Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan (1896-1953)

American novelist, whose works explore the need for humans to live in harmony with the natural environment. Her books reflect her love of the land, particularly the land and people of north central Florida. In 1938 Rawlings was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her young adult novel The Yearling (1938), the popular and critical success of which made her one of the most beloved of American children's authors. She was born Marjorie Kinnan in Washington, D.C. After her father died in 1913, she moved with her mother and brother to Madison, Wisconsin, where she soon enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, graduating in 1918 with a B.A. degree in English. The next year she married fellow writer Charles A. Rawlings, Jr., and moved with him to Rochester, New York, where she worked as a newspaper writer. In 1928 Rawlings purchased an orange grove in Cross Creek, Florida, where she and her husband subsequently moved to restore the farm to working condition. After divorcing her husband in 1933, Rawlings stayed in Cross Creek. She married Norton Sanford Baskin, a restaurant and hotel operator, in 1941. The rural atmosphere of her surroundings in Florida inspired Rawlings to write fiction, including the novels Jacob's Ladder (1931), which was originally published as a short story, and South Moon Under (1933), as well as a emiautobiographical work entitled Cross Creek (1943). It describes how she first arrived in Florida and came to love its rural way of life, despite the hardships it entailed. The book was made into a motion picture in 1983. Rawlings is best known for The Yearling, the tale of a boy, his pet deer, and his sad passage to adulthood. It was made into a motion picture in 1946 and has been published in more than 20 languages. Rawlings's final novel was The Sojourner (1953), a tribute to her grandfather. Her other works include the novels Golden Apples (1935) and Mountain Prelude (1947), short stories, nonfiction articles, and a cookbook entitled Cross Creek Cookery (1942).