About this Item
Quarto, softbound (stiff, cull-color photo. illustrated slick wrappers), 146 pp. Near Fine. From Preface: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote Cross Creek both from her home and farm located in the tiny hamlet of Cross Creek, in southeastern Alachua County, Florida, and from her beach cottage in Crescent Beach, St. John's County. In the book, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1942, Marjorie used her literary brilliance to tell the story of her first thirteen years at the Creek. The book has been acclaimed world-wide, only a little less so than her Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, The Yearling. Beyond its entertainment value, Cross Creek has a great deal of historical significance. The history of that period, 1928-1941, in rural Florida is a tale of the sacrifices and simple accomplishments of a class of people determined to survive in a backwoods environment that was sometimes harsh and ugly while always beautiful and bountiful. Rather than writing an autobiography of that time period, Marjorie viewed the book this way: "I wanted the thing objective, the only subjectivity consisting of my personal reaction to the Creek, its natural aspects and its people." The first time you read Cross Creek, it should be in Marjorie's original version- unabridged and straight through. In fact, to fully grasp the power and magic of her gifted literary ability, read it again. Why a Reader's Guide for the book Cross Creek? I'm sure each of you will have your own reasons for using this Reader's Guide to further your love and enjoyment of this unique person and her marvelous contributions to Florida literature. I was prompted to develop this ready reference format by my experiences as a part-time docent at her old house and farm. In order to prepare my spiel for the house guests, I often needed to refresh my memory rather quickly. However, I was not always able to read through her narrative fast enough to find a particular event or passage in time for my tour. My Reader's Guide contains several features designed to shorten the search for a specific passage, leaving a more comprehensive reading of her book to a less-hurried period of time. While the Index should prove to be the most frequently employed feature, it is the paraphrased abridgment of her text that may be of greatest value in the long run. When Marjorie was faced with a request from The Reader's Digest to publish an abridged Cross Creek in 1942, she had this to say to her editor Max Perkins about that: "Also, the Reader's Digest has written, wanting to do a 15,000 word condensation of "Cross Creek." The book certainly lends itself to this, and I should not have any objections, as I did to their condensing "The Yearling." They corresponded at length about the effect the abridgment might have on sales of her book, and decided that interest in her full-length book would be enhanced rather than hurt. As a result, the 15,000-word condensation was printed in 1941. Other Features of the Reader's Guide: Subheadings. I have inserted subheadings into her text at appropriate points to assist your search for specific subjects and accounts. I tried to confine as much of her pertinent narrative within each heading as practical without changing the chronology too much. Footnotes. My footnotes are added to clarify or edify certain subjects or events, some of which may have occurred since her time. In many instances I have referred to the pertinent research of others (such as her letters), followed by a brief bibliography. Index. Since Cross Creek had no index, my index should help you quickly find a subject of interest and the chapter(s) in which it appears. I did not index by page number because many subjects appeared in too many places. Passage Index. To further help your search, I have affixed the number of the page on =which a particular passage I wrote appears in her book. Table of Contents. Also, I have included a Table of Contents outlining the chapters and illustrations which appeared in her.
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