Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953) was an American short-story writer and novelist born in Washington, D.C. She is best known for developing a canon of regional literature for rural Florida, where she moved as an adult after purchasing seventeen acres of land to focus on farming oranges and writing fiction. She expressed deep feelings for the local nature and high regard for the near-wild backwaters of Florida in her late works. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings published several novels throughout her career, including Cross Creek, South Moon Under, The Sojourner, Blood of My Blood, The Secret River and When the Whippoorwill; and a short story collection. Her most famous book, The Yearling, was the best-selling novel in the United States in 1938 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1939. She died in St Augustine, Florida in 1953.
A genuine classic ... The Yearling is a magnificent, transparent, slow-moving river. Its style is direct and free of fireworks ... The Yearling expresses both danger and beauty ... The novel's power is subtle, accumulating with every description of the natural world, until the book's rhythms become almost transcendental ... I was stunned to awe by The Yearling's beauty and strength Lauren Groff This is not simply a remarkable book for young people, though it is certainly that; it is a literary masterpiece for all ages ... Her world of rural America is so removed from ours, yet her story takes us there, steeping us in its landscape, language and people as it tells us a tale of growing up, of love and laughter, of tragedy and loss and grief - a tale that is so compelling that it turns the page for you: The Yearling leaves you tearful, breathless, exhilarated -- Michael Morpurgo This is not simply a remarkable book for young people, though it is certainly that; it is a literary masterpiece for all ages ... Her world of rural America is so removed from ours, yet her story takes us there, steeping us in its landscape, language and people as it tells us a tale of growing up, of love and laughter, of tragedy and loss and grief - a tale that is so compelling that it turns the page for you: The Yearling leaves you tearful, breathless, exhilarated Michael Morpurgo 'A genuine classic ... The Yearling is a magnificent, transparent, slow-moving river. Its style is direct and free of fireworks ... The Yearling expresses both danger and beauty: the Baxters are surviving on the brink, one dead sow or ruined corn crop from starvation, but there are also glorious passages about the land ... The novel's power is subtle, accumulating with every description of the natural world, until the book's rhythms become almost transcendental ... I was stunned to awe by The Yearling's beauty and strength and by Marjorie's empathy for her poor and struggling characters' -- Lauren Groff Harper's