Margaret Mitchell: biography and bibliography. A huge success or an outstanding scam? Margaret Mitchell: interesting facts about the novel "Gone with the Wind"
The book "Gone with the Wind" by M. Mitchell is undoubtedly a masterpiece of the world classics. However, as regards this particular publication... I was somewhat disappointed by L. Summ's article "The House on Peach Street". After reading it, I was left with an ambiguous impression. On the one hand, it contains many different facts from the life of the writer, but on the other, the desire to read the book itself has already diminished after studying this article, because the subjective opinion of the author and the disclosure of the content of the plot discourage the desire to read the novel. In my opinion, this work should not have been placed at the beginning of the book. It is important for the reader to experience the content himself, draw his own conclusions, and not rely on the opinion of another person, even if he is a famous writer who conducted some specific analysis, capturing different aspects of the writer’s biography, with elements of his own opinion. You should not force a certain point of view on the reader. He will figure everything out on his own, because that’s why he bought this book. As for the novel itself, M. Mitchell. This work grabs you from the first page. The accessible, easy language of the book describes the difficult time of the events of the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the life of a specific person - southerner Scarlett O'Hara, who will have to survive the war itself and the period of Reconstruction, as well as deal with life and understand what is in It has value. A great book for all times!
Read completelyMargarita
There are people who believe that humanity has not yet written anything more brilliant than “War and Peace” and “Quiet Don”. Supposedly, only in them is the entire palette of feelings and themes that can generally be covered in a literary work embraced. This is the reasoning of those who do not want to look beyond exclusively classical Russian literature. There are world works that deal with all possible universal themes. One such work is “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell.
There is love between a man and a woman. Love for the Motherland - oh, yes. Mother's love - please. The problem of war - the entire first volume. The problem of post-war life is entirely second. Social inequality is also covered. Life path - all characters draw their own. The problem of fathers and children is also present. The list goes on and on.
Margaret Mitchell's first and only novel gained truly worldwide fame. Envious people started a rumor that the writer simply stole the story from her grandmother’s personal diary, although I don’t see anything criminal in this. Margaret's most frequently asked question was the expected one: “Do you identify with Scarlett O'Hara?” To which Mitchell invariably replied: “Scarlett is a whore, and I am not. How did you even allow yourself to ask me this?" The writer herself planned to make Melanie Wilkes the main character of the novel... but something went wrong. Now Scarlett is the symbol of the era, a role model, and for me also a role model. The first businesswoman - no more, no less! A strong girl, you can’t argue with that.
The novel is skillfully written and took a lot of time to create. But this time is not wasted. Mitchell rewrote individual episodes twenty times, and she wrote the entire novel out of chronological order! It is a titanic work to compile all this into one coherent text. Great text. Brilliant.
My boundless respect for the author and everyone who read this novel.
Opening this book, we are immersed in the wonderful world of the Old South. Into a world where real gentlemen and true ladies live. In a world where no one is in a hurry. Into a world where you want to stay forever. But along with the Civil War, this world comes to an end, and we see the collapse of an entire civilization. Broken dreams and hopes for a bright future, burned houses and entire cities, and most importantly, killed people. No, not those killed by a bullet or shell - although there are infinitely many of them - but people with a lost soul and a broken heart. Those whose ideas about life turned out to be incorrect. Those who were being prepared for a completely different life. Those who have nothing else. And at the center of this story is a woman who has lost all her loved ones one by one; a woman who had to shoulder an unbearable burden; a woman who suddenly found herself at the bottom, but fought her way up and clung to everything with her hands and feet, just to stay afloat; a woman who has abandoned good manners and entered into “friendship” with her enemies; a woman who survived in critical times and looks straight ahead, leaving everyone and everything behind her; a woman worthy of praise for her courage and fortitude; the woman who never lived but will never die; a woman whose name is Scarlett O'Hara.
This woman did everything possible. She changed, threw away good manners and everything that she could do well without, did not care about the opinion of society, overcame her pride, killed a man, endured fear and humiliation, the inability to do anything and uncertainty about the future. She did everything, but she turned out to be blind to those who really love her and who she really loves.
Melanie Hamilton. Oh, how Scarlett disliked this woman! And not for any personal qualities, but only because Melanie married Ashley. Melanie, whose heart was so kind, could not even think that Scarlett hated her. She lived in her own little world, where neither fear, nor hatred, nor pain, nor cruelty, nor anything that the war brought with it could pass. Mellie was always by Scarlett's side and was ready to sacrifice her life for her. She protected her from evil looks and words and could not understand why everyone hated the eldest of the O'Hara sisters so fiercely. Scarlett was able to understand that she loved this woman, weak on the outside, but strong on the inside, only when she was dying. She realized that Mellie always stood behind her, and now, dying, she involuntarily takes away all the strength and support that she gave her during all these turning points. Scarlett does not lose her inner core, but she loses what she considered natural all this time.
But Scarlett loved Ashley Wilkes from the very beginning. And what’s more, Ashley thought that he himself was in love with this charming green-eyed girl. Scarlett spent too many years “loving” this dreamy young man, who turned out to be a stranger in the new world; she lost too much because of this. Melanie's death acted as a ray of common sense for both of them. Ashley realized that all this time he loved Melanie and only her, and Scarlett realized that love for this fair-haired young man was just a habit, reinforced by confidence and the inability to see what was already obvious. Melanie was the inner core for Ashley - and for many, many other people - and when she was gone, Ashley lost the last thing worth living for, and Scarlett, who would gladly throw him away now, was bound by a promise to the woman she loved almost as much much like your own mother. Scarlett received another child who was to be looked after and patronized for the rest of her life.
Being stubborn and unable to see the obvious, Scarlett believed until the end that she loved Ashley. And only when everything became obvious did she understand a simple thing that she should have understood a long time ago: she loves Rhett, she really loves him.
Rhett Butler is a man whose name is associated with everything bad among the people of the South. A man abandoned by his own father to the mercy of fate without a penny in his pocket, but nevertheless earned a lot of money and got on his feet on his own. Rhett is a man who, having fallen in love with the cruel Scarlett O'Hara, was ready to love her so tenderly and reverently, but by her will he was unable to do this. He is the one who has never lost in anything, lost this fight. Both of them lost.
