Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

An often-overlooked early work—and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—by celebrated writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, now available in this Florida Edition with a new foreword for today’s readers by Lauren Groff Originally published in 1933, South Moon Under is the first novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Set in the Big Scrub of Florida, a sparsely inhabited backwoods near Rawlings’s homestead at Cross Creek, the novel tells a multigenerational tale of the rural Lantry family and their struggle to eke out a living on the land. It depicts pioneer existence before Florida’s twentieth-century tourism and development—and displays the literary powers that would earn Rawlings the Pulitzer Prize six years later for her novel The Yearling. Introduced with a foreword by contemporary writer Lauren Groff, this edition of South Moon Under encourages today’s readers to engage with this lesser-known work. With accounts of moonshining, logging and turpentining, hunting, cattle running, foodways, and frontier justice, Rawlings made an impact on American literary culture of her time by shining a light on the people and customs of the scrub. And in this book the Florida wilderness itself emerges as an unforgettable character, a force of its own alive with mystery, richly described by Rawlings alongside unsentimental stories of survival in a bygone century.

A collection of literary work that shows the artistic development of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author From her first poems and stories to her finely crafted essays as a newspaper and feature writer to the gathering brilliance that began at the outset of her Florida Period, highlighted by the Pulitzer Prize for The Yearling in 1939, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings became, in the words of Margaret Mitchell, America's "born perfect storyteller." Arguing that Rawlings has been underestimated and underappreciated as a great American writer, Rodger Tarr and Brent Kinser present Rawlings's emergence and maturation as an artist. This collection brings together for the first time the work that contributed to her once stellar position as a hero of American letters. Rawlings's childhood publications in the Washington Post and McCall's magazine reveal a budding Romantic if not an emerging Transcendentalist determined to pursue humanity's relationship with nature. As a young storyteller Rawlings had a compelling interest in fairytales, marked by a sense of the comedic and the sentimental, and always the moral. Many of her early stories and poems, especially those written while she was a student at the University of Wisconsin, also reflect her developing feminist spirit, an interest that she continued to pursue as a feature writer for newspapers in Louisville, Kentucky, and Rochester, New York. Like many writers, Rawlings was self-critical. She was particularly aware of writing as a discipline and as an adult was prone to dismiss her early work as overly wrought. However, as her mature work demonstrates, she owed a great deal to the skills learned in her development as an artist. Rawlings knew that successful writing owed less to inspiration than to hard work, a lesson she experienced repeatedly during the writing of her stories and novels under the guiding hand of her celebrated editor Maxwell E. Perkins. This collection of early work, college writing, newspaper pieces, and stories of life in Florida is an intimate glimpse at an important writer mastering her craft.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE'A literary masterpiece for all ages . . . 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'An unsentimental, stone-cold classic that should be spoken of in the same breath - and read as religiously - as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird' THE TIMES'A genuine classic . . . I was stunned to awe by The Yearling's beauty and strength' LAUREN GROFFIn the remote, unforgiving landscape of central Florida, Ezra 'Penny' Baxter, his wife Ora and their son Jody carve out a precarious existence. Only ever a failed crop away from disaster, life in the Big Scrub is one of lurking danger, wild beauty and the thrill of the hunt.Jody's world is transformed when he rescues a starving fawn, who becomes his constant companion. But their bond is threatened when the yearling endangers the family's survival - and Jody is forced to make a terrible choice that will change him forever. Winner of the 1939 Pulitzer Prize and an instant bestseller, The Yearling is a moving and richly evocative classic for readers of all ages.

An American classic--and Pulitzer Prize-winning story--that shows the ultimate bond between child and pet, now in a lush keepsake edition. No novel better epitomizes the love between a child and a pet than The Yearling. When young Jody Baxter adopts and orphaned fawn he calls Flag, he makes it a part of his family and his best friend. But life in the Florida backwoods is harsh, and so, as his family fights off wolves, bears, and even alligators, and faces failure in their tenuous subsistence farming, Jody must finally part with his dear animal friend. There has been a film and even a musical based on this moving story, a fine work of great American literature which won Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings a Pulitzer Prize. Complete with N.C. Wyeth's original oil paintings, this glowing work features a soft touch cover, gold foiling, and tip-in artwork.

