The Yearling (1938) by Marjorie Rawlings

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Yearling (1938)

by Marjorie Rawlings

Volusia, Florida

Florida: 7/21

   This 1938 children's book is set between Jacksonville to the north and Orlando to the south, broadly swampy but with high points called "islands" where people settled in the mid to late 19th century (The Yearling is set in the 1870's.)   The edition I checked out of the library was an illustrated version- the illustrator being N.C. Wyeth, father of painter Andrew Wyeth and phenomenally successful illustrator in his own right.   Like many so-called "children's books" from before the 1960's and 70's, The Yearling is really an adult book with a child protagonist, written "for" children, but in a way that hardly acknowledges that fact other than the plot of the book itself.   

  Rawlings rounds some of the corners off the harsher aspects of frontier life- she does describe the father-son duo gutting a deer, but omits the part, which I've learned from other novels, that involves being careful not to pierce the guts or entrails in order to avoid befouling the meat.   Describing it as "frontier boy raises baby deer to adulthood" doesn't really do justice to the detail of perspective presented.   The Yearling might be the best depiction of "back woods" life I've come across so far (but with Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas to come in the next chapter).