A Tribute to Gone With the Wind

75 years ago today, Gone with the Wind was published. Margaret Mitchell had spent over 10 years writing and rewriting what many believe is the greatest American novel ever written.

A year before an editor from Macmillian Publishing in New York came to Atlanta looking for fresh ideas for novels. He was leaving by train empty-handed when a barely five-foot-tall, feisty, former Atlanta Journal columnist, Margaret Mitchell, reluctantly gave him a jumbled up mess of a manuscript grandly housed in manila envelopes and Piggly Wiggly paper sacks. He had to buy a suitcase to take the manuscript with him. In July, 1936, Mitchell received a $500 advance check and a contract to pay her 10 percent royalties on the first 10,000 copies and 15 percent thereafter.

On June 30th, 1936, GWTW swept onto bookstore shelves all over the world, 50,000 copies sold the first day. Mitchell’s husband had told her that “between them they had 5,000 cousins in Georgia who would buy the book.” Even 75 years later, GWTW sales are approximately 250,000 copies a year.

There will be many tributes, memorabilia on display and a PBS special on June 30th to commemorate The Book and Margaret Mitchell.
May I, as a constant admirer, congratulate and thank Margaret Mitchell for making my life richer and for inspiring me.