Born Aug. 8: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The 24th stamp in the Literary Arts series honors Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who was born Aug. 8, 1896, in Washington, D.C.

Rawlings is best known for her novel The Yearling, a coming-of-age story about young Jody Baxter and his adopted fawn, Flag. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939.

A few years later Rawlings wrote her autobiography, Cross Creek, about her life in rural Florida, where she managed a 72-acre orange grove.

Both books were made into successful films, though decades apart. The Yearling (1946) was directed by Clarence Brown and starred Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman. Cross Creek (1983) was directed by Martin Ritt and starred Mary Steenburgen and Peter Coyote.

Rawlings attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later wrote for newspapers in Louisville, Ky., and Rochester, N.Y.

She published her first novel, South Moon Under, in 1933.

The 41¢ stamp honoring Rawlings (Scott 4223) was issued Feb. 21, 2008, in Hawthorne, Fla., with a dedication on the grounds of Rawlings' home in Cross Creek, which is now a Florida State Park and a National Historic Site.