Cross Creek

Cross Creek is a memoir by American author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, first published in 1942 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Set in a remote hamlet in northern Florida, the spirit of the community and the heart of its residents link a series of vignettes that capture various episodes in Rawlings's life. The environment is not only notable for its colorful characters and natural beauty, but for being the inspiration for Rawlings's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling.

The book opens with a discussion of life in Cross Creek, Florida, where Rawlings has just arrived. The town is made up of five white families and two families of color. It is located "four miles west of the small village of Island Grove, nine miles east of a turpentine still, and on the other sides we do not count distance at all." She goes on to describe the many citrus groves that populate the area, as well as the abundance of birds, flowering trees, and pines.

Rawlings calls Cross Creek an "enchanted land." To fully appreciate its depth and beauty and the mythic quality of its orange groves and ramshackle homes (including Rawlings's own house and farm, which she inherited and appreciates for its simplicity), one must leave the main road and venture into what may first appear to be wild terrain. This, Rawlings seems to suggest, is a larger metaphor for life itself. Only those brave enough to venture off the well-trod path will ever find their talent and their strength.



The families of Cross Creek are all rooted by the solid and dependable Martha Mickens, a powerful and wise African American woman, who, like everyone else in town, calls Rawlings "Little Miss." While Rawlings loves farming and cannot deny it runs in her blood, she also recognizes how hard and backbreaking it is. However, Martha reassures her that she can do it. If she needs help, all she needs to do is ask, and Martha will be there for her. Martha devotes her life to "taking up the slack" of the community, helping people out wherever she can. Moving with an aristocratic air and singing old spirituals, Martha is both comfort and mentor to Rawlings.

As Rawlings settles in at Cross Creek, she becomes a part of the community and soon finds herself as deeply woven into its fabric as any of its long-term residents. The hillbilly Townsend family invites her to a party—in which she is the only guest. She gets to know her neighbors by helping out in the 1930 census. The quirky, outspoken Widow Slater, who forcefully and vociferously believes in the inerrancy of God's will, ends up charming Rawlings. Rawlings forges a friendship with Geechee, a partially blind African American woman who initially frightens her.

The author's own circumstances interest her as well. She shares her adventures in trying to install indoor plumbing, not content with an outhouse and an outdoor shower. She feels strongly about her cooking abilities, which she discusses at length, fully admitting that criticism of her literary creations is absolutely fine—but criticism of her cooking is another matter entirely. She even reflects on her own mortality as the seasons change in Cross Creek.



At various points in the narrative, Rawlings addresses some of the social issues of her time, specifically race relations and the plight of people of color. While she ostensibly has friendships with the African American people of Cross Creek, some of her ideas about race reveal less-evolved sides of Rawlings's character. For instance, she states her opinion that black folks, at this point in history (the 1930s), do not possess the ability to handle the responsibilities of being free. She also pats herself on the back for her generosity toward the African Americans in town.

Yet, again and again, Rawlings returns to the natural splendor of Cross Creek. She extolls the virtues of everything from the magnolia tree to the hyacinths that blanket the river, from the "toady-frogs" and lizards to the "antses" and vermin. Practically the only flora or fauna that escapes Rawlings's appreciation is the snake—until, one day, she holds one close and sees its magnificence. Later, she learns the snake was poisonous.

Though some of Rawlings's views on race are evidence that she was very much a product of her time and place, the majority of Cross Creek is a celebration of the natural world and small-town life, as well as a travelogue for her particular corner of Florida. At the same time, it is also a testament to a wholly unique character: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings herself. Able to hunt and fish and install plumbing in between rounds of cooking and cleaning and keeping house, Rawlings was a true renaissance woman.



In 1983, director Martin Ritt and screenwriter Dalene Young adapted Cross Creek for the big screen. It starred Mary Steenburgen as Rawlings, Alfre Woodard as Geechee, and Rip Torn as Cross Creek resident Marsh Turner. Both Woodard and Torn received Academy Award nominations for their performances.