"Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953) was a well-known American writer of the 1930s and ‘40s who drew material for her stories from the rugged Alachua County region and, in particular, a small unincorporated community of Cross Creek, situated about 20 miles southeast of Gainesville.   In 1939, her book, The Yearling, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  A 1946 movie based on the book and starring Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman won two Academy Awards.

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Marjorie was the first-born child to Arthur Frank Kinnan and Ida May Traphagen in Washington, D.C. where her father worked as an attorney for the U.S. Patent Office.  By the age of 6, Marjorie was displaying an interest in writing.  At 15, she won a prize for her story, "The Reincarnation of Miss Hetty," in a children's' literature contest sponsored by McCall's Magazine.

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In 1928, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings saw Florida for the first time.  After receiving a modest inheritance, she and Charles bought a 72-acre orange grove near Hawthorne, Florida, near the tiny hamlet of Cross Creek.  The couple remodeled an old Cracker-style house on the place and turned it into a warm and inviting place.

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During her two decades at Cross Creek, Rawlings published eight books.  By far the most famous was The Yearling, her story of a boy and his love for a deer in Florida's scrub country. The best-selling novel won the Pulitzer Prize of 1939 and brought its author wealth and enduring fame.  In 1942, Rawlings–who had a life-long passion and talent for cooking–published Cross Creek Cookery, which became a best-selling cookbook.

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In the course of her growing to international stature as a writer, Rawlings became friends with many of the day's literary luminaries, including Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zora Neal Hurston, who was Rawlings' occasional guest at Cross Creek. 

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Rawlings inspired countless young writers and artists throughout her lifetime and her legacy remains popular today.  One of her most acclaimed short stories, Gal Young ‘Un, which won first prize in the O. Henry short-story competition of 1932, was made into an acclaimed feature film by Florida-based independent filmmaker Victor Nunez in 1979.  A film based largely on Rawlings' 1942 memoir, Cross Creek, was released in 1983 starring Mary Steenburgen in the role of Rawlings.  Shot entirely in Florida, the film received four Academy Award nominations.   A postage stamp made in her honor was released by the U.S Postal Service in 2008."

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