Margaret Mitchell

(1900-1949) 

November 8, 1900 is the date of Margaret Mitchell’s birth. Her hometown was Atlanta, Georgia. Margaret’s father was a successful lawyer, as well as president of the Atlanta Historical Society. Margaret Mitchell’s mother, Mary Isabelle “Maybelle” Stephens, and father, Eugene Muse Mitchell, closely resembled the parents of Scarlett O’Hara, the main character in Mitchell’s book Gone With the Wind. Education was not Mitchell’s “cup of tea,” especially math, and even wanted to quit her private school as a girl. Although Mitchell attended Smith College, she did not complete her education. Rather, she left in 1919 after one year of school just after her mother died to care for her family. Berrien “Red” Upshaw and John R. Marsh, neither respectable men, were both suitors of Mitchell’s, but she married Upshaw over Marsh. Upshaw and Mitchell divorced in October of 1924, shortly after which Mitchell remarried Marsh. Margaret Mitchell passed away on August 16, 1949 after being hit by a speeding taxi on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. Mitchell is now buried with her family at Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery.

              Author's Influences

             Mitchell grew up surrounded by talk of the Civil War and the bravery of the Confederate Army. As a child, Mitchell was extremely interested in stories about the Civil War, and was always thinking about that period of time. Because of her husband Upshaw’s unreliable paycheck later in her life, Mitchell was forced to take a job as a writer for The Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine that paid $25 a week. She wrote under the name Peggy Mitchell. Due to an ankle injury, Mitchell was forced to leave her job at the magazine, but was prompted to continue to write by her second husband, John Robert Marsh. Gone With the Wind was written from 1926 to 1929, and was later published and sold for the price of $3.00. She was much like her character, Scarlett O’Hara, in many ways. People say that she was smart, curious, and free-spirited—Mitchell did not care what others thought about her, and even took part in a provocative dance at her debutante ball. Mitchell seems to have been mostly inspired by her own experiences and stories about the Civil War that she had heard as a child at home.

            Awards Given to Mitchell

           Her most famous novel, Gone With the Wind, was published on June 30, 1936. Success came extremely quickly, and just a year after its printing, Gone With the Wind was given the Pulitzer Prize. The book was adapted into a movie a few years later starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. The motion picture of Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including best picture. Mitchell volunteered during World War II working for the American Red Cross and selling war bonds, and was even given the title of honorary citizen of Vimoutiers, France, for helping gain American aid for the city during the aftermath of WWII.

           Other Books by Mitchell and the Last Years of Her Life 

           Another book that Mitchell wrote was just recently published in 1997. It is called Lost Laysen and includes a couple of notebooks from Mitchell’s youth and the story of her affair with Henry Love Angel, complete with letters and pictures. Also, a sequel to Gone With the Wind was also just recently put into bookstores, but Margaret Mitchell, who only wrote one great book in her lifetime, was not the author. This novel might have brought fame and riches to the author, not much happiness was gained. Marsh and Mitchell were constantly hassled by fans and the press, so during the last years of Mitchell’s life they barely ever left home and did not live as a wealthy family might.

          A Quote From Margaret Mitchell

          "If the novel has a theme it is that of survival. What makes some people able to come through catastrophes and others, apparently just as able, strong and brave, go under? It happens in every upheaval. Some people survive; others don't. What qualities are in those who fight their way through triumphantly that are lacking in those who go under...? I only know that the survivors used to call that quality 'gumption.' So I wrote about the people who had gumption and the people who didn't." 

--Margaret Mitchell's thoughts on Gone With the Wind

                                                                                                                   by Laff Kaff

Books Written by and Relating to Margaret Mitchell

Published June 30, 1936

Original Price: $3 per copy

Lost Laysen by Margaret Mitchell

Published in 1997

Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

Sequel to Gone With the Wind

Mitchell took no part in the novel.

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