In 1922 and 1923, Mrs. Porter wrote editorials for McCALL’S. Although this was a new experience, her work was regarded as very successful. Her first book of poetry, FIRE BIRD, was published in 1922. This was a definite attempt to meet the requirements of the literary critics with a work of top literary quality. Its reception, however, was disappointing; as poetry, it failed to communicate itself to its readers. “Euphorbia,” another poem, which ran as a serial in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, was never published in book form and immediately passed into the realm of the forgotten. Throughout her career Mrs. Porter disciplined herself to a definite amount of time for work each day; from this regimen, she was unwilling to be diverted. Although neighbors and acquaintances sometimes refused to understand, the author persisted in her schedule. At times Mrs. Porter also placed restrictions on invasion of her privacy at Sylvan Lake. She remarked that her property rights were not respected and that as an example, on one occasion, thoughtless fishermen dug angle-worms in her carefully cultivated gentia bed. For reasons of health, Mrs. Porter decided in 1922 to make her home permanently in California, where she had been wintering for several years. Since royalties from the purchases of fifty million readers were pouring into her purse, and she could buy almost anything she wanted, she planned to build two houses in California; one was at Bel-Air, near Los Angeles, and the other was at Avalon. The work on these began in 1923. Here she wrote MAGIC GARDEN and KEEPER OF THE BEES. Turning her attention to the possibility of screening her stories, she organized Gene Stratton Porter, Inc., a Delaware corporation, to produce motion pictures of her novels. She was assisted by her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. James Meehan, and Mr. Meehan became her director. Some attempt was made to deflect these screen stories toward a sensational love interest both untoward and foreign to the original story. Mrs. Porter protested stoutly, so the stories were screened with great fidelity to the original text. Mrs. Porter’s health throughout life was unusually good. However, at one time, she received serious injuries in a fall; later she submitted to four severe surgical operations on her jaws and facial bones because of impacted teeth. In 1923, Gene Stratton Porter, while driving her car in Los Angeles, became involved in a collision with a city streetcar and was killed instantly.