Existing comment:
ORANGE FRITTERS AND A STORY
36" X 54" Oil Painting
Author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings at Cross Creek, 1935.
One of the nation's most famous writers, a transplant from Rochester, New York, came to Florida in 1928 and purchased a small country home and orange grove at Cross Creek between Ocala and Gainesville. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings discovered the charm of the local country people and their trials and adventures in the backwoods of Florida, writing of them in her moving stories. Her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "The Yearling," established Rawlings as an important American writer and brought "Cracker Florida" to the world.
In this portrayal, Marjorie's dog "Moe" follows along, sensing the delicious aroma from the basket of warm orange fritters. He is oblivious to a family of mallard ducks scurrying into the wild water hyssop, thoroughwort, and bitter weed.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings continued to live at her grove house at Cross Creek and to write. She married her long time friend, Norton Baskin in 1941. Her health became a concern when she was involved in a five-year lawsuit with an individual who felt defamed regarding an uncomplimentary portrayal in the novel Cross Creek. After moving to St. Augustine with Norton, she became ill and died in 1953 at age 57. Rawlings lays at rest in a small country cemetery near Cross Creek in the peace and wild beauty of the rural Florida that she loved.
Today, visitors can still find her small house very much as it was when she lived and worked there. |