Max Marjorie

A comprehensive and engaging biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the beloved classic The Yearling. Washington, DC, born and Wisconsin educated, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an unlikely author of a coming-of-age novel about a poor central Florida child and his pet fawn—much less one that has become synonymous with Florida literature writ large. Rawlings was a tough, ambitious, and independent woman who refused the conventions of her early-twentieth-century upbringing. Determined to forge a literary career beyond those limitations, she found her voice in the remote, hardscrabble life of Cross Creek, Florida. There, Rawlings purchased a commercial orange grove and discovered a fascinating world out of which to write—and a dialect of the poor, swampland community that the literary world had yet to hear. She employed her sensitive eye, sharp ear for dialogue, and philosophical spirit to bring to life this unknown corner of America in vivid, tender detail, a feat that earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1938. Her accomplishments came at a price: a failed first marriage, financial instability, a contentious libel suit, alcoholism, and physical and emotional upheaval. With intimate access to Rawlings’s correspondence and revealing early writings, Ann McCutchan uncovers a larger-than-life woman who writes passionately and with verve, whose emotions change on a dime, and who drinks to excess, smokes, swears, and even occasionally joins in on an alligator hunt. The Life She Wished to Live paints a lively portrait of Rawlings, her contemporaries—including her legendary editor, Maxwell Perkins, and friends Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald—and the Florida landscape and people that inspired her.

Now hailed as a "proto-feminist classic" (Vulture), Pulitzer Prize winner Herman Wouk's powerful coming-of-age novel about an ambitious young woman pursuing her artistic dreams in New York City has been a perennial favorite since it was first a bestseller in the 1950s. A starry-eyed young beauty, Marjorie Morgenstern is nineteen years old when she leaves home to accept the job of her dreams--working in a summer-stock company for Noel Airman, its talented and intensely charismatic director. Released from the social constraints of her traditional Jewish family, and thrown into the glorious, colorful world of theater, Marjorie finds herself entangled in a powerful affair with the man destined to become the greatest--and the most destructive--love of her life. Rich with humor and poignancy, Marjorie Morningstar is a classic love story, one that spans two continents and two decades in the life of its heroine. "I read it and I thought, 'Oh, God, this is me.'" --Scarlet Johansson

Maxine Lamont is a passionate, independent woman with an unruly head of curly brown hair who believes in the power of love and the excitement of change. With three thousand miles between them, Maxine and her ex have recently parted ways. Max, as she prefers to be called, has learned through lifes circumstances to go it alone or so she thinks. Not always the leading lady of her life and sometimes her own worst enemy, Max moves ahead unaware of the priceless friendship shes about to discover. She meets Marjorie Talbot, a headstrong but lovable gallery owner, who helps her through a series of relationshipsfrom a hot, romantic lover; to a foreign stranger; to an accountant turned boat enthusiast. Max wonders over all the men in her life, but Marjorie keeps her sane through the proverbial girls night, during which they share wine and wisdom. As Max continues on her literal and spiritual journey of self-discovery, Marjorie is there to guide and show Max that, despite occasional heartbreak, every love we encounter is a gift that brings out something new and different in us, helping us to grow.

With the stock market collapse, Daniel's year-long quest to warn people about the imminent crash and its consequences has ended. He has been vindicated for the mockery and scorn that were heaped upon him, but he feels that he has failed because he had not convinced more people to leave the market. There is little satisfaction in being right when people have lost their life savings and more. To visit the New York Stock Exchange where hundreds of men are standing silently in the streets, or sitting on the curbs crying, embarrassed, dejected, and dispirited brings Daniel only pain. He receives threatening letters and is physically attacked by those who believe that he has caused the market's collapse and their misfortune. Through his own strong-willed determination and the support of his family of friends, Daniel begins to make the transition from warning people to providing relief for those who have already or soon will become victims of the imminent depression. And yet, Professor Vogel is even more determined to discredit and destroy him.

Hardship and excess, determination and greed, power and folly, love and loss combine amidst the beauty of Dartmoor, the squalor of the battlefield and the elegance and excitement of London, in this tale of an extraordinary man and his family.