They were created for each other, they both loved freedom, money, independence, they both did not belong to the society in which they were born and lived. They loved each other so beautifully, hating each other, that it seemed they should be together.
But, faced with each other, so similar, they acted the same way: they did not show each other their true feelings, but were only rude. They loved each other, Rhett loved consciously, but Scarlett did not, and they were so afraid that this feeling was not mutual that they could not show what was really in their hearts.
We cannot say for sure whether Rhett truly believed that his love had worn out and that he no longer loved this woman. But we know for sure that Scarlett’s stubbornness and tenacity will not allow her to let him go. She has always achieved her goals and now she will do everything possible and impossible to get him back. And he will return, unless it’s too late...
This novel is not only about love, it is a novel about life. About the struggle for life. Gone with the wind... The wind of war, which not only carried away, but scattered across the country people, the old way of life, family values. Life goes on, but at what cost? This book makes you admire the courage of people, their perseverance, and loyalty to their ideals.
This is a story about fragile southern women who keep their home in any conditions, remaining “ladies”. This is a tribute to the Southern men who defended their country and freedom. This is the South of the United States of America, which no longer exists, but which will be admired and, at the same time, horrified for many, many years to come.
But this is also a love story. Or rather, several stories that are closely intertwined into one. Rhett and Scarlett, Melanie and Ashley, Gerald O'Hara and Ellyn Robillard O'Hara, Scarlett's sisters and their lovers. Tragic and happy destinies. Different people. One era.
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell is an American writer, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner. She was born on the eighth (according to some sources, this happened on the ninth) November 1900 in Atlanta. During her life she managed to write a few works, but one of them became a world bestseller, and does not lose popularity even in the modern world. Of course, we are talking about the book “Gone with the Wind”.
Family, youth and training of the writer
A girl was born into a wealthy family. On her paternal side she is descended from the Irish. The mother of the future writer, Frenchwoman Maria Isabella, was a famous activist. She was engaged in various types of charity and participated in suffragette actions, thereby the woman set an excellent example of education for her daughter.
In the press, Maria was often called May Belle. She married lawyer Eugene Mitchell, who was Margaret's father. The family also had a son, who was named Stevens.
Even at school, the girl loved literature. She participated in writing scripts for the school theater and preferred themes of exotic countries. The writer wrote her first stories at the age of nine. Margaret was also fond of dancing and horse riding. Her favorite clothes were trousers, because they allowed her to move comfortably, climb over fences and ride a horse.
Mitchell was not excited about school; she hated math. But the mother was able to find an approach and convince the girl of the need for education. However, the schoolgirl's rebellious spirit was evident in everything. She did not like classical works, preferring to spend time reading romance novels.
In 1918, the writer became a student at Smith College for Women. But shortly after starting her studies, her mother dies, so Peggy has to return and take over the management of the household. Once in her diary she complained that she was born a girl. Otherwise, she would like to study at a military school. Since the path to such professions was closed to women, Mitchell decides to become a journalist.
Despite the fact that journalism was also considered an exclusively male occupation for a long time, the talented writer managed to overcome this stereotype. She spent several years as a reporter for a local newspaper. Moreover, in one publication she published a “Feminist Manifesto”, providing the article with a photograph of herself in cowboy boots, men’s clothing and a hat. The family did not understand the girl’s free spirit, so the photo caused many disagreements with elderly relatives.
Family and personal life
The writer's first choice was the young officer Clifford Henry. They met back in 1914, things were heading towards marriage, but then he was called up. Unfortunately, the groom died during the war in France in 1918. For many years after the tragedy, the girls sent flowers to his mother.
Peggy met her next husband candidate in 1921 in a famous teahouse. Journalists, writers and students gathered there. John Marsh was five years older than the girl, he created a completely favorable impression. The reserved and well-mannered guy quickly fell in love with a smart girl with a great sense of humor. Immediately after finishing his studies in Kentucky, Marsh moved closer to Margaret, but she realized that she was not yet ready to tie the knot. She wanted to feel stronger feelings; the journalist was not satisfied with her life at that moment.
For some time, she and John continued their relationship, introduced their parents and friends to each other, and everyone around them was confident in their future wedding. But suddenly the girl changes her mind and marries the supplier of illegal alcohol, Barrien Upshaw. Margaret appears at the altar with a bouquet of red roses, once again shocking the prim society.
Alas, my husband did not live up to expectations. He beat the girl, caused constant scandals and hysterics, and then began to cheat. Mitchell took matters into her own hands and demanded a divorce. At the time, this was also considered an incredibly bold statement, so Upshaw resisted to the last. He threatened the writer, as a result of which she slept with a gun under her pillow until his death. The husband died in 1925.
In 1924, Margaret finally managed to get a divorce, and even return to her maiden name. A year after this, she marries the above-mentioned John. He showed himself to be excellent in helping the girl cope with depression. Thanks to him, Peggy began to work again, she realized that in her own way she loved Marsh. Shortly after the marriage, John received a promotion, and Mitchell quit due to a leg injury.
The secret of their relationship was partly that the husband did everything for the well-being of his woman. He could put his own needs aside, sacrificing his whims for the well-being of his beloved. The husband was a patient editor, helped in finding additional information for the novel, and did his best to support Peggy morally.
One of his friends reported that Margaret’s only novel, which later became a bestseller, might not have happened without John. It was to him that Mitchell dedicated her book, signing her husband as “J.R.M.” During the presentation of the novel, the man was asked if he was proud of his wife, to which John replied that he began to be proud of her long before writing the bestseller. The couple had no children.
World bestseller
The irrepressible girl was bored sitting at home as a housewife, so she began to mope again. One day her husband brought her a typewriter, joking that she would soon read all the books and there would be nothing left. Gradually, Peggy became interested in writing a novel, later called Gone with the Wind. The creative process lasted almost ten years, from 1926 to 1936. It all started with writing the key phrase of the final chapter. The name of the main character was thought up impromptu; at that moment Margaret was already at the publishing house printing the book.
The process of writing the novel did not always go smoothly. Sometimes the girl typed chapters one after another, and then did not work on the text for weeks. She was cool about her own creativity, not considering it something special. For a long time, Margaret did not show the book even to her husband, because it seemed to her that it was all nonsense.
