| Florida Author on a Stamp |
|
|
| February 20, 2008 |
|
On Thursday, Feb. 21, at 10 a.m. the U. S. Postal Service will unveil a Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings commemorative stamp at her home in Cross Creek, Florida. They won't be unveiling a small stamp like you'd put on a letter. Tomorrow's version is a 10-foot image of the 41-cent stamp you'll be able to buy at any Post Office.
Big or small, the commemorative stamp shows the author and Florida scrub jay country in the background. There will be special guest speakers and for collectors, a first-day-of-Issue postmark will be available .
What a fitting place to unveil this stamp! Her home was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007. If you go tomorrow for the event or plan a visit later on, be sure to stroll through the kitchen. Marjorie got into Southern cooking in a big way and her regional cookbook Cross Creek Cookery is still in print and still popular. I have one on my kitchen bookshelf.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953), born in Washington, D.C. was a northern transplant who had a track record as a newspaper writer. In 1928 she and her then-husband moved from Louisville, Kentucky to a small farmhouse in the middle of an orange grove at Cross Creek near Hawthorne. She promptly fell in love with authentic Florida. Her husband left. Marjorie got the house and the hunting dog. She stayed.
Marjorie put an old upright typewriter on the porch of her Cross Creek home and wrote about the region. Her coming-of-age novel The Yearling won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939. Her home and the surrounding acres are now the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. The address is 18700 South C.R. 325, Cross Creek, Florida. Cross Creek is 18 miles southeast of Gainesville, Florida.
When you visit, save room for a meal at the Yearling Restaurant. The restaurant was built alongside Cross Creek in 1952, you're likely to hear live jazz music and you are surely in for some fine down home cooking. Leave the diet at home. Pass the hush puppies please. Hours are 5-10 p.m. on Thursday and Fridays, noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 8:30 p.m. on Sundays. |
|
|
|
|
 Forward to Friend |
|
|
| Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings commorative first-class stamp |
| Credit: United States Postal Service |
|
|
|
|
