Customer Reviews

Cross Creek

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Cross Creek is located just south of Gainesville, Florida, and in spite of the urban sprawl the community is today almost as isolated as it was in 1928, when Marjorie Kennan Rawlings and her first husband Charles Rawlings purchased a farm house and citrus grove in the area. At the time of the purchase, Rawlings was a failed novelist in a bad marriage, and both farm house and grove were neglected. A decade later she was a respected writer on the eve of her most popular novel and happily divorced, and the farm and its citrus groves were very much going concerns.

Rawlings would eventually remarry, and both her second marriage and her literary success would gradually lead her away from both her farm and the Cross Creek community--but she would never leave them entirely, always returning for the inspiration that fed her best works. The property was still in her possession and still in use as both a citrus grove and occasional residence at the time of her sudden death of cerebral hemorrhage in 1953. Rawlings left the it to the University of Florida, and in 1970 the property was turned over to the State of Florida for restoration and management. Restoration was completed in 1996, and while the large citrus grove that once surrounded the farm house has been reduced to a representative portion, visitors can now see the property as it existed in the 1930s and 1940s.

Although Rawlings won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel THE YEARLING and would publish several other novels and short story collections, today her literary reputation rests largely on the book CROSS CREEK, in which she details both her own struggle on the land the lives of the community as she knew it during the 1930s. While the book is clearly autobiographical, it is not autobiography per se; she gives little attention to her personal history, preferring to focus instead on the landscape and the individuals that surround her. The stories she offers are by turns funny, sad, thoughtful, each informed by an intensely felt observation of her environment. And while critics may accuse her of having been excessively sentimental in her fiction, no such sentimentality besets this particular work. It is brilliant from start to finish.

CROSS CREEK was published in 1942, and while it is very much of its era in its depiction of rural society and racial considerations, it also proved very much ahead of its time. It is profoundly concerned with ecology long before the term was popularized, and not only are its characters vividly alive, they move against a landscape that is as alive as they, a landscape that at once harsh and nurturing, at once giving and indifferent, and throughout the text (and most particularly in its final chapter) Rawlings repeatedly takes the point of view that we are not the owners of the earth, but its trustees; its care is in our hands.

I have read CROSS CREEK several times, and I returned to it in the wake of a visit to the Rawlings farm in 2003--and while it is not necessary to actually visit Cross Creek in order to fall in love with this book, they each inform the other. The book is somewhat obscure; the community of Cross Creek is difficult to find on the map and awkward to reach, hardly a place you would stumble upon by accident. It must be reached in deliberation. The guide at the Rawlings farm told me that in spite of this they received some forty thousand visitors from around the world each year--visitors drawn by the power of Rawlings' work and a determination to share in the environment she so loved. That is both testament and recommendation enough.

--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--

Cross Creek is one of the finest memoirs ever written, filled with grace and beauty from one of America's greatest writers, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Perhaps no other writer has so perfectly and honestly captured a place and time like Rawlings did in Cross Creek. It will transport you to that small acreage of backwoods Florida and cause you to wish for a life such as this.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings purchased a seventy-two acre orange grove in this remote area and fled her aristocratic life in the city to perfect her craft and get published. It is here all her beloved books would be born, including this memoir covering the years of hardships and beauty at the creek. Rawlings herself would become a part of the earth and land as she was reborn here in Cross Creek and would leave behind literary achievements such as "South Moon Under," "Golden Apples," "When the Whipporwill," "Cross Creek Cookery," and of course, her Pulitzer winning, "The Yearling."

Her close relationships with her neighbors at the creek, both black and white, are told with humor and humanity. Their lives were often filled with hardships but serenity as well, for all of them had chosen to live this kind of life rather than conform to society. Especially poignant are Rawlings' observations of a young destitute couple who would be portrayed so movingly in Jacob's Ladder.

Rawlings' recollections of her friendship with Moe, and especially his daughter Mary, who was Moe's reason for living and the only one in his family who cared when he came or went, are told with such beauty we feel pain ourselves when he takes his last breath at the creek. Her deep friendships over the years with Tom and Old Martha are told with humor, honesty and a gift for description few have ever had.