The book was published in June 1936, a year after which Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize. She herself was involved in the advertising campaign around the novel, established rights and royalties, and had complete control over sales and translations. The writer agreed to make a film based on her novel, but refused to make a film about her own creative path. The woman ignored the invitation to the premiere of the film adaptation of the book, and she did not come to the ball in honor of this event.
Critics were not as enthusiastic about Mitchell's novel as numerous readers. She was accused of plagiarism; the text was considered unprofessional, frivolous and of poor quality. Peggy was most offended by the accusations of theft, so she bequeathed to preserve all the evidence of her own authorship. The woman did not understand the general admiration for Scarlett’s character, because she considered her a “far from admirable” woman, sometimes even calling her heroine a prostitute. But over time, Margaret began to be more loyal to her own creation.
Fans begged her to write at least one more book, but the writer never did this until the end of her days. She did charity work, donated money to the army, and was a Red Cross volunteer.
Death of Margaret
Peggy died on August 11, 1949. This happened on the way to the cinema, where she and her husband were heading. A drunk driver, who previously worked in a taxi, hit a woman, after which she was taken to the hospital. Margaret spent five days there and then died without regaining consciousness. The woman was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. Her husband died three years after her death.
Name: Margaret Mitchell
Age: 48 years old
Place of Birth: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
A place of death: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Family status: was married
Margaret Mitchell - biography
The name of this writer, who created a single masterpiece for all centuries, is known to many. She wrote the novel Gone with the Wind, which became a bestseller, and it was he who immortalized the name of Margaret Mitchell.
Childhood, studies, Mitchell family
Margaret was born in the American city of Atlanta into a wealthy family. The girl had an older brother, Stevens. The roots of the writer go to distant Ireland on her father’s side, and on her mother’s side to France. The head of the family was a real estate lawyer, he dreamed of becoming a writer, which his daughter fulfilled. My father was excellent at writing and telling stories, and it was he who influenced the formation of Margaret’s biography. Thanks to her mother, the girl was well brought up and had excellent taste.
From elementary school, the girl fell in love with literature. Already at school she began to compose plays, which were then staged on the stage of the school theater. Most of all, the girl was attracted to novels about adventure and love.
The future writer was not good at all school subjects; she was not good at mathematics at all. Margaret had a lot of hobbies that made her similar to the boys. She rode a horse expertly and enjoyed climbing fences and climbing trees.
Her hobbies were very diverse. She knew perfectly what was necessary for a girl, dancing and ballroom etiquette. It would be difficult to predict what the girl’s biography would be like. When high school was completed, Margaret entered seminary and then college to continue her education. These establishments were located in another state.
Misfortunes in the Mitchell Family
My studies had to be postponed due to the news of my mother’s death. In 1918, a flu epidemic began and the woman could not be saved. Margaret moved to her native estate and became its full-fledged mistress. This boring way of doing things went against the girl’s lively character. She is in many ways similar to her heroine Scarlett, who also combines feminine and masculine qualities and is ready to do bold things. Their fates are so similar that the novel “Gone with the Wind” can be considered autobiographical.
Margaret Mitchell - biography of personal life
Margaret had a fiancé, Henry Clifford, who, while serving in the war in 1918 with the rank of lieutenant, died in France. Having a hard time experiencing the death of her loved one, the girl tried to forget herself by taking care of the affairs of the estate. Margaret met John Marsh after these tragic events. The parents of the young couple met each other and discussed the day on which the wedding of John and Margaret was to take place. This young man was courteous and well-mannered, but Mitchell had a surprisingly unpredictable character.
Just before the wedding, she agreed to Red Upshaw's proposal. He was involved in illegal transactions with the sale of alcoholic beverages, and was a loser. The girl married him, but did not experience family happiness. The husband often beat his wife and insulted her in every possible way. The young wife endured everything. Margaret's ex-fiancé reappeared on Margaret's path and helped his beloved become revered throughout the world. He helped rewrite the woman's biography again. The future writer divorced her unlucky husband, and the wedding that had once been planned took place. Marsh and Mitchell were happy.
Writing
Margaret's husband influenced his wife to start writing. The woman never dreamed of becoming a famous writer; she took up her pen for the pleasure and desire to talk about her life. The future writer could not lead a measured, monotonous pastime, and she began to feel depressed. A loving husband brought a typewriter as a gift to his wife. Margaret began to describe the war with enthusiasm; her husband was a professional literary critic of what came from the woman’s pen.
John worked as an editor at a local newspaper, he skillfully suggested to his wife what the plot of her future novel should be, and looked for documents necessary for the authenticity of the work. The novel was soon completed and took another two and a half years to prepare for publication. The title corresponded to the title of the work of the poet Ernest Dawson.
Success and death of Margaret Mitchell
After publication, the novel became a huge success. Its author received an award that was considered the most prestigious. The heroes of the work became role models in everything from hairstyle to behavior. The famous producer David Selznick worked for four years on the script for a film based on Mitchell's novel; she was offered to star in the film, but the woman did not give her consent. More than 1,400 actresses applied for the role of Scarlett, but it was played by chance
The novel "Gone with the Wind" is the most beloved work for millions. It was written about 70 years ago by the talented writer Margaret Munerlyn Mitchell, whose life, in fact, is divided into “before” and “after” the publication of the novel “Gone with the Wind.” In this article we will tell you about the life and work of the writer, as well as some interesting facts from her life.
Margaret Mitchell: biography
The future writer, like her heroine Scarlett, was born in the South of the USA, in the capital of Georgia, Atlanta, at the very beginning of the 20th century. Her parental family was wealthy. The girl had mixed French (from her mother) and Irish (from her father) blood. Margaret Mitchell's grandfathers participated in the war between the North and the South and were on the side of the southerners. One of them almost died, receiving a bullet in the temple, but miraculously escaped. And the other grandfather went into hiding for a long time after the Yankee victory.
The writer's father, Eugene Mitchell, was a famous lawyer and real estate expert in Atlanta. By the way, in his youth he dreamed of becoming a writer. He also served as chairman of the Atlanta Historical Society and studied the history of the country, especially the Civil War period. It was thanks to him that his children - Stephen and Margaret Mitchell (see photo in the article) - from early childhood grew up in an interesting and fascinating atmosphere of various exciting stories about the past and present. Their mother was a socialite who spent all her evenings at balls and parties. They had many servants in their house, whom she deftly managed. Her image can also be found in the novel.
