Today is the birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953), best known for her book The Yearling, published in 1938. It was the best-selling novel in
America in that year and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.
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| Rawlings, 1953 |
The Yearling is
about an adolescent boy in rural Florida who adopts an orphaned baby deer named
Flag, becomes really close to the deer, and then, in the end, has to shoot Flag
because it's eating all the family's crops.
The Yearling was
adapted for the screen in 1946 and was a favorite rerun during the early days
of television. I loved the movie although I always cried when I watched it.
Cross Creek is a
1983 film based, in part, on Rawlings' 1942 memoir by the same title. The film stars
Mary Steenburgen as Rawlings. I loved this movie as well.
Cross Creek is the name of a hamlet near Hawthorne, Florida,
where Rawlings purchased a 72 acre orange grove in 1928. She brought
international fame to the place through her writing. She was fascinated with
the remote wilderness and the lives of Cross Creek residents, her "Florida
cracker" neighbors, and felt a profound and transforming connection to the
region and the land.
Her land at Cross Creek is now the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Historic State Park.
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| Rawlings home at Cross Creek |
Did you read the book or see the movie The Yearling when you were growing up? If you haven’t seen Cross Creek, you should check it out. I
think you’d enjoy it very much, even though it’s now considered an “old” movie.
Rawlings wrote many more books about her experiences at Cross Creek. I noted that some are available free via the Gutenberg project. I think I'll check it out, as I've never read any of her other books.
I recall The Yearling movie just enough to know it was too sad for me to ever watch a second time. Kind of like the movie Bambi, once only. I am interested in reading about Cross Creek though and will look for her other books.
ReplyDeleteMKR had an interesting life. An independent woman who lived on her own and ran an orange grove. If you get a chance rent the movie.
DeleteHello Sanda
ReplyDeleteThanks for the introduction to The Yearling and Ms Rawling.
I will certainly look out for the movie and book.
Hope you have a great week
Helen xx
The Yearling was too sad for words, but still worth a watch/read because she captured the ways of the people and the times in backwoods Florida in the 1930s.
Deletei remember the book and movie being very sad. i saw the mary steenburgen cross creek but don't remember much about it except for a scene or 2. i hadn't realized there was a book it was based on.
ReplyDeleteIt's been quite a few years since I watched the movie. Want to get it and watch to see if it holds up over time. Some do, some don't!
DeleteTotally news for me.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad book / movie, the one you told about. Too painful for me to see / read.
I hope her other books are different.
It´s rare for me to see the same movie twice or read the same book over again.
I guess I just wish to keep/ save my first impression.
Like you, I ordinarily don't ordinarily watch a movie more than once (I have a few exceptions; my very favorite movies I will watch time and time again).
DeleteI have heard of The Yearling but never read it or seen the movie. I'll watch out for it now - you have raised my interest!
ReplyDeleteThe movie Cross Creek includes the segment about The Yearling story. If you read or watch, let me know what you think!
DeleteWhat a sad story! I remember a few stories similar to this one that were meant as children's literature but nobody ever warned me that the ending was so horrible. I cried for days. Not happy memories :-(
ReplyDeleteNot all stories end happily, and perhaps even children should learn that. But when it involves an animal I can hardly stand a sad outcome.
DeleteI vaguely heard of the film but not what it was about,I cried in the Bambi film,also when I read Black Beauty.These sad stories are an indelible part of our childhood.
ReplyDeleteStories we remember always Bambi was one I cried through as well.
Delete