These women, so swift to kindness, so tender to the sorrowing, so untiring in times of stress, could be as implacable as furies to any renegade who broke one small law of their unwritten code. This code was simple. Reverence for the Confederacy, honor to the veterans, loyalty to old forms, pride in poverty, open hands to friends and undying hatred to Yankees.
Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell began writing Gone With the Wind in 1926 when she was 26. The book was published by Macmillan in June of 1936. By the end of December 1936 the book had sold one million copies even though it had a high price, for the time, of $3.00. Reviews were generally positive, and thus the tome being awarded a Pulitzer Price in 1937. The film rights to the book were sold on July 7, 1936 for the then unheard of price of $50,000.00.
As of 2010 the book had sold 30 million copies, despite recent attacks on it by individuals amazed that people in the past did not have 21rst century views on race and many other topics. Ironically, for her time, Mitchell was a racial liberal. She funded scholarships for black students, for example, at Morehouse College and helped fund the first hospital for blacks in Atlanta. She became friends with the actress Hattie McDaniel who became the first black to win an Oscar for her role as “Mammy”.
During World War II Mitchell threw herself into the war effort, including raising funds, christening ships and writing letters of support to servicemen. She died on the evening of August 16, 1949, five days after being run over by a car while she and her husband were on their way to a theater to see a movie. It was not Gone With the Wind.
Another proof that the Pulitzer Prize isn’t worth a damn anymore.
It’s a fun read and that’s the whole problem for today’s teachers of literature. But look at the bright side, it’s easy to “deconstruct” to show the world how racist America is!
Weird. My daughter is watching The Outsiders and literally as I clicked on the website and scrolled this morning, the scene of Ponyboy and Johnny reading Gone With the Wind was playing. Is it a sign!!!???
I like Margaret Mitchell more now. The title: “Gone with the Wind”. Where the wind comes from and where the wind goes nobody knows. The culture of slavery had to be gone with the wind, especially after Thomas Jefferson wrote the all men are created equal and Lincoln said the one man cannot own another man.
I believe that the plantation system would have survived without the Civil War if the slaves were given their freedom and continued as a community sharing in the goods of the plantation.
George Washington freed his slaves in his will. Thomas Jefferson’s slaves ran his plantation while he was in Europe and even after his return as he no longer held an interest in his plantation after what he saw during the French Revolution. Jefferson prayed that the French Revolution would not happen here in America.
G. M.:
You mean the Nobel Peace Prize after Obama got it.
Dear Mary DV, Re: “I believe that the plantation system would have survived without the Civil War if the slaves were given their freedom and continued as a community sharing in the goods of the plantation.”
It appears in today’s world the voter slaves – Black, brown etc – of the Dem Welfare Plantation, learning the truth, are now escaping their chains. Hence the need to import over 10,000,000 new voters to the new Dem Aliens Plantations. Guy, Texas