Education
At school, Peggy (as Margarett was briefly called as a teenager) made great strides in the humanities. Her mother was a supporter of classical education and forced the children to read the works of classics of world literature: Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron, etc. Peggy always wrote interesting essays, as well as scripts and plays for school productions. She especially liked to write stories about distant exotic countries, to which she included Russia. Her fantasies surprised and delighted the creative gift of the talented girl. In addition, young Margaret Mitchell loved to draw, dance, and ride horses.
She was well brought up, but she was a girl with character, a little stubborn and had her own opinion about everything in her environment. As a teenager, she enjoyed reading cheap romance novels, but also continued to read the classics. Probably, this mix contributed to the birth of a brilliant novel, which became one of the most popular in the 20th century. After graduating from high school, she entered the seminary. Washington, and after that she studied for another year at Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts). She dreamed of going to Austria for an internship with the great psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
Growing up
However, this dream of hers was not destined to come true. When she was 18, her mother died from the Spanish pandemic, and she had to return to Atlanta to take care of her home and family. This important scene from her life later formed the basis of the tragedy of Scarlett, who learned about the death of her mother from typhus. During this period, Margaret Mitchell began to look at many seemingly ordinary things from a different angle. This period of her life greatly contributed to the writing of the novel.
Journalism and first marriage
In 1922, Margaret began her career as a journalist for the Atlanta Journal. She signed with her school nickname - Peggy. Like Scarlett, she had many fans, because nature endowed her with appearance, charm, and fortune, which was also important in those distant times. It is said that before she accepted a marriage proposal from her first husband, Berrien Kinnard Upshaw, she received about 40 proposals. However, her first marriage was short-lived; moreover, the young people divorced just a few months after the wedding.
Berrien was a real handsome man, and an irresistible passion flared up between them, but soon, based on the same passion, terrible quarrels began to arise between them, and living in such a difficult atmosphere was unbearable for both of them, which is why they had to go through the humiliating procedure of divorce. In those days, American women tried not to bring matters to a divorce, but Margaret was a bird of a different breed, she was ahead of her time and did not want to be led by public opinion. Her actions sometimes shocked the conservative local society, but she didn’t care much about it. Why not Scarlett?
Second marriage
For the second time, Margaret marries John Marsh, an insurance agent. And a year after that, she injures her leg and leaves the magazine’s editorial office. Together with her husband, she settles in a beautiful house not far from the famous Peach Street. After this, she turns into a real provincial lady housewife. Her second husband is not as handsome and attractive as Ashpou, but he envelops her with love, attention and peace. She devotes all her free time to writing stories about two brave girls, about war, about survival, and, of course, about love. Every day she comes up with more and more new stories, and the pages covered in writing become more and more numerous. During that period, Margaret became a regular visitor to libraries, where she studied the history of the Civil War, checked the dates of events, etc. This continued for 10 years - from 1926 to 1936.
Novel "Gone with the Wind"
According to legend, Margaret Mitchell, an American writer, created a book from the end. The first page she wrote became the final part of the novel. But the most difficult thing for her was writing the first chapter. She remade it as many as 60 times. And only after that I sent the book to the publisher. In addition, until recently her heroine had a different name. And the name Scarlett came to her mind already at the publishing house. Those readers who knew her personally, after reading the book, said that they saw in Scarlett many of the features of the writer herself. These assumptions infuriated the writer; she said that Scarlett was a prostitute, a corrupt woman, and she was a lady respected by everyone.
Some readers also suggested that she based Rhett Butler on her first husband, Bjerren Upshaw. This also made Margaret laugh nervously. She asked that her acquaintances not try to find similarities where there are none. In addition, she liked to repeat that the main theme of the novel is not love, but survival.
Confession
When the book was published, the clan of “literary professionals”, consisting of authoritative critics, did not want to recognize the hitherto unknown writer Margaret Mitchell, whose works were published only in the newspaper. Readers had a completely different opinion about the novel. His fame spread from mouth to mouth, and people rushed to buy the book to enjoy reading and learn the details of the history of the heroes. From the very first days of sales, the novel became a bestseller, and exactly a year later the unknown writer received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
In the United States, the book was reprinted seventy times. It has also been translated into many languages around the world. Of course, many were interested in who Margaret Mitchell was, the books, and the list of works she wrote. They could not even imagine that the author of this magnificent novel was a newcomer, and Gone with the Wind was her first serious work, on which she spent 10 years.
Popularity
Margaret Mitchell was very burdened by the sudden fame that came over her. She almost never gave interviews. She refused the offer to make a film about her life. She also did not agree to write a sequel to the novel that was so beloved by everyone. The writer did not allow the names of the characters in her novel to be used in the advertising industry. There was even a proposal to create a musical based on the work “Gone with the Wind”. She did not agree to this either. She had always been a reserved person and led a rather quiet life, so the popularity that fell upon her threw her out of the balance that was usual for her and her family.
Nevertheless, many admirers of her work were looking for a meeting with her, and from time to time she still had to attend creative evenings, where fans of her novel gathered and wanted to meet the author, Margaret Mitchell. The books they bought were immediately signed by the author. At these meetings, the question was often asked whether she would continue her artistic career. Margaret didn't know how to respond to this. However, the novel "Gone with the Wind" was the only one in her life.
Screen adaptation
And yet Ms. Mitchell allowed a feature film to be made based on her book. This happened in 1939, 3 years after the book was published. The film was directed by Victor Fleming. The premiere of the film took place in the writer’s homeland, Atlanta. This day was declared a holiday in the state of Georgia by the governor. After a long search (1,400 girls participated in the casting), British actress Vivien Leigh was chosen for the role of the main character, who was very similar to Margarett in her youth, but the magnificent actor Clark Gable was invited to play the role of adventurer and heartthrob Rhett Butler. It is believed that the choice of the main characters in the film was simply ideal and that more suitable candidates could not have been found. The film featured 54 actors and about 2,500 extras. The film "Gone with the Wind" was awarded 8 Oscar statuettes. This was a record that stood for 20 years, until 1958.
