Which novel won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction?

The Yearling won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings published the novel in 1938. Set in the scrub country of central Florida, it follows Jody Baxter, a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn named Flag. The story explores family life, poverty, responsibility, and the difficult relationship between people and the natural world.

Rawlings drew on her knowledge of rural Florida, where she lived and worked. The novel became a major commercial and critical success, and its Pulitzer recognized it as the fiction winner for 1939. The award year refers to the prize year, while the novel appeared the previous year.

The Yearling is sometimes confused with Rawlings's autobiographical work Cross Creek, which was not her Pulitzer-winning novel. A film adaptation starring Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman was released in 1946. The title refers to a young deer approaching its first year of life, a detail central to the book's coming-of-age story.