Tinged with sadness is Marjorie's relationship both as employer and friend to 'Geechee. Rawlings would attempt to help her to no avail as this sweet personality slowly became an unemployable alcoholic. Her mistreatment at the hands of a womanizer unworthy of her love was at the heart of her problem. It is perhaps at the bottom of a few bitter comments from Rawlings.

But Cross Creek is about the earth and our relationship to it. When we stray from it we become less because it is a part of us. Rawlings came to believe over time that when we lose this connection to the earth, we lose a part of ourselves. The great and wondrous beauty of nature, from magnolia blossoms and rare herbs to Hayden mangos and papaya, are as much a part of this memoir as the people. Particularly hilarious are Rawlings' descriptions of a pet racoon of mischievious nature and such cantankerous disposition as to almost seem human.

Rawlings' world at the creek is perhaps her legacy, a gift given to the reader we can never forget. In order to enjoy this memoir, however, one must read the entire book, taking into consideration a number of factors. Published in 1942 and covering many years prior in a backwoods area of Florida, at a time when racial equality was a distant dream, some may be offended by Rawlings' casual, though never mean spirited observations. Rawlings honestly relates actual conversations from this time and place between blacks and whites, and blacks to other blacks. Rawlings treated everyone fairly but a long string of farmhands prone to drink and violence, including the one who would destroy her friend and employee 'Geechee, prompted her to lump an entire race into one group, her friends at the creek being exceptions. I do not feel the comments of this southern woman and most gifted of writers should keep anyone from reading this most beautiful and heartwarming of memoirs.

Rawlings' graceful prose, whether describing a chorus of frogs singing at night as a Brahms waltz, the scent of hibiscus drifting through the air at dusk or a myraid of dishes meticulously prepared and labored over for hours, is delightful and unforgettable. Cross Creek will make you hungry for succulent fruits, cornbread and hot biscuits with wild plum jelly, and the living of life itself.

Reading this lovingly written memoir will leave you with a wistful desire to walk away from society as Rawlings did and live the life we crave in our very being, even if it is not possible, and can only be lived in our hearts.

"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."

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

(1896-1953)

I picked up a copy of this book from my mother's bookshelf and began to read it, only to find myself returning to it at every opportunity. As a black woman, I found the racial terminology the author used discomfiting, but did not let that deter me from reading the book. I thought it one of the most lyrical, thoughtful, and in-depth descriptions of a people and an area that I have ever read. Transplanted physically to Florida from Los Angeles, California a few years ago, I found myself transported mentally as well, as I read this book. I recognized Ms. Rawlings as a truly gifted writer. You will not regret having read her story.

Although I am a native-born Floridian, it was not until a bitter winter's day that I first picked up a tattered, first-print copy of Cross Creek in the old library in Hope Valley, Rhode Island, a town where I resided for five long, cold years. I missed Florida terribly, more than I had ever missed any person. From the first few paragraphs, I felt a special kinship with the author. At last, someone understood! I found great comfort in the pages of this wonderful book, with it's beautifully written, descriptive passages. Mrs. Rawlings had a deep appreciation for even the minutest details of the land, creatures and water that surrounded her. I truly wish I could have know this lady. Today I live about 25 miles from Cross Creek and visit her old homestead and groves whenever I get the chance. They have been well preserved in the condition in which she left them 45 years ago. It is easy to see where her inspiration came from when you stand in her yard among the beautiful and fragrant orange, grapefruit and tangerine trees--and when you view the creek itself. I was amazed to find the creek and farm were almost exactly as I had pictured them while reading Cross Creek. I highly recommend this book.

More than 50 years ago, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings made rural Florida her home and the subject of some of her best writing. Her humor, lyricism and nostalgia are best captured in Cross Creek.

Cross Creek is a book of essays about the life and people in Marjorie's world. Some of her characterizations might not translate in our ethnically-sensitized world and I understand the author was sued by one subject who didn't appreciate her characterization. However, Marjorie's respect and affection for her subjects is apparent in every sentence. Her appreciation for the natural wonders of her world (even insects and reptiles) will refresh the perspective of those who live close to nature and create a longing in those who do not.

Finally, Cross Creek is a glimpse into a long overlooked and vanishing part of the American South. Before the explosion of Orlando, a lot of Florida was rural acreage inhabited by people who lived off the land. Marjorie does not romanticize this existance; one of her wryest essays is about her long-running battle against outdoor plumbing. However, she does show the victories and tragedies of a vanishing people.

