"Bigelow skillfully details Marjorie Rawlings’ literary career, from failure to success to relative neglect, with illuminating discussion of her struggles to find her right subjects, themes, voice. The appraisals of her accomplishments are thoughtfully balanced and fair. He justly believes that the books transcend the limits of locale, speaking a language which is more than dialect. The scholarly and critical integrity of this study is informed by an awareness of these larger issues and by an understanding of pertinent American traditions."American Literature
"Literary critics would have more readers if their books were all as interesting as Bigelow’s."—Miami Herald
"Bigelow writes with a gusto refreshing to encounter . . . immensely readable."The Mississippi Quarterly
Frontier Eden, the first extensive study of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, tells with lively warmth of her love affair with Florida and with the Florida cracker people who were here chief subjects. The book contains never-published letters to, from, and about Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Wolfe, Glasgow, and Max Perkins.