Margaret Mitchell: interesting facts about the novel "Gone with the Wind"
- The original title of the novel was “Tomorrow is Another Day.” However, the publisher asked her to change the title, and then she chose the words from Horace's poem: "... blown away by the wind, the scent of these roses was lost in the crowd..."
- On the first day of sale of the book, 50,000 copies were sold. During the first year it had to be republished 31 times. During this period of time, she earned $3 million.
- Having written one chapter, Margaret hid the manuscript under the furniture, where it lay for about two weeks. Then she pulled out the sheets, re-read them, made corrections, and only then wrote further.
- When it was decided to make a film adaptation of the novel, producer D. Selznick bought the film rights from her for $50,000.
- At first, Margaret named the main character Pansy, then she immediately decided to change everything, but in order not to leave the old name in the manuscript by mistake, she had to re-read the novel from cover to cover several times.
- Margaret was essentially an introvert, she simply hated traveling, but after the book was published she had to travel around the country a lot and meet with readers.
- The phrase “I won't think about it today, I'll think about it tomorrow” has become a motto for many people around the world.
Epilogue
Margaret Munerlyn Mitchell, a famous American writer, author of the only but legendary book “Gone with the Wind,” passed away in the most ridiculous way. On a warm August evening, she was walking along the street of her native Atlanta and was suddenly hit by a car driven by a drunk driver, a former taxi driver. Death did not occur instantly; she suffered for some time from severe injuries received in a car accident, but was unable to recover from them and died in hospital. August 16, 1949 is considered the day of her death. She was only 49 years old.
Lying on the pathologist's table is her husband, John Marsh, and she happily notes that he is dead. Taking a long knife in her hands, she approaches the body, intending to pierce it to make sure that this is really the case. The splashing blood scares Margaret - and... she wakes up.
Source of information: Alexander Kuchkin, magazine "CARAVAN OF STORIES", February 2000.
A woman in a hospital bed struggles to open her eyes and sees her husband John, alive and well, nodding off next to her bed. “He killed me, he!” Mrs. Mitchell-Marsh thinks angrily. “It’s because of him that I’m dying. Lord, why? I’m only 47 years old! My great-aunt Annie got married at that age and was happy until she was eighty.” !" The patient’s thoughts are confused, and distant childhood memories come flooding in every now and then.
Here she is - a little girl in a fluffy pink dress and white socks in a huge luxurious Victorian mansion. Her parents' house seemed so big to Peggy that she was sometimes afraid of getting lost in its 13 rooms. Peggy and her brother Stephen's favorite place to play was in the round glass tower. But Peggy’s most cherished places were in the garden and in the yard, where she had a real home zoo: ducks, dogs, cats, turtles. One day, the father even gave the children a pair of alligators.
Walking around the city, Peggy loved to gaze at the Gothic mansions, magnificent ancient buildings, shops, shops and offices - all of this belonged to a whole legion of her relatives and relatives: grandfathers, uncles, cousins. Margaret's ancestors on both sides, the Mitchells and the Stephens - farmers, planters, preachers, politicians, all passionate patriots, veterans of the Civil War between North and South - had worked for two centuries for the prosperity of this fertile region, stretching from the rice fields of South Carolina to the cotton fields lands of Texas. They settled here before Atlanta was Atlanta. Little Peggy simply listened to Grandma Stephens' stories about the history of her family, about the heroic deeds of her ancestors, and it was these colorful stories, which she spent her entire childhood listening to, that served as the outline for her future novel...
“But my mother, undoubtedly, would not have allowed me to read Gone with the Wind until I was eighteen,” the sick woman thought and smiled faintly... Education was May Bell Mitchell’s favorite hobby. A graduate of one of the best colleges in Canada, she strictly demanded from her daughter so that she read literature only of the highest level. Which was encouraged in a very peculiar way: Peggy received five cents for a Shakespeare play, attempts to master Dickens were estimated at ten, Nietzsche, Kant or Darwin were assessed at 15. As a result, Peggy never had pocket money - despite this. to the will of her parent, she stubbornly preferred “palp,” that is, “cheap literature” - melodramas, romance novels and frivolous stories from women's magazines. Peggy herself began writing stories at about the age of nine, but preferred to hide them away from her mother’s eye: the girl knew very well. that for such “creativity” she would not only not be praised, but would most likely be scolded.
May Bell, a powerful person who does not tolerate objections, tried to raise Peggy in her own image and likeness: the girl seemed too fragile and dreamy to her. She took revenge in her own way - she defiantly picked her nose at family dinners, snapped at her for no reason, and once hung her entire room with indecent pictures from magazines. A serious struggle broke out between mother and daughter over college: Peggy did not want to continue studying. But her mother’s authority prevailed, and Margaret had to enter one of the educational institutions in New England. Finding herself free and unattended for the first time in her life, Peggy turned into a real little devil. From a young lady from the South, about whose wealth fellow students spoke with aspiration, no one expected that she would become the main rebel and an ardent opponent of good manners. Everything about her didn’t fit: her sharp southern accent, her rich dress decorated with outlandish embroidery, and her taste for savory curses and curses, which caused both horror and delight in her new friends. After class, Peggy gathered a gaggle of timid girls around her and led them into the enclosed courtyard of St. John's Church. There, ritually smoking half a pack of cigarettes, she ranted about her religious doubts: she was not satisfied with either her mother’s Catholic faith or her father’s Protestantism. Her studies ended suddenly - in January 1919, six months after Peggy entered college, her mother suddenly died from the Spanish flu, and the girl returned to her father's house to act as a housewife. Young Lady Mitchell was expected to repeat the fate of her mother: to become one of the first ladies of Atlanta, to actively participate in the work of various charitable societies, to give luxurious balls and dinners on the occasion of high-profile historical holidays, and, finally, to marry some worthy scion of an old family. And Peggy dreamed of turning away from this path as far as possible. She found her father incredibly boring and hypocritical, her grandfather Stephens too arrogant, her grandmother, so beloved in her childhood, envious and greedy. She did not know how and did not want to manage well-trained servants and slowly gave them her things, and sometimes expensive trinkets belonging to her father. An unheard-of scandal erupted in the family when Peggy, under her own name, published the “Feminist Manifesto” in one of the newspapers and, moreover, dared to be photographed in a “completely indecent form”: in a man’s frock coat and shirt, cowboy boots and a dashing hat. In the presence of relatives, Grandma Stephens threw this photograph into the fireplace and reinforced this gesture with a savory spit. "I no longer have a granddaughter!" - sounded her sentence. By the way, young Mitchell’s flirtation with the ideas of female independence at that time had a purely bookish origin: Peggy simply read too much of her favorite magazines, which at that time served as an arena for such discussions.
