Rawlings (1896–1953) was the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Yearling, a coming-of-age story set in what’s now Ocala National Forest. Her former Cracker-style home is open for tours on the hour (except noon). You can stroll the orange groves, farmhouse and barn on your own – pick up a self-guided walking brochure from the car park. The estate is just north of Orange Lake, off Hwy 325 between Island Grove and Micanopy.
Rawlings' career flourished only after Max Perkins, Rawlings’ (and also Ernest Hemingway’s and F Scott Fitzgerald’s) editor, told her that her letters about her friends and neighbors were more interesting than her gothic fiction, inspiring her to write Cross Creek, a book about her life in this area.
