Blood of My Blood

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Anne Blythe Meriwether (Editor)

Blood of My Blood, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's autobiographical first novel, was never published during her lifetime. Written in 1928, the year Rawlings moved to Cross creek, Florida, the manuscript was unknown to her contemporaries—including Maxwell Perkins, her editor at Scribner's.

Blood of My Blood is a portrait of the young artist very nearly ruind by egotism and by her mother, Ida, who alternately pushed and spoiled her. It is also a tender tribute to her father, Arthur, and a moving account of their relationship. But always at the center of the story is the intense love and hate that flamed back and forth between mother and daughter. Blood of My Blood reveals not only the painful process of maturation for a creative, tormented mind but also the steady growth of an artist.

There are wonderful descriptions of the natural world, people, and objects, and—uniquely for Rawlings—of the big city and city-dwellers. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised there until her graduation from high school in 1914, Rawlings's descriptions of the city are historically charming, and her depiction of the society where "class distinctions were shaved wafer thin" is remarkable for its pertinence nearly a century later.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 6, 2002

About the author

People know American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings for her novel The Yearling (1938).

This author lived in rural Florida with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie of the same title, The Yearling. The book was written long before the concept of young-adult fiction, but is now commonly included in teen-reading lists.

Reviews

[Bryon Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a Rawlings fan, have visited her home more than once (and eaten at the Yearling Restaurant nearby) plus hiked the trail used for parts of The Yearling. Blook of My Blood was more a happenstance, library discovery. I read it in a few days, enjoyed the descriptions of Washington DC, of her father’s challenge to create a dairy farm, and her mother’s long-term attempts to live her life through Marjorie.
The book was written the year Marjorie and her husband moved to Cross Creek, FL. Using real names and events, it is non-fiction addressed as fiction. I think it was written to deal with, say goodbye to, ways of life and family dysfunctions, mainly Marjorie’s relationship to her mother, thus clearing an emotional path south (before re-cluttering that life path with future baggage).
Rawlings writes with her wisdom and engaging descriptions of her lives/times in Texas DC and Wisconsin, and goes before that to the farms and challenges of her grandparents. I am not sure why the editor put the sentence periods outside of the quotation marks (“the darling”. Or “good night”. ) Maybe it’s being faithful to Rawlings manuscript. I’ve liked Rawlings tales for where they take me. This one is more proscribed as it’s her story, written before her literary story began. But, it’s worth the effort; thus far no Rawlings book has disappointed me. Her wisdom is evident; I conclude with a paragraph that impacted me, a metaphor of her challenged upbringing:
The pebble drops in the source water of the shallow stream. Its course is deflected. It goes down this valley instead of that; it meets streams from these mountains instead of those; in a now unavoidable compulsion, the creek must eat its way through sand and thorny areas composed of certain elements, arriving by a certain route, flows at last into the eternity of the sea. It is all one to the sea, but who can say that it is a matter of indifference to the river?

[Ginger Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings "lost" first novel is an interesting look at her family dynamics and how she became a writer. My desire is to read her novels in the order in which they were written to see her mature as a writer.
The experiences she relayed, growing up and being pushed by a mother she didn't understand, was more than an interesting choice for a first novel. More of a memoir than a novel, it relays Marjorie's early years in Washington D.C., and her college years in Madison, Wisconsin. Written when she was in her early 30s, it is a brutal look at her mother. She softens a bit at the end on her opinion of her mother, but it's clear the scars were not healed when she wrote this. A tough read in some ways, but it gave me valuable insights into Majorie Kinnan Rawlings.

[Genny20 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty interesting read. A look at the characters rich inner lives. It seems pretty honest considering shes writing about her own family and herself, almost objectively. The ending chapter i think was the most confusing. That was my only problem with it. Though i think the writing style she used for the end also got me a little mixed up in a few places the same way it did the end but context helped me piece those bits together.

[Doti Haviland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably should have just stayed an unpublished work. Uninteresting story written in an uninteresting way.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This autobiographical novel by one of my favorite authors was both interesting and painful. It was written in 1928 and never published in her lifetime. The painful part was the love-hate relationship between Marjorie and her mother, who did not really live her own life until after her children were grown and married. Rawlings' growth as a writer is interesting, however, as are her descriptions of the natural world which reminded me of her later ones in The Yearling and Cross Creek. It ends with, "Ida hadn't known how beautiful that hill was, topped with pine trees, with a star or the early glowing sunset through them, or the new moon. . .ah, Ida, life is fooling you! Beauty has slipped up on you unawares."

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily my favorite Glasgow book yet. Also, it was her first book, the one that she failed to publish and then buried forever only to have it dredged up and printed after her death. I knew it was supposed to be a scathing look at her mother, but really she makes herself look even worse and then finds an unexpected sympathy with her mother at the end that is so brutally honest. I loved it.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Autobiography of Marjorie Rawlings early life ... with a tramatic Mother/ Child relationship.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The autobiographical lost first novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was rejected and never printed in her lifetime.

[Michelle Duval · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a reason this book wasn't published and like Harper Lee folks find old manuscripts and try to capitalize on the authors name.