We are not trying to be ingenious nor to find in Mrs. Deland’s work something which is not there. We have no patience with artificiality in dealing with these matters. We are simply trying to account for the feeling that sweeps over us as we re-read _The Iron Woman_, a feeling which we believe most of those who re-read the book will share. And we venture to think that in this attempt to solve our feeling about Mrs. Deland’s biggest novel we have solved the peculiarity of all her exquisite work. She is the ideal biographer. As supporting evidence to the case we have made (we hope it is a decent case) we call attention to her Old Chester books and stories. In _The Awakening of Helena Richie_, in _Old Chester Tales_, in _Dr. Lavendar’s People_--in them all, in all her work--we believe that the reader who takes the biographical standpoint will find the fullest satisfaction. It will be a full satisfaction indeed. Mrs. Deland is one of the ablest writers America has produced so far. We will allow her to be a genius if genius is, after all, merely the capacity for taking infinite pains and exhibiting an infinite comprehension of and sympathy with simple and memorable lives. BOOKS BY MARGARET DELAND _Good for the Soul._ _The Rising Tide._ _R. J.’s Mother._ _The Way to Peace._ _Where the Laborers Are Few._ _John Ward, Preacher._ _The Old Garden and Other Verses._ _Philip and His Wife._ _Florida Days._ _Sidney._ _The Story of a Child._ _The Wisdom of Fools._ _Mr. Tommy Dove and Other Stories._ _Old Chester Tales._ _Dr. Lavendar’s People._ _The Common Way_, 1904. _The Awakening of Helena Richie_, 1906. _An Encore_, 1907. _The Iron Woman_, 1911. _The Voice_, 1912. _Partners_, 1913. _The Hands of Esau_, 1914. _Around Old Chester_, 1915. _Small Things_, 1919. _The Vehement Flame_, 1922. _Published by Harper & Brothers, New York; Small Things is published by D. Appleton & Company, New York._ CHAPTER VIII GENE STRATTON-PORTER Because Gene Stratton-Porter cares for the truth that is in her, she is the most widely read and most widely loved author in America to-day, with the probable exception of Harold Bell Wright. She is absolutely sincere in all her work, she is in dead earnest, she does not care primarily for money, but for certain ideas and ideals. Let no one underestimate the tremendous power that is hers because of these things, let no one underestimate her hold upon millions of readers; let none undervalue the influence she has exerted and continues to exert, an influence always for good, for clean living, for manly men, for womanly women, for love of nature, for sane and reasonable human hopes and aspirations, for honest affection, for wholesome laughter, for a healthy emotionalism as the basis and justification of humble and invaluable lives.