By Erik S. Lesser, for USA TODAYVisitors learn to dance the Virginia Reel outside the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, where Gone with the Wind was written.
By Erik S. Lesser, for USA TODAYVisitors learn to dance the Virginia Reel outside the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, where Gone with the Wind was written.
The one-bedroom rental is so small the kitchen table is in the bedroom. But on a little oak table by the window in the corner of the living room she wrote one of America's great novels, Gone With the Wind, poking at the keys of her used portable Remington typewriter for 10 years.The sweeping Civil War classic about Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler and the destruction of the Old South turns 75 this month. Unlike Rhett, it appears we still give a damn.The Atlanta History Center, which operates the Margaret Mitchell House, is celebrating with an exhibit, Atlanta's Book: The Lost 'Gone With the Wind' Manuscript (running Saturday through Sept. 5). The exhibit includes four of the novel's original chapters, among them the last, which Mitchell actually wrote first. Pages will be enlarged and displayed on the wall, including Scarlett's famous parting words: "After all, tomorrow is another day."The original manuscripts are on loan from the Pequot Library in Connecticut, which obtained them in the early 1950s from the president of Macmillan, Mitchell's original publisher. While Pequot has displayed these chapters in the past, it was not clear until now what exactly the library had on its hands — a portion of the single, original typescript."Mitchell submitted only one version of the typescript document to Macmillan after her first rough draft, and that typescript had been rushed directly into production without any formal editing," explains Ellen Brown, co-author of Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone With the Wind': A Bestseller's Odyssey From Atlanta to Hollywood. "To have in hand any portion of that document is remarkable, and to have the final, iconic chapter — thrilling. It surely ranks among the most valuable literary artifacts in America."Mitchell, a young newspaper reporter in Atlanta, wrote her novel twice. The first effort included incomplete rough-draft chapters, stuffed into dozens of manila folders. She then rewrote and edited the draft, adding new chapters, omitting original scenes, rearranging.A Pansy by any other nameThe original title: Manuscript of the Old South. Scarlett's original name: Pansy. And when filming of the equally famous 1939 movie began, Vivien Leigh had not yet been cast.Mitchell's apartment is swarming with visitors this spring, including members of a chapter of the Red Hat Society from Roswell, Ga. Every last member put up her hand when asked who had read the novel. "Who hasn't?" someone yelled out.Indeed, GWTW has been translated into 35 languages, selling hundreds of millions of copies worldwide over 75 years. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and by the time the movie version (which won eight Academy Awards) was released, the novel had already sold more than 2 million copies in 16 languages. Today about 75,000 copies are sold in North America annually.Scribner (the current publisher) has come out with an $18 commemorative trade-paperback edition, featuring the book's original jacket image. It also includes an introduction by novelist Pat Conroy, who says his mother was so affected by the novel, she changed her middle name to Margaret.Conroy writes that he owes a "personal debt" to Gone With the Wind and claims he became a writer because of it. "My mother raised me up to be a 'Southern' novelist, with a strong emphasis on the word 'Southern.'"(Alexandra Ripley's Scarlett, the best-selling yet roundly panned 1991 sequel to the classic, is also being reissued in a commemorative edition.)Seems everyone has a Gone With the Wind story.Emily Donatelli, one of the visitors from Roswell, remembers seeing the movie as a little girl. "That was 72 years ago, and I remember it as if it were yesterday." She also remembers it was banned by the Roman Catholic Church because of Clark Gable's unforgettable "I don't give a damn" line."My mom still took me," she says. "I guess she couldn't get a babysitter."Few are surprised the book became as popular as it did, even though Mitchell did little to promote it. She never went on a book tour, refused to give speeches and gave only a few interviews. (Mitchell died in 1949, at age 48, after being struck by a cab in Atlanta, without having written another book.)"What do they say? It's a tale well told by a teller who tells it well," says Michael Rose, a vice president at the Atlanta History Center who is curating the manuscript exhibit. "In short, it's a good read."While some critics have said it is not great literature, Mitchell is often praised for her storytelling. Early feminists liked the fact Scarlett was such a dynamo, but the book was, and still is, criticized for its racial stereotyping. Mitchell was stunned by the criticism, saying her black characters were the most honorable in the book.The tale still captures imaginations. There are Facebook pages, Twitter postings, even a group of people who call themselves "Windies," rabid devotees of Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley and Melanie Wilkes and Scarlett's ancestral home, Tara. Some will no doubt show up the evening of June 12 for a planned Champagne toast at Mitchell's grave at Atlanta's Oaklawn Cemetery.Mary Broscious, 39, of Elkridge, Md., calls herself a Gone With the Wind "freak."She has watched the movie more than 40 times and is not sure how many times she has read the book. Dozens. The first time was when she was 12 and was handed "a very big book" she had never heard of. She didn't know then there was a movie, either."I've always been a Civil War aficionado," says Broscious, a project manager who organizes events for pharmaceutical companies. "And I like the romance side of it. Scarlett pulls me in the most. She's strong when women were supposed to be shy and retiring. She takes care of herself and her family. She breaks all the molds."Treasures in the gift shopThousands of visitors a year stop by the movie room at the Margaret Mitchell House to watch a two-hour documentary on the making of the nearly four-hour Hollywood classic, which has been seen by more than 300 million people.They also get to see the door to Tara, which is on display."We have a lot to tell people," jokes Joanna Arrieta, director of historic houses for the Atlanta History Center, who adds that some visitors stay for hours.But it's often the house's gift shop where visitors linger the longest. (You can visit it without paying the $13 admission fee.)Along with Disney's Mickey Mouse, Gone With the Wind was one of the first Hollywood products to be widely merchandised, according to Don Rooney, a Margaret Mitchell expert at the history center."They come in for the collectibles," says Michael Mims, who has worked in the shop for 12 years. Asian visitors spend the most, he says, often dropping more than $1,000 at a time. The communist governor of China's Hunan province said it was the only place he wanted to visit while in America in February. After the tour and shopping "he finally had to be told to leave by his people," says Brandi Wigley of the Atlanta History Center.Among the gift shop treasures: a Scarlett wall plaque ($45); salt and pepper shakers in the shape of Scarlett's vanity and stool ($32); and appropriately for the "I'll never be hungry again" line, a Gone With the Wind lunchbox ($15).?In a weak moment?A four-minute video of Mitchell's friends and acquaintances talking about her will be shown during the exhibit. One jokes about her always typing."And she was!" says Rooney. Mitchell would often retreat to her tiny bathroom to continue writing even when guests stopped by.In one correspondence she wrote what is now a classic Mitchell line — "In a weak moment I have written a book."Most of the original reviews were favorable. Stephen Vincent Benét wrote in the July 4, 1936, Saturday Review of Literature: "Miss Mitchell paints a broad canvas, and an exciting one." The book also immediately became part of America's pop culture as the subject of a New Yorker cartoon that October.Local historian Ann Boutwell, a docent at the Margaret Mitchell House for 12 years, gives an entertaining and lively tour through "the dump."She mentions Mitchell's slight frame (4 feet, 11 inches), her disastrous first marriage, her philanthropy work, then throws in the fact that this proper and very private Southern woman once danced with bells attached to her corset.She also begins a few of her remarks with "Frankly, my dear…" She knows there's a slight error in doing so. Mitchell's famous sentence uttered by Rhett Butler didn't include the word "Frankly." David O. Selznick added it for the movie.Tara never had front porch columns, either.Yet another Hollywood addition.Mitchell did not approve.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.
