I, like most of you, probably first read ‘The Yearling’ while we were in middle school.  A tale of a family living on the land in rural Florida after the Civil War, the strongest memory was of Jody, the young only child of Penny and Ory Baxter and his pet fawn, Flag.

A touching, beautifully written tale filled with love, tragedy, difficulties, conflict, and all the other human relationships one can imagine, the nearly 450 pages of my paperback Fiftieth Anniversary Edition flowed by rapidly and flawlessly.  What could have been maudlin, sentimental and syrupy, was done well enough to earn the Pulitzer Prize for fiction when it was published.  I’m sure that was due in large part to the editorial work and support of Maxwell Perkins, the Scribner editor who brought Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Wolfe, and yes, Rawlings to publication.

The tale is well known.  Penny (so-named because he’s so small and wiry), his large and blunt though loving wife, Ory, and the only one of their many children to survive infancy, Jody, live on Baxter’s Island, an elevated piece of land in the marsh, swamp, and savannah of Florida a few days ride to the nearest city, Jacksonville. They live in an uneasy peace with the Forresters, a family of hard drinking and fighting boys who live on another nearby elevated area of the swamp.  Nearby in town are their beloved Grandma Hutto and her sea-faring son, Oliver. Hurricane, floods, wolves, disease and injury, and a huge bear named Slewfoot who kills their pigs and cows are daily challenges to their survival.  Jody raises a fawn, Flag, his most beloved and constant companion, but when Flag becomes a yearling, the question of whether he can go on living on the farm is front and center.  Jody grows up harshly and rapidly when this is resolved.

This is a beautiful and moving tale and fit for re-reading five decades after I first encountered it.  As I read this book, I found myself living in Jody and Penny’s world, a harder but much more humane world than the one I’m reading in now.