Gone With the Wind, published in 1936, remains one of the best-selling books of all time. Very impressive for a first time novelist, who also won the Pulitzer prize for the book in 1937. The movie went on to become a blockbuster, and was the first color film to win a Best Picture Academy Award (it was nominated for thirteen awards and won eight- a record for the time).
Some interesting tidbits about the writing of Gone With the Wind that you may or may not know:
Margaret Mitchell supposedly began writing the book while she was bedridden with a broken ankle after falling from a horse. Her husband brought her stacks of historical books from the library to keep her occupied while recuperating. After she voraciously devoured them and complained of boredom, he suggested she write her own book.
Being a history buff and extremely knowledgeable about the civil war, she blended her knowledge with personal family stories and experiences to draft her epic novel (1037 pages). Mitchell approached the book as a project for her own amusement, and wrote the last chapter first and then skipped around from chapter to chapter. She hid the manuscript under her bed and around her apartment she nicknamed "The Dump", even using some of the pages to prop up a wobbly table leg.
No one was allowed to read it or know of its existence other than her husband until a friend found some of the pages. This friend knew an editor at Macmillan Publishing, and told him about the book. After repeatedly denying the book, Mitchell gave it to the editor after he teased her by insisting she wasn't serious enough to be a novelist. He didn't like the name she gave her heroine, "Pansy O'Hara", and had her change the name to Scarlett. And the rest is, as they say, history.
Here's a video showing actual screen tests of the actresses auditioning for the part of Scarlett O"Hara (from YouTube):
The original theatrical movie trailer (from YouTube):
A montage of GWTW film clips set to music from Evanessence (from YouTube):
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Comments: 30
I am afraid I haven't been able to look at the film the same way since.
Love and blessings,
Dr. Ni
You may find this information of interest regarding Margaret Mitchell. It is from the Margaret Mitchell House website, but i also found references to this same information elsewhere on the web.
Margaret Mitchell and Black Atlanta
Although of the details of Margaret Mitchell’s public life are well known, there was a secret life which only recently surfaced with the discovery of Margaret Mitchell’s extraordinary involvement with Atlanta’s African American community.
At a time when segregation was the law of the land and the Ku Klux Klan regularly held rallies at nearby Stone Mountain, Margaret Mitchell was working on several projects with black Atlantans, notably one involving medical education.
Her involvement with the African American community began when Peggy was a 19-year old debutante. She was the only one of her debutante group who chose to work in the city’s black clinics. This was a reason why she was rejected from the Junior League.
In 1941, Dr. Benjamin Mays had come to historically black Morehouse College as its new president and sought help for promising students. The first person he approached was Margaret Mitchell. Despite the stern admonitions she received from her parents about hoarding money in time of war, Margaret agreed to an anonymous donation of $80, enough at that time to put one student through one year of medical school.
When Dr. Mays wrote her a letter describing, in detail, the impact her gift had on its young recipient, the novelist decided to arrange her finances to make these contributions a regular event. Dr. Mays agreed to keep the scholarship fund a secret, and did so for many years after her death.
The fund came to light when Dr. Otis Smith, the first African American in the state of Georgia to be certified as a pediatrician, approached Mary Rose Taylor, chairman of the Margaret Mitchell House, Inc., with the story.
Dr. Smith, who also is a past president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, had been a first-year student at Meharry Medical College, in Nashville, Tenn., when his money ran out. Despite his years of work as a teacher, shoe shiner and field hand, he told Dr. Mays he simply had no more money. Mays sent him back to Nashville, and said cryptically, “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll take care of it.”
His tuition and fees were completely paid, but it was 35 years later (and Margaret Mitchell had long ago died) before Dr. Mays revealed the source of the gift – one of about 40 to 50 Margaret Mitchell had made to African American medical students.
Her interest in Atlanta’s black community was again made evident when it was also revealed that she supported the early efforts to desegregate the city’s police department.
When I lived with my parents there was never enough money to buy hard cover books, and the soft covers didn't last. Just last week I bought a used hard cover copy.
It's funny that you thought it was too short at 1037 pages. Tells you how much you enjoyed it.
I had a leather bound copy that I lent my sister- I never got it back. When I asked her about it, she said she never borrowed it. Lesson learned.
I like knowing the facts surrounding the novel's inception. My husband and I were similarly inspired to write On the Way to America after seeing a documentary on Ellis Island while we had the flu.
I just started reading GWTW last night. I have never read it nor seen the movie. The book is excellent so far.
Shannon- you're in for a real treat! i hope you love the book as much as I do. And the movie is wonderful too.
I have not read the sequel, Alison. I guess I was afraid it would "ruin" the original story for me.
And yes, the casting for the movie was highly competitive and the talk of the industry back in the day.
Did you hear about the Stephen Mitchell Estate commissioning historical author Donald McCaig a few years ago to write an official story from the POV of Rhett?
I wrote a book review last year of
Rhett Butler's People by McCaig. Very impressive, but it does lack the spark of Mitchell.
Lost Laysen is her novella (128 pages) that was first published in 1995. I haven't read it, but it contains letters Henry Angel Love, a suitor, and a story she wrote when she was 16. And Before Scarlett:Girlhood Writings of Margaret Mitchell features photos, personal journal entires and short stories written by her from ages 8-17.
I had heard the sequels to GWTW were not well received. If she had lived longer, I wonder if she would have written another epic. She was such a huge history buff, I'm thinking she very well might have.
*To anyone who is looking to pick up a copy, make sure it has all 1037 pages, book club editions have shortened the story by hundreds of pages.
Anna del C.
Author of "The Silent Warrior Trilogy"
http://www.annadelc.com
I also have the Gone With The Wind cookbook here at home! Of course everything in it is low fat and heart healthy you know. (Riiiiight!)
Maybe you could post a recipe or two from the cookbook? I'd be interested!