However, Margaret really did not have a calling to fulfill traditional female duties. At the same time, she was known as the first beauty of Atlanta - her huge expressive eyes, chiseled figure and gushing wit attracted almost all the potential suitors of the city. Between 1920 and 1923, she received about 40 (!) proposals. Peggy even had a special album where countless suitors were recorded, eager to spend time alone with the lady of their heart: from 14.00 to 15.00 - Steve Goulden, from 15.00 to 16.00 - Eddie Allen, from 16.00 to 17.00 - John Marsh and so on. However, despite all the ostentatious eccentricity, Peggy Mitchell absorbed the strict principles of morality and ethics with her mother's milk...
“Was it worth it to rush around with your innocence like that? It’s also a treasure for me! For whose sake was it worth saving it? I’ll tell the Holy Father about this in confession... I wonder if anyone said such things at the last confession?” - flashes through the head of the dying woman. John Marsh silently enters the room, carrying an armful of letters in his hands. "New Harvest!" - he says in a disgustingly cheerful voice. It's been thirteen years now. from the moment the novel was published, his wife received hundreds of letters a day and conscientiously answered every single message. After Gone with the Wind she did not write another line of fiction. John quickly looked through the letters: “Well, Peggy, again! The same eternal question: “Didn’t you give Scarlett your own passions and love stories, and is it true that your own husband served as the prototype for Butler?” “Well, not me.” ", - John winced with disgust. “What do you mean?" Margaret thought with hostility.
The first time Peggy got married with the sole purpose of annoying her father and grandmother and, moreover, to gain a legitimate opportunity to experience what she had read so much about in novels - physical passion. Her chosen one was the red-haired, fidgety and damn charming Barren Upshaw. The scion of a wealthy family of well-born southerners who lived in North Georgia no less than the Mitchells and Stephens in Atlanta, Barren was, as they say, without a king in his head. He failed to even obtain a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia, and he changed jobs as easily and often as he changed his mistresses. Peggy saw in him a kindred spirit - like her, Barren could pull out any trick: appear at a high-society dinner barefoot, and at a gala event without a tuxedo. In a word, 19-year-old Peggy was crazy about him. Peggy's father, Eugene Mitchell, owner of a major law firm, put work and a stable income above all else in life. It is not surprising that his future son-in-law did not arouse the slightest sympathy in him.
Be that as it may, the Mitchell and Stephens clans stood strong for maintaining wedding traditions. The bride, as expected, was dressed in a white silk dress with a long train, decorated with pearls and orange blossom. The groom wore a white tie and white gloves appropriate for the occasion. Peggy had a lot of fun, catching the sidelong glances of her relatives, who nevertheless tried to outdo each other in gifts: silver, gold jewelry, tablecloths and napkins made of expensive linen, bed linen and many checks for very decent sums. The newlyweds also prepared a surprise for their relatives: entering the church with the groom, Peggy was carrying in her hands not the strictly traditional bouquet of white lilies - a symbol of marital fidelity, but a huge armful of fiery red roses, which looked more than provocative. “Atlanta has never seen anything like this,” society columnists noted the next day. Another piquant side of the situation was not left without comment: all the groomsmen, with the exception of Peggy’s brother, were constant suitors and admirers of the bride...
The patient hardly listened as her husband read letters to her in a monotonous voice. “Of course, from the generally accepted point of view, Barren was a bad husband,” she continued to reason with herself. He walked, idle, sat on my father’s neck. But he was alive! I just had to see him, and the bad mood instantly disappeared. what's wrong with this!"
Insomnia and melancholy began to visit Peggy from a very young age. The reason for this was most likely her imagination, which was too rich and overexcited by literary creativity. Peggy often chewed on a pencil at night, racking her brains over how her next heroine could get out of the difficult situation into which she had plunged her the day before. Alas, nothing has survived from Margaret’s early work; even her diary disappeared without a trace. Be that as it may, Peggy usually slept no more than three or four hours a day, and such overloads gradually began to affect her mood. As soon as Barren noticed that his wife came out to breakfast in a depressed state, he immediately tried to entertain her with something: he dragged her to his friends, to the underground gambling houses that Peggy adored, he took her to New York, Mexico, Honolulu. And she came to life.
..."If I weren’t such a naive fool, I would forgive him for his betrayal,” the patient reflected. “After all, it’s unnatural for a man to be busy with only one woman all his life. And if this happens,” she glanced sideways at John, “then it’s worth doubt whether there is a man next to you."
Mrs. Mitchell-Marsh recalls that old scene again and again: one day, returning home earlier than promised, she found Barren disheveled and completely naked in the bedroom. Obeying an incomprehensible inspiration, Peggy pulled open the wardrobe door and found the maid there - the poor thing was curled up in a ball and trembling like a leaf. An hour later, the husband was forever expelled from the Mitchell house. Their marriage lasted only 10 months, but relatives gossiped about it, it seems, for another 10 years: of all the generations of wives of the Mitchell-Stephens clans, Margaret was the first to allow herself a divorce.
