The Yearling

The Yearling

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Pictures by N.C. Wyeth

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons

1939

These mustard yellow calico-texture cloth covers have a blind-stamped line border around the paper onlay on the front cover. The paper onlay is a duplicate illustration from inside, only with the title and author printed in large yellow lettering near the top. Gilt stamped on the spine is the title, author, and a line drawing of a deer's head. Because this book was in the library's collection for decades, the old library label obscures whether the publisher's name is also gilt stamped on the spine. The back cover is unadorned.
The endpapers are a scene of the fawn following Jody down a dirt path with Florida fauna around them. There is a halo around the fawn's head.
The paper is made from wood pulp and there is darkening around the edges of each page. The raised capitals are surrounded by borders. The plates are also wood pulp but thicker paper than the rest. These plates were paintings originally, but have been reproduced as relief lithographs. There is a line drawing on the title page that is a black bear walking into water with a palm tree behind it.
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Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is defined by and defined the idea of Florida, her adopted state, not only during her life, but since. Rawlings was a writer before moving to Florida, but she did not gain fame until after she had lived in the piney woods of central Florida and began writing about the Crackers and the flora and fauna of the state. Her most famous book is The Yearling which was not written as a children's book, but a year after it's publication it was clearly sold as a children's book, as seen in this edition, and turned into a movie. Rawlings's second husband was a hotelier in St. Augustine who owned what is now Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Rawlings lived from 1896-1953.
Newell Convers Wyeth was an American artist and illustrator best remembered for his illustrations of children's books. He comes from a family of artists, and his mother knew important 19th century New England writers, but he grew up spending a lot of time outside, which comes through in his realistic illustratons. He was incredibly productive, illustrating 112 books, and creating over 3,000 paintings. Wyeth is one of the best-known/ recognizable and beloved illustrators of the 20th century.
Wyeth lived from 1882-1945.

Literature / Children's Literature

SPECIAL PS3535 .A845 Y4 1939

Hardcover book, 9.25 x 7.125 inches

English

This book can be seen in the photograph, Display Case 7.

This book is included in a video in our Damaged Books digital exhibit: What kind of book damage do you think is the worst?

Book