Margaret Mitchell Manuscript Avoids Tara-Like Fate
Way back in November, before most of you knew this blog existed, I reviewed an obscure little novel called Gone With The Wind. Heard of it?
Margaret Mitchell’s southern classic was book #5 for me–and, until I finish Infinite Jest, the longest novel I’ve read. Anyway, the book has been in the news recently because the last four chapters of the original manuscript–once thought to be burned–have been discovered at a small library in Connecticut.
The story goes that Margaret Mitchell thought all of her work should be judged in final, not draft, form and she directed her husband to burn all of her early manuscripts after she died. Well he did that, almost.
Somehow, George Brett Jr., the president of Mitchell’s publisher, had original copies of the novel’s closing chapters, which he later donated to a local library, who in turn threw the manuscripts in storage for the better part of 75 years.
This is like one of the stories where a Picasso painting turns up at a yard sale for $5.00. How do people not know what they have in their hands? Wow.
Interesting final quote to close the New York Times article about the discovery, though. 250,000 copies of Gone With The Wind are still sold every year. That’s the book, not the movie. Scarlett lives on.
If you’re interested, check out my review of Gone With the Wind, and tell me your thoughts on the novel.
Thanks for the invite – well I’m not planning to read Gone With The Wind again (it is soooo long and Ashley is such a wimp and Scarlett makes all the wrong decisions when the decisions truly count, ie, at the end…) But, I am looking at my 12 year old thinking the lucky girl is nearly the right age to read this amazing novel, and won’t it blow her away with American history and female willfulness?
I’m not a history expert, but it’s a nice lesson on the realities of the civil war. But there’s definitely some racist overtones in the book, as most of the slaves are portrayed as blubbering idiots.
I recently noticed they have Gone With the Wind (the movie) available to watch instantly on Netflix. If you wanted a quick trip down memory lane without having to actually reread the book
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In my most recent re-reading of GWTW, I saw Rhett and Scarlett as two manifestations of fallen humanity – Scarlett in denial about her sin and weakness and Rhett fully aware of it and uncaring. I also realized that Rhett would never return to her and she would never change – not tomorrow or any other day.
“Re-reading”? Wow. You are bolder than me. Not too many 1,000 pagers that I would re-read. That’s for sure.
Oh, but what ending did she plan for them? I am so curious
May I suggest reading “The Rebel Wife” by Taylor Polites for an engrossing story and a true depiction of life during Reconstruction after the Civil War.