Cross Creek is to be read, re-read and loved. I only wish I could discover it all over again, myself.

As a native Floridian (although transplanted now to South Carolina), I have found the works of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings to be a welcomed homecoming and a delightful insight into the "frontier" Florida life of the 1930s and '40s. Rawlings' words are timeless because they animate a timeless period in Florida history--when things were still largely rural, natural, and undisturbed by capital investment and the tourism boon of the last thirty-plus years. "Cross Creek," moreover, is the perfect introduction to Rawlings for the uninitiated, a moving narrative of her life and career amid the backwoods and streams of a bygone Florida. Yet "Cross Creek" is not simply an autobiography; it is a lavish tale in itself. I highly recommend it.

I also suggest the motion picture version of "Cross Creek," starring Mary Steenburgen and Peter Coyote (1982?). It has recently been re-released, so you should be able to find a copy easily. The movie is perhaps "even better" than the book, with its stunning cinematography of the natural beauties of Florida woods, creeks, rivers, and swamps. It stays fairly true to the book, as well, and Steenburgen and Coyote are endearing as Rawlings and Norton Baskin. Rip Torn is another wonderful addition to the cast.

Pick both of these up today!

Rawlings explores the lives and interations of the odd assortment of people living in Cross Creek, Florida in the early 1900s. It is often assigned reading for teens, but I doubt that most of them can appreciate it. Her accounts of neighbors feuding and subsistance living gives us many lessons in human behavior.

The lyrical descriptions of wildlife and the orange groves and wild landscape are very appealing. Your mouth waters as you read her essays on downhome foods like hush puppies. She turned those into a cookbook which I'll have to try out.

Modern readers squirm uncomfortably at her use of the N----- word and her characterization of blacks as irresponsible, drunken, immoral, etc. It is probably a faithful representation of common thinking at the time it was written, so recognize it as a snapshot of the times. Then move past that to luxuriate in the beautiful passages in the book. (I deducted 1 star for this)

The reader becomes absorbed in Rawlings' love of the land and the creation of a home. It gives much the same feelings as A Year in Provence or Under a Tuscan Sun.

This is truly a classic. The humor is so sharp that even the most urban can laugh hardily. The moral lessons are here! Marjorie Rawlings uses lots of "fancy" words but her message always comes across. She really transports you to a different century and you will finish the book feeling as if you have really visited Cross Creek or with a wish that you could visit now.

`Cross Creek' is an extraordinary book written by a woman with the keen ability and insight to draw out the poetic from the mundane. An educated cosmopolitanite from the northeast, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings plunged into the rustic life of cracker Florida with a ferocity belying her Leo sun sign. She longed for the farm life, which ran deeper in her veins than did the comforts of urban living. A Pulitzer Prize writer, a naturalist, and gourmet cook, Marjorie was also handy with a shotgun as a person or two found out who mistook her gender for a sign of weakness. Marjorie was a great observer and devotee of nature which she expressed with a resonance that lingers on the heart. She animated the inanimate and bestowed upon the humblest of Florida's creatures, personality. 'Cross Creek' has reached out to me from the deep past to quicken my present experience of living in Florida. I find myself looking expectantly for personality in the natural world. The evidence already exists in 'Cross Creek'. I wish that I had known Marjorie. She died the year I was born.

Rawlings explores the lives and interations of the odd assortment of people living in Cross Creek, Florida in the early 1900s. It is often assigned reading for teens, but I doubt that most of them can appreciate it. Her accounts of neighbors feuding and subsistance living gives us many lessons in human behavior.

The lyrical descriptions of wildlife and the orange groves and wild landscape are very appealing. Your mouth waters as you read her essays on downhome foods like hush puppies. She turned those into a cookbook which I'll have to try out.

Modern readers squirm uncomfortably at her use of the N----- word and her characterization of blacks as irresponsible, drunken, immoral, etc. It is probably a faithful representation of common thinking at the time it was written, so recognize it as a snapshot of the times. Then move past that to luxuriate in the beautiful passages in the book. (I deducted 1 star for this)

The reader becomes absorbed in Rawlings' love of the land and the creation of a home. It gives much the same feelings as A Year in Provence or Under a Tuscan Sun.