Customer Reviews

Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" Letters, 1936-1949

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When the 50th anniversary of the publication of GONE WITH THE WIND (henceforth referenced as GWTW) occurred in 1986, Harwell published this volume of letters from Margaret Mitchell Marsh. Gleaned from a collection of over 50,000 letters, clippings and notes covering a variety of subjects, these letters give us insight into the author of GWTW and her world.

Marsh argues with her publisher about issues like the name of the heroine and the title of the book, which she had originally titled TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY. She had named Scarlett "Pansy" in her original manuscript. When controversy arises over her description of the desecration of Confederate cemetaries by Federal troops, she reveals her sources of information as well as her surprise that the question should come up at all!

Adventures and misadventures with the filming of the book (rumors that she would cast the film caused wild complications in her life), the fame that makes her so uncomfortable, problems concerning the writing, publication and success of GWTW -- all combine to make this an unusual and utterly fascinating picture of one of America's foremost writers.

Mitchell had what she called "a passionate desire for personal privacy." That passion shows in these letters, along with a touch of Scarlett O'Hara and a smidgen of Melanie Wilkes. GWTW devotees (and possibly those who aren't fans, too) will enjoy this glimpse of the double-edged sword of success and its effect on Margaret Mitchell Marsh.

It is surprisingly unnecessary to have read (or reread) GWTW before reading this collection of letters that deals almost strictly with the book. Miss Mitchell did an excellent job of keeping her life private in her letters for fear that these letters would be published. She made it very clear that she wanted to keep her life private and never wanted to see her letters published. This puts a bit of a damper on reading the letters but does not make them any less enjoyable.

She claimed on many occasions that she was not an historian but merely a story teller who grew up knowing the history of the Civil War as it pertained to Georgia. There are several letters where she painstakingly writes out answers to fans' and critics' questions in regards to historical background and accuracy.

This collection has many excerpts from other people's letters so that the reader is not left in the dark about what/who it is that Miss Mitchell is responding to. There are many letters that are fan letters to other authors, but as the years go on and more and more people send her books that they think she will enjoy, these letters take on a more appreciative tone that implies that she is writing as a colleague and not a fan.

Throughout these letters is a publishing theme that gets increasingly complicated as more and more countries want rights to publish GWTW. She writes in great detail of her troubles and the implications that some of these problems could have on American authors. The last few years of letters are particularly fascinating because she writes about the impact of GWTW in foreign countries who were experiencing the same "troubles" that faced the Confederacy before, during and after a war/occupation.

These letters contain as much history as GWTW does. My only complaint is that this collection wasn't nearly long enough. I sincerely hope that a second volume is published some day.

**Update** Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh: The Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind is a wonderful biography!! It contains a lot of letters written by multiple people. A lot of the letters Margaret Mitchell wrote ended up in this collection of letters, but there are also letters that didn't make it into this collection. (I wrote a review for this biography, if anyone's interested)

Margaret Mitchell's letters 1936-1949,edited by Atlanta's Richard Harwell, and published
in 1976 is a must-read for Gone With the Wind seekers. It gives glimpses and insights of Margaret the woman, her GWTW novel, and David O Selznick's movie.
In Mitchell's letters, what she writes and what she leaves unsaid reveals deep levels of her inner life and the circumstances of the outer life.
Although she never published another book before her 1949 demise, she spent hours typing and writing
page after page of letters attempting to explain why she didn't have time. Author John Wiley recently remarked
how odd it was she would write pages and pages to someone about why she didn't autograph books anymore. Then
she would turn around and sign her name Margaret Mitchell.

Mitchell's snippets of Atlanta during the Great World War sparked a tale of the future-famed F. Scott Fitzgerald who was
stationed at Atlanta's Camp Gordon. Mitchell was sure she and Maybelle, her mother, had picked him up one day. She said Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise" was the "most perfect crystallization of an era in all American fiction."
It makes me feel sad," said Mitchell when I think how utterly past that era is now." The Atlanta streetcar tracks had not been laid as far as Camp Gordon. She and Maybelle usually hauled twelve soldiers to town every time they visited the post to see her older brother Stephens.
When Mitchell learned Fitzgerald was working on the GWTW movie script, she was delighted and told her Macon friend Susan Myrick who was out on the Hollywood set when she received Mitchell's letter in February 1939.

In a 1941 letter, Mitchell wrote the famous couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine about Sea Island. She called the Cloister Hotel,"lovely but unprententious" and preferred the Cloister apartments where she and John vacationed often.

Her thank-you note to Harold E. George, May 6, 1949, informs the reader that the last time she ever viewed Selznick's movie was
May 5 at the Tenth Street Theater on Peachtree Street. It was located in the same old neighborhood where Mitchell launched her original maunscript at the Crescent Avenue Apartments in 1926.

On July 20, 1949, Mitchell wrote one of her last letters ever to Alma Jamison at the Atlanta Carnegie Library about her future donations of books on Georgia. Her father Eugene was one of the Atlanta Carnegie's charter members. Margaret Mitchell died August 16, 1949 at Grady Hospital.