Elizabeth Silverthorne

I give this biography a 1-star rating and that may be too high. Elizabeth Silverthorne is evidently a childrens' book writer, and it shows. She's made MKR into a very sweet woman who sometimes uses profanity. I don't think there's a single word in this book that didn't come from MKR's "Selected Letters" published in 1985. MKR's papers in Florida contain thousands of letters. This book is an abomination. There's absolutely nothing new offered in this biog, even though she supposedly did interviews. There's also lots of description but little analysis--an area where too many biographers fall apart.

One thing I'll give to Silverthorne is that she wrote up a fairly extensive bibliography, which is useful. However, there's not a single note or reference. That ought to be illegal.

This book is so disappointing. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was a hugely outsized character. She sent her editor, Max Perkins, a 6-foot long skin from a rattlesnake she killed herself which he hung up on the coat rack in his office at Scribner's. She loved cooking as much as Julia Child. She had a talent for friendship and was a generous friend. She was a very complicated woman who didn't believe in her writing and absolutely leaned on Perkins to get her through every book--even The Yearling. After he died, she was done, although her drinking may have had as much or more to do with her writing problems as the death of her editor, although we don't have enough facts to decide, and you can bet that Silverthorne gives us no help here.

Rodger L. Tarr has done a great job with a book of the correspondence between Max Perkins and Marjorie. From a letter to Carl Brandt, her agent: "I'm a lazy, shiftless bitch, and since I despise lazy, shiftless bitches, I intend to do something about it."

I adore MKR. If I were going to write a biography, this would be the one I would write. Maybe Tarr is writing her biog. I hope so. If you know nothing about MKR, then this is OK as a place to start, since there is no other biog of her, but instead I would recommend the Tarr collection of her letters and also her own writing about Cross Creek, her home in Florida.… (more)