Hard times have come to the forest, but Calpurnia wants to turn them back into soft times. With her dog Buggy Horse and a tip from old Mother Albirtha, the wisest person in the forest, Calpurnia finds a secret river and catches enough catfish to feed the whole swamp land and even have some left over for Daddy to sell. When she tries to come back, she has to learn the lesson that Sometimes a thing happens once, and does not ever happen anymore ' This story is about living in a time of want, yet it is overflowing with riches.'

This version of Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's first novel captures the richness of the Florida wetlands and tells the story of a young man, Lant, who must support himself and his mother by making and selling moonshine. "South Moon Under" was included in the Book-of-the-Month Club and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Written in 1928, the year Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moved to Cross Creek, her autobiographical first novel, Blood of My Blood, was never published. Its existence was unknown to her contemporaries - including Max Perkins, her editor at Scribner's. Blood of My Blood is a portrait of the young artist very nearly ruined by egotism and through being alternately pushed and spoiled by her mother Ida. It is also a tender tribute to her father Arthur and a moving account of their relationship. But always at the center of the story is the intense love and hate that flamed back and forth between mother and daughter. Blood of My Blood reveals not only the painful process of maturation for a creative but tormented mind but also the steady growth of an artist. There are wonderful descriptions of the natural world, people, objects, and - uniquely for Rawlings - of the big city and city-dwellers. Born in Washington, D.C., and reared there until her graduation from high school in 1914, Rawlings' descriptions of the city are historically charming, and her depiction of the society where ""class distinctions were shaved wafer thin"" is remarkable for its pertinence nearly a century later.

No novel better epitomizes the love between a child and a pet than "The Yearling." Young Jody adopts an orphaned fawn he calls Flag and makes it a part of his family and his best friend. But life in the Florida backwoods is harsh, and so, as his family fights off wolves, bears, and even alligators, and faces failure in their tenuous subsistence farming, Jody must finally part with his dear animal friend. There has been a film and even a musical based on this moving story, a fine work of great American literature.

The Classic Book on Southern Cooking First published in 1942, "Cross Creek Cookery" was compiled by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings at the request of readers who wanted to recreate the luscious meals described in "Cross Creek" -- her famous memoir of life in a Florida hamlet. Lovers of old-fashioned, down-home cooking will treasure the recipes for Grits, Hush-Puppies, Florida Fried Fish, Orange Fluff, and Utterly Deadly Southern Pecan Pie. For more adventuresome palates, there are such unusual dishes as Minorcan Gopher Stew, Coot Surprise, Alligator-Tail Steak, Mayhaw Jelly, and Chef Huston's Cream of Peanut Soup. Spiced with delightful anecdotes and lore, "Cross Creek Cookery" guides the reader through the rich culinary heritage of the deep tidal South with a loving regard for the rituals of cooking and eating. Anyone who longs for food -- and writing -- that warms the heart will find ample portions of both in this classic cookbook.

A collection of Rawlings's 23 published short stories. This comprehensive volume of humorous stories about the South includes the 1932 prize-winning ""Gal Young 'Un"". Portrayals of blacks and of the Florida cracker, situations, and language all depict an era of transition in 20th-century US culture.

Jody grows up in the backwoods of Florida in the early 1900s, where school is the forest, land and river, and lessons are in farming, fishing and hunting. His discovery of a fawn opens up a new world of companionship and friendship.

This collection of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's correspondence includes her observations on contemporaries such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Wolfe, and provides an introduction to her life, as well as informative annotations, chronology, and index.

In this classic story of the Baxter family of inland Florida and their wild, hard, satisfying life, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings has written one of the great novels of our times. A rich and varied story - tender in its understanding of boyhood, crowded with the excitement of the backwoods hunt, with vivid descriptions of the primitive, beautiful hammock country, with humor and earthy philosophy - The Yearling is a novel for readers of all tastes and ages. Its glowing picture of life that is far and refreshingly removed from modern patterns of living becomes universal in its revelation of simple courageous people and the abiding beliefs they live by. Winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1938, The Yearling was made available the following year in a special edition illustrated by the distinguished American artist, N.C. Wyeth. The original paintings have been re-photographed and new plates made for this handsome volume.