 Cover of original 1938 edition | |
| Author | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Edward Shenton |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
Publication date | 1938; 87 years ago (1938) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 416 (mass market paperback) |
| Preceded by | South Moon Under |
| Followed by | Cross Creek |
The Yearling is a novel by American writerMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published in March 1938.[1] It was the main selection of theBook of the Month Club in April 1938. It won the 1939Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.
It was thebest-selling novel in the United States in 1938, when it sold more than 250,000 copies. It was the seventh-best seller in 1939.[2] The book has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Russian, and 22 other languages.[3][4]
Rawlings's editor wasMaxwell Perkins, who also worked withF. Scott Fitzgerald,Ernest Hemingway, and other literary luminaries. She had submitted several projects to Perkins for his review, and he rejected them all. He advised her to write about what she knew from her own life, andThe Yearling was the result.
Young Jody Baxter lives with his parents, Ora and Ezra "Penny" Baxter, on a small farm in the backwoods of theBig Scrub[5] in Florida in the years following the Civil War. His parents had six other children before him, but they died in infancy. His mother has difficulty bonding with the boy. Jody loves the outdoors and his family. He has wanted a pet for as long as he can remember, but his mother says that they barely have enough food to feed themselves, let alone a pet. Jody's family is neighbors with another, the Forresters. While the Forresters are presented as a hillbillies and a disreputable clan, and the families often fight, the disabled youngest Forrester brother, Fodder-Wing, is a close friend to Jody.
A subplot involves the hunt for an oldbear named Slewfoot that randomly attacks the Baxter livestock. Eventually, the Baxters and the rowdy Forresters get in a fight about the bear. At one point, Jody visits the home of a beloved family friend who lives in Volusia whom he refers to as Grandma Hutto. While there, Hutto's son, a sailor named Oliver, gets into a fight with one of the Forresters, Lem, over Oliver's girlfriend, Twink Weatherby. Later, the Forresters steal the Baxters'hogs. While Jody and Penny are out searching for the stolen stock, Penny is bitten in the arm by arattlesnake. Penny shoots adoe, in order to use its liver to draw out thesnake's venom. This saves Penny's life but leaves an orphaned fawn.
Jody convinces his parents to allow him to adopt the fawn and it becomes his constant companion. He goes to Fodder-wings house and learns that Fodder-wing has died, but the Forrester boy thought that "Flag" would be a good name for a deer. Soon after Jody adopts Flag, a catastrophic flood hits the scrub and destroys much of the family's crops. When the flood is over, a plague kills many of the scrub animals. With the help of the Forresters, the Baxters slowly recover from these events. As the family is preparing for Christmas, Slewfoot returns and kills one of their calves. Jody and Penny kill Slewfoot, then head to a Christmas party at their church, which the Forresters also attend. At the Christmas party, the Forresters learn that Oliver and Twink have married, prompting Lem to burn down Grandma Hutto's house. Grandma Hutto, Oliver, and Twink all move to Boston.
Flag continues to grow and becomes more destructive. When he eats the family's corn crop, Jody's parents order him to build a large fence or get rid of Flag, and Jody chooses the former. However, this fence fails and Flag eats the corn a second time. Penny, who is sick withrheumatism, orders Jody to shoot Flag since the deer's actions are endangering the family, but Jody cannot bring himself to do this. Ora then shoots Flag but fails to kill him, forcing Jody to shoot Flag a second time. In blind fury, Jody runs away and attempts to reach Boston using a broken-down canoe, but he quickly begins to starve. A group of sailors from a mail ship rescue Jody and return him to Volusia.
When Jody returns home, he is warmly welcomed by Penny, who remarks that Jody is no longer a child. Jody resolves to take on more responsibilities on the farm.
The novel was adapted into afilm of the same name in 1946, starringGregory Peck as Penny Baxter andJane Wyman as Ora Baxter. Both were nominated for Oscars for their performances.Claude Jarman Jr. as Jody Baxter won the Juvenile Award Oscar.
In 1949, Claude Pascal adapted the film into a newspaper comic, under its French titleJody et le Faon (Jody and the Fawn).[6]
A Broadway musical adaption with music by Michael Leonard and lyrics by Herbert Martin was produced byLore Noto in 1965 at theAlvin Theatre. The musical's book was by Noto and Herbert Martin.David Wayne and Delores Wilson played Ezra and Ora Baxter, andDavid Hartman was Oliver Hutto. The show played only three performances.[7]
Barbra Streisand recorded four songs from the show: "I'm All Smiles", "The Kind of Man A Woman Needs", "Why Did I Choose You?", and "My Pa".
AJapanese animated version was released in 1983.
The 1983 filmCross Creek, about Rawlings and the incident that inspired the novel, starred Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, Peter Coyote and Dana Hill.
A1994 television adaptation starredPeter Strauss as Ezra Baxter,Jean Smart as Ora Baxter, andPhilip Seymour Hoffman as Buck.
A 2012 song by singer/songwriterAndrew Peterson, "The Ballad of Jody Baxter", deals with themes fromThe Yearling. The song is on his albumLight for the Lost Boy.
The Long homestead in the book and the film's shooting location are now part of the Ocala National Forest. Visitors can hike the Yearling Trail and pass the sites where the homes were and the now dry sinkhole, and pay respects at the Long Family Cemetery.[8]
Kevin De Ornellas, “The Yearling”, in Abby H. P. Werlock, ed., The Facts on File Companion to the American Novel, 3 vols (New York: Facts on File, 2006), volume 3, pp. 1401-2. ISBN 0-8160-4528-3.
