“The Life She Wished to Live: A Biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings” By: Ann McCutchan

Don Noble's Book Reviews

“ The Life She Wished to Live: A Biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ” Author: Ann McCutchan Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co. Pages: 418 Price: $35.00 ( H ardback) New Biography of “The Yearling” Author Provides Insights into Life, Work At th e time of her death from a stroke on December 14, 1953 at 57 years old, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was one of America’s most famous and celebrated w r iters and the author of 8 books. She published several novels, a cookbook and a memoir but two of her books, best - sellers, seem to be classics. Both are set in Florida —" The Yearling ” ( 1938 ) and her memoir, “ Cross Creek ” ( 1942 )— but Marjorie herself did not start out as a Floridian or even a Southerner. She was born in 1896 and raised in a sub urb of Washington D. C. the daughter of a schoolteacher turned government worker, sometimes in the Patent Office. Her parents, children of the Midwest, had some land, grew veg e tabl es, and kept cows. Arthur , he r fath er, whom she adored , love d