September 14, 2023 – 7pm

The Lawton Chiles Center for Florida History presents

ANN McCUTCHAN, Writer

The Life She Wished to Live: A Biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Author of The Yearling

Branscomb Auditorium at Florida Southern College

Ann McCutchan is an accomplished author, lyricist and librettist who grew up on the Atlantic coast of Florida.   As she explains, “The ocean, long walks on the sand, and eventually skipping school to drive central Florida’s back roads, fed my imagination and the desire to lead a creative life.  My obsessions were music, reading and writing.”  After studying music at Florida State University, McCutchan pursued a career as a professional musician, and eventually became a professor of Music History, English and Creative Writing.   The recipient of numerous grants and awards, in 2014, with the support of the Bartlett Foundation, McCutchan began the research and writing of The Life She Wished to Live: A Biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Author of The Yearling (2021).  The book tells the story of a tough, passionate, and independent woman who refused the early 20th century conventions of her upbringing. Determined to forge a literary career beyond those limitations, Rawlings found her voice in the remote hardscrabble life of Cross Creek, Florida. Between hunting alligators and managing an orange grove, Rawlings employed her sensitive eye, sharp ear for dialogue, and philosophical spirit to bring to life an unknown corner of America in vivid, tender detail―a feat that earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for The Yearling. The Life She Wished to Live paints a lively portrait of Rawlings, her contemporaries, and the Florida landscape and people that inspired her.

 Free Admission.   More information at WWW.FLSOUTHERN.EDU/FLHISTORY