“... undoubtedly, after such a triumph you should feel like the happiest of women...” - the patient’s ears suddenly caught on this phrase from someone’s letter. It turns out John is still reading aloud to her. How naive! Who will believe that the triumph of her novel did not bring Margaret any happiness at all?! For only three years of her life she felt like she was on a horse, and this stupid book had absolutely nothing to do with it. The patient squints her eyes to make sure that her favorite photograph lies next to the bed on the nightstand. That's what it was like, her happiness! An energetic 22-year-old Peggy Mitchell sits at a table littered with papers, manuscripts and books, among ashtrays with piles of cigarette butts and dirty cups with traces of coffee. This is the editorial office of the largest of Atlanta's three newspapers, the Journal. After kicking out Barren, she went to editor-in-chief Angus Perkerson and asked to be hired as a reporter. At first, he didn’t want to hear about it: in those years, journalism was an exclusively male profession, and let alone a young lady from an aristocratic family doing it! But after the very first materials, written in brilliant, polished language, Perkerson gave up. Peggy actually changed her place of residence: she moved from an area of wealthy mansions to a squalid part of business Atlanta. Her second home was a rickety newspaper building that had not been renovated for years, where Peggy spent 10 hours a day, and her friends were cynical, ambitious, desperate and carefree reporters. During her three years at the newspaper, Mitchell wrote more than two hundred articles, essays and reviews. Peggy was proud of the fact that she had visited places where a well-bred lady had never set foot before: what would her father say if he found out that for three whole evenings in a row his daughter met with girls from a brothel and brought them not only everything as a gift your warm shawls, but also your silverware!
John Marsh, sitting at the bedside of his sick wife, suddenly coughed and began to choke. He started having an asthma attack. For the first time in her life, Margaret did not find the slightest sympathy for him, only gloating. “Serves you right!” she thought, watching indifferently as her husband hastily swallowed the drops. “It would be better if you didn’t recover then!”
Peggy met John Marsh at the same time as her first husband, Barren Upshaw. Both were among her most devoted suitors and even rented the same apartment. A descendant of poor farmers from Pennsylvania, Marsh was distinguished by an unusually gentle character, obesity and a hereditary tendency to hypochondria. Atlanta's first beauty, Peggy Mitchell, appreciated him because he was the only one who never attempted to go beyond a platonic relationship with her. In addition - and this played a decisive role - to the good-natured Marsh, Peggy could always, without hesitation, complain about all her ailments and pour out her “bad thoughts”. Unlike Barren, who could instantly dispel her painful mood, Marsh spent hours listening to her complaints, sympathizing, understanding, and adding his own to them.
Marsh chose the perfect moment to propose to her: the day after Margaret's appendix was removed, exactly three months after her divorce from Upshaw. Pale, suffering Peggy looked into John’s devoted eyes and thought that she probably needed such a person: she could wrap herself in his love like in a warm dressing gown.
The wedding was scheduled for Valentine's Day. And two weeks before the celebration, the groom was admitted to the hospital in a very strange condition, reminiscent of a sudden coma. John and his bride spent Valentine's Day in a hospital room instead of church. Peggy came here after an eight-hour day and stayed until late at night: she unexpectedly enjoyed caring for John. He became her big child, and at the same time - her cross, burden and eternal fear.
From the moment they were married on July 4, 1925, it seemed to Peggy that there were suddenly fewer sunny days in Atlanta. Perhaps because the newlyweds moved into a tiny basement apartment in a shabby apartment building. There wasn’t enough money for more, and Peggy proudly rejected her father’s help. She still worked a lot during the day, and in the evenings she had long conversations with her husband about his well-being. Badly. It's always bad. Hellish stomach pains were followed by attacks of suffocation or fever. (The doctors, by the way, did not find any real reasons for this and did not exclude the nervous nature of the ailments.) Peggy had to master the role of a nurse. She helped John into bed, put a heating pad at his feet, spoon-fed him and offered to read aloud. This is the best scenario for their evenings. It also happened that she put her husband in a recently purchased car - but she was terrified of driving! - and was driven at a speed of 2 miles per hour to St. Joseph's Hospital. There she waited for hours for examinations, pictures, test results. Living in an atmosphere of constant worry about her husband’s health, Peggy eventually began to experience bouts of depression more and more often, which had long seemed forgotten.
One day, after taking John to the hospital in the morning, Peggy fell out of the blue on the way to work and broke her leg. The fracture soon healed, but the pain remained and severe arthritis began. Margaret could not walk for about a year. She had to leave her favorite job, the only joyful moment in her new married life.
Peggy took up writing a historical novel in order to take a little break from her gloomy thoughts and at least keep herself occupied with something. The old Remington had to be placed directly on the bedside table of the sewing machine: it was too low and uncomfortable for the eyes, but there was simply no other place in their apartment. As soon as Peggy heard a knock on the door, she immediately hid the printed pages, covering the typewriter with a large checkered blanket. She was ashamed to admit to anyone (and especially her husband) that she was engaged in such amateur nonsense. Sitting over the first pages of the manuscript, Peggy alternated between writing and crying. Heavy forebodings and fear of death tormented her and left their mark on the book: it was no coincidence that Mitchell began the novel from the denouement, from the last chapter filled with tragedies, bad news, and a fatal misunderstanding in the relationship between Butler and Scarlett.
By 1933, the novel was almost complete, forgotten and buried under a pile of magazines. Just a few days after this, Peggy writes a strange letter to her sister-in-law. It's as if the devil is guiding her hand: "Two more years of John's slave labor - and it looks like we will get out of the debt in which we are entangled mainly thanks to the huge medical bills. Unless I break my back, I can finally breathe freely." In this typewritten letter, the "not" was later inserted in pen. Less than a month later, she slipped on the street, fell on her back and broke her spine. Lying in bed, immobilized, immured in a corset, Peggy asked herself again and again the same hopeless question: “For what?”
This question worries Margaret Mitchell-Marsh even now, in the last hours of her life. Since she married Marsh, fate has been playing cruel jokes on her all the time. And then at the age of 47 she dies - and not at all from an incurable disease. Just the day before yesterday, Margaret was carefully walking her husband after another attack of his asthma, when a car suddenly jumped out at them from around a bend. Somehow John managed to jump away, but she did not.
The patient again thinks about the sinister irony that in their letters people constantly call her the chosen one, the lucky one, and even the favorite of God. But it could also happen that no one would ever see her book at all.
One fine day, the phone rang in her tiny apartment, and Jessica Call, Peggy's longtime friend, began excitedly telling her that the famous New York publisher Harold Latham had arrived in Atlanta. A representative of America's largest publishing house, Macmillan, traveled around the country in order to find new literary talents and select the most interesting manuscripts. “Peggy,” said Jessica, “everyone knows that you have a lot of stories. Give it to him, maybe they’ll publish it!” Margaret suddenly felt some kind of faintness, but after a second she came to her senses and said casually: “What are you talking about, I threw everything away a long time ago!”
