Cross Creek was to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings what Walden was to Henry David Thoreau.  Like Thoreau, who escaped into New England’s wilderness and transformed his observations into a work of prose, Marjorie found within the Florida orange groves and live oaks bearded with Spanish moss, a new haven for her literary muse and a community she would call home. 

Upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin, and long before Marjorie Kinnan had established herself as one of Florida’s prominent writers, she married Charles Rawlings and moved to Rochester, New York, where the young couple persused careers as writers.  After several unsatisfactory jobs with local newspapers, the couple’s creative restlessness took them on a trip to North Central Florida, where Charles’ brothers lived. Marjorie immediately fell in love with the natural landscape of Cross Creek, a rural area located near the Florida towns of Hawthorne, Orange Lake and Micanopy.  In November 1928, Marjorie and Charles moved onto 72 acres of land at Cross Creek and began renovations on an old farmhouse.  The new home would go through many changes but would always remain Marjorie’s sanctuary, a place of peace and inspiration. 

Throughout her literary career, Marjorie’s surrounding landscape at Cross Creek gave her the setting for her stories.  Her novels and essays weave the relationships of the people and land of Florida with their necessity to find a place for their spirit.  Within Florida’s landscape, Marjorie found her spiritual home: 
 

Every pine tree, every gallberry bush, every 
passion vine, every joree rustling in the under- 
brush, is vibrant. I have walked it in trouble, 
and the wind in the trees beside me is easing. 
I have walked it in despair, and the red of the 
sunset is my own blood dissolving into the 
night’s darkness. For all such things were on 
earth before us, and will survive after us, and 
it is given to us to join ourselves with them 
and to be comforted.