Born: 8 August 1896, United States
Died: 14 December 1953
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Marjorie Kinnan
American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is best known for her 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning teen novel The Yearling, about a Florida boy who adopts a young deer. The book was adapted into an MGM film in 1946.
In addition to familial relationships, Rawlings often wrote about rural settings and themes, based on her years in a small Florida town. Local residents were often angry at their depictions, including one who sued for defamation and another who reputedly threatened to beat Rawlings to death. Her first novel, 1933’s South Moon Under, was one of several of her works to focus on moonshiners. It was included in the Book of the Month Club and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 1935’s Golden Apples was less well-received, with Rawlings herself describing it as “interesting trash instead of literature.” The Yearling was followed by the autobographical Cross Creek (the name of her Florida town) in 1942 and her last novel, 1953’s The Sojourner. She also published 33 short stories in publications like Scribners between 1912 and 1949.