Idella: Marjorie Rawlings' "Perfect Maid"

By Idella Parker

Book Overview

"A warmhearted and insightful tribute to the author of Cross Creek and The Yearling , and it's the story of Parker herself, a tough-minded Floridian devoted to her family. A charming book."-- ALA Booklist Idella Parker's recollections of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings are as intimate and frank as their ten years together. This long-awaited memoir, by the black woman who was cook, housekeeper, and comfort to the famous author from 1940 to 1950, tells two stories--one of their spirited friendship, the other of race relations in rural Florida in the days before integration. By turns kind and generous, moody and depressed, the Pulitzer Prize winning author emerges as a woman of contrasts--someone with "few friends and many visitors . . . who seldom smiled." Idella's own life is part of this memoir, too, as she describes her courtship and marriage, her family lineage back to Nat Turner, and what it was life to grow up in a segregated society.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813011442
• ISBN13: 9780813011448
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great!

Well written and an easy read. Absolutely loved it.

INTERESTING

What a delightful book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and was sorry to come to the end. She was Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings maid, and her friend. Idella tells the story of her years with Marjorie giving us a different perspective into the life of this great author. Idella was quite the woman, I admire her. She went above and beyond her duties as a maid, she became a friend. You won't be disappointed in this book, if you are a history buff.

Idella

Idella Parker shares about her life with Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and is a wonderful insight about Marjorie's personality and temperment. I have enjoyed reading this book.

the rest of the story!!

An avid fan of Majorie Kinnan Rawlings, and the Cross Creek scrub country she lived in, this book about/by Idella will round out your image of their life there. The only other way to add to this would be a visit to Marjorie's home, now a state park but kept in the genre of when she lived there, in Cross Creek, to spend time taking the tour of it, and with that bringing the feel of what you read in hers and Idellas books into your vision!!! Mary Keating, who worked patiently with Idella, in Reddick, obviously had a talent for bringing out the little details, and and able to put them into a visionary scope!!