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Author caught in Florida's spellBy HOLLY ATKINS WONDERS OF FLORIDA * * * "Every pine tree, every gallberry bush, every passion vine, every joree rustling in the underbrush, is vibrant. I have walked it in trouble, and the wind in the trees beside me is easing. I have walked it in despair, and the red of the sunset is my own blood dissolving into the night's darkness. For all such things were on earth before us, and will survive after us, and it is given to us to join ourselves with them and to be comforted." -- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings * * *
Most of the authors write exclusively for young adults. Some, including Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, have written books for adults as well. Whether native born or transplants, these authors are part of our state's rich literary tradition. Their voices blend with those of Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Hiaasen and others who remind us of how Florida used to be, where we are now and where we might be in the years ahead. These writers paint the full picture of Florida. Magnificent sunsets, white sandy beaches and gentle tropical breezes find their places alongside devastating hurricanes, terrifying thunderstorms and home-swallowing sinkholes. Their characters are courageous and weak, hard working and "good for nothin'," accepting and prejudiced. This is who we are and where we live. This is the wonder of Florida. A sense of place
Rawlings found her small place of enchantment at Cross Creek, in Florida's mossy north-central region. "When I came to the Creek, I knew the old grove and the farmhouse at once as home." Setting, the time and place of a story, is an important part of Rawlings' work. Focusing on a specific environment, authors such as Rawlings write in a style often known as local color or regional writing. In The Yearling, for example, the harsh environment of North Florida's backwoods in the 1930s plays such a major role in the story that it almost becomes a character in itself. This book, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1939, is the coming-of-age story of Jody Baxter. Jody adopts an orphaned fawn as a pet, but eventually must face the harsh realities of life on a farm. Like the Harry Potter books today, The Yearling was wildly popular and was made into a movie in 1946. Rawlings is also known for Cross Creek, her autobiographical account of life in her rustic home, surrounded by orange groves and nestled among the scrub bushes and piney woods now part of the Ocala National Forest. Marjorie Kinnan, born in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 8, 1896, attended the University of Wisconsin and eventually moved to Rochester, N.Y., after her marriage to fellow writer Charles Rawlings. In 1928 the couple purchased a 72-acre orange grove near Hawthorne -- "a bend in a country road, by land, and the flowing of Lochloosa Lake into Orange Lake, by water where Lochloosa Lake flows into Orange Lake." Here at Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings found not only her true home, but also her author's voice. Her book Cross Creek ends with these words: "It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed but not bought. It may be used but not owned. It gives itself in response to love and tending, offers its seasonal flowering and fruiting. But we are tenants and not possessors, lovers and not masters. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time." Learning to write, writing to learn
In 1992, the Pinellas County School District opened Rawlings Elementary, where pre-kindergartners through fifth graders learn the value of writing as a tool for learning and self-expression. Innovative writing programs, led by Writers Camp coordinator Mary Osborne, make Rawlings a place where student authors learn to write and write to learn. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings would be pleased. Web sites to exploreweb.english.ufl.edu/rawlings/ -- The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society official Web site. abfla.com/parks/MarjorieKinnanRawlings/ Books by Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsSouth Moon Under, 1933; Golden Apples, 1935; The Yearling, 1938 (winner of the Pulitzer Prize); When the Whippoorwill, 1940; Cross Creek, 1942; Cross Creek Cookery, 1942; The Sojourner, 1953; The Secret River, 1955 (a children's book published after Rawlings' death); The Marjorie Rawlings Reader, 1956;Short Stories by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, edited by Roger Tarr, 1994; Poems by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; Songs of a Housewife, edited by Roger Tarr, 1996 * * * - Holly Atkins, a National Board Certified Teacher, is the language arts department head at Bay Point Middle School in St. Petersburg. Atkins, who has been a resident of St. Pete Beach nearly all her life, has been an instructor at the Poynter Institute's Writers' Camp and is the proud teacher of local and national award-winning student writers. ABOUT NEWSPAPER IN EDUCATIONThe St. Petersburg Times devotes news space to NIE features throughout the year, including this class room series. The Times' NIE department works with local businesses and individuals to enrich the classroom experience by providing newspapers, supplemental guides and educational services to schools in the Tampa Bay area. To let us know what you think about this series or to find out how you can become involved in NIE, please call (727) 893-8969 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 8969.
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The words of one of Florida's first ladies of fiction open a new section of articles in the "Wonders of Florida" series. During the next six weeks, we'll be meeting authors who've got sand in their shoes. You know, that love of palm trees, sunsets and warm summer nights that grabs hold so tightly even a born-and-raised Yankee can be moved to trade his snow shovel for a beach umbrella.
