Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was born in Washington, D.C., on August 8, 1896. Her father was an attorney in the U.S. Patent Office, but he also owned a farm in Maryland, where Rawlings gained her first love and understanding of the land. She attended public school, then enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor of arts degree in 1918.

After working for a year as a publicity writer for the Y.W.C.A. National Headquarters in New York City, she married writer Charles A. Rawlings and moved with him to Rochester, New York. She served as an editor of the magazine Home Sector and wrote for the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Rochester Journal From 1925 to 1927 she produced a syndicated verse column for United Features entitled "Songs of a Housewife."

She also wrote fiction during these years, but...