published nationally, and she said, "I write as the birds sing, because I must, and usually from the same source of inspiration." Porter worked with studios on adapting her novels into film, and later, to gain greater control of the creative process, became one of the first women to form a movie studio and a production company. She also said, "If you are lazy, and accept your lot, you may live in it. If you are willing to work, you can write your name anywhere you choose." Born on a farm in Wabash County, Indiana, in 1863 as Geneva Grace Stratton, the youngest of 12 children, she later married, moved, and built a home called Limberlost Cabin near the swamp where she liked to photograph and explore; this period of her life inspired her novel A Girl of the Limberlost, which was adapted four times as a film.