Essay on the Yearling Books Publication

In the nearly fifty years since Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' novel The Yearling(1938) was published, it has joined the distinguished ranks of Robinson Crusoe (1719), Two Years Before the Mast (1840), and The Last of the Mohicans (1826)-all books not originally intended for children that nevertheless have become classic "boys' books." During her lifetime, Rawlings published nothing intended for children. The Secret River (1955), a picture book, was published posthumously, but it is a slight story of a child …

…to the period and shifting subtly from one individual to another. Through the characters' own words, as well as through her descriptions, Rawlings expresses the hardships and the beauty of life in the northern Florida scrub country. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' legacy to children's literature essentially consists of just one book, The Yearling, but it is a book that even after fifty years still lives through its strong characters, its telling metaphor, and its vivid scenes.