However, she could not help but come to the gala dinner hosted by the Atlanta Journalists Association in honor of the visitor. Firstly, Peggy was still proud of her membership in the association, although she had long given up journalism, and secondly, the genetic memory periodically awakened in her that by blood she was one of the most noble representatives of Atlantean society. For the first time in all her years of marriage, Peggy decided to leave her depression at home. By the way, I also had to leave my husband - as always, John felt extremely unwell.
Mitchell kindly drove the guest around the city in her own car and showed him all the sights of her native Atlanta, including, by the way, the mansions of her father and relatives as examples of the oldest buildings. On the way to the hotel, Latham finally decided to ask the question that interested him: “I heard you write stories. Can I take a look?” She answered him with such a haunted look, as if he had caught her in petty theft. “What are you talking about, I don’t do this!” Mitchell said hastily. “By the way, would you like to take a look at this church…”
That night, Margaret had a nightmare: that her first husband, Barren Upshaw, was going to shoot her and would only pardon her if she agreed to give him her book.
The next morning, the bell rang in Latham’s hotel room, and the excited voice of his yesterday’s guide said: “I’m downstairs in the lobby. Can you give me five minutes?” When Latham came down, he was met with the following sight: the little girl was perched on the very edge of the sofa, and behind her stood a mountain of large brown envelopes. As soon as he approached, Peggy jumped up impulsively and, muttering: “Take this damn novel before I change my mind,” disappeared.
Later, Latham told everyone how that same night, tormented by insomnia on the train rushing him to North Carolina, he broke down and opened the first envelope. The publisher's instincts told him what he was holding in his hands. “Either this is a number one bestseller, or I’m a complete idiot,” he thought excitedly, devouring page after page. Latham had not yet finished reading the novel until he received a telegram from Margaret: “Return the manuscript immediately. I have changed my mind.”
Over the course of a year, Margaret bombarded Latham with either pleading or threatening letters that conveyed fear, shame, and self-deprecation. No amount of oath from the publisher and the independent reviewers he hired could convince Mitchell that the novel was really good. “If they publish it, I will disgrace the whole country,” Peggy told her husband, crying. John, as usual, comforted her good-naturedly. He never bothered to read his wife’s novel: it’s too big, and anyway...
Gone with the Wind was released on June 30, 1936. Without exception, all American newspapers unanimously considered the book a major literary event. John Marsh, who looked as if he had suddenly found himself in a parallel world, read out to his wife the epithets addressed to her: “the most talented author of her generation,” “an outstanding talent,” “a brilliant writer.” “This is about you, Peggy...” John kept taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose in confusion. For the first time, the thought arose in his head, occupied only with his sores, that for ten years he had lived with a different woman than Peggy pretended to be. “A brilliant writer” and a caring nurse - these two images did not want to be combined in his taut imagination. At least John clearly preferred the nurse.
The patient, as if in reality, heard the ringing voice of Anita Perkenson, her friend from the newspaper: “Your Jonik will not even make you his bedding, but a heating pad for sore feet! You’ll see!” It seems the time has finally come for Mrs Mitchell-Marsh to see it.
Once upon a time, climbing her favorite tree in her mother’s garden, Peggy selflessly dreamed of fame. Fame seemed to her to be the key that opens the door to any desire: if you are famous, you can build a castle, fly to the other side of the Earth, buy yourself the most wonderful dresses in the world and order a huge cake with chocolate and whipped cream for lunch every day. And one more thing: everyone admires you!
“Gone with the Wind” was sold throughout the country in such a fabulous circulation that she soon became a very wealthy person and could easily fulfill all her childhood dreams. But the woman, exhausted by illnesses with a dull look, listened indifferently to the compliments lavished on her and wanted only one thing: to cover her head with a pillow and not think about anything. The secret part of her nature, which at one time wrote the novel, died long ago, and the remaining half of her “I” was irritated by loud telephone calls, from the abundance of visitors and endlessly organized celebrations, her back began to ache painfully and her leg trembled treacherously. Faithful John tried to quickly take his wife home and surround her with silence, care and comfort. By this time, the couple had moved to a new apartment - just a three-room apartment. Life had instilled in both of them excessive frugality, and their long-term fear of illness and medical bills forced the spouses to be extremely modest.
Margaret received news that Hollywood intended to film her novel. David Salznick, the director of the future film, invited Mrs. Mitchell to come to Hollywood to help select actors and, most importantly, write the script. John, worried about his wife's health, recommended that she stay home. As a result, Margaret flatly refused to take part in the work on the painting. Selznick, who believed that there was no person on Earth who could voluntarily refuse the rays of Hollywood fame, was literally shocked by this refusal.
Mrs. Mitchell did not attend the Los Angeles premiere of the film. But what was going on in her native Atlanta in the winter of 1939, where the film crew brought “Gone with the Wind”! The city's population seemed to triple as the entire state of Georgia flocked to the capital. The crowd loudly greeted Clark Gable as he stepped off the plane, his beautiful wife Carole Lombard and the actress who played Scarlett, Vivien Leigh. On December 14, on the eve of the premiere, the city authorities organized an unprecedented charity ball in honor of Hollywood celebrities. But the author of the novel never showed up to the ball...
And the next evening, before the start of the premiere, Clark Gable painfully crushed the leg of a small woman in a ridiculous outfit who was getting underfoot and trying to get up on stage. It turned out that this is it. In a touching floor-length pink tulle dress, silver shoes and tiny pink bows in her hair, she looked like the embodiment of ancient innocence. When the stars finally realized who this strange pink creature was, they parted and Mrs. Mitchell walked to her place on the stage to everyone's applause. An awkward movement of the hand - and her sore back let her down: Peggy sank heavily past the chair onto the floor. To her horror, she heard laughter in the hall. Selznick rushed to pick her up. The unfortunate Margaret no longer came to the microphone. Without getting up from her seat, she quietly muttered that she “thanks everyone for a wonderful evening.” Her voice trembled with excitement and shame.
The patient opened her eyes, and her gaze suddenly lit up with some kind of young, loving delight: Peggy saw Brett Butler bow before her in respect. Then he easily picked her up, put her on the horse in front of him and, hugging her tenderly, rode off into unknown distances.
