Even Margaret Mitchell doesn’t know what ultimately happened with Scarlett and Rhett. She left the ending of Gone With the Wind ambiguous with no “real” ending even in her own head. “For all I know, Rhett may have found someone else who was less – difficult,” she told Yank magazine in 1945. [1]
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was first published on 30 June 1936 while the USA book industry was still affected by the Depression. “I do hope they sell five thousand copies,” Mitchell remarked, “so they don’t lose money.” The book sold 50,000 copies in one day and was soon one of the fastest-selling books in the history of American publishing. Within three weeks, Gone with the Wind had sold more than 176,000 copies, rising to over 1,788,000 by December 1938. When the film was first shown in 1939, sales had reached 2,153,000 copies. The novel has been absorbed into American popular culture.
Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, this magnificent 1,037-page historical epic is an unforgettable tale of love and loss. It’s the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled, ruthless daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, and the dashing soldier of fortune, Rhett Butler. Scarlett is a young woman when the Civil War sweeps away the life of her privileged upbringing, and she must use every means at her disposal to survive and rebuild her home after looting by the Yankees. In the process, she hardens, vowing that her family will survive and never go hungry again.
Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1900 and grew up listening to stories about life in the “Old South”. In 1918 she attended Smith College in Massachusetts for one year, returning home to Georgia after her mother passed away in 1919. For a time, she wrote feature articles for the Atlanta Journal. While recovering from an ankle injury and unable to work, Mitchell began writing the novel in 1926.
Nine years later, in 1935 a Macmillan Publishing Company vice president visited Atlanta looking for new authors. When Mitchell shared her manuscript with him, it was so massive in size that he had to buy a new suitcase to take it back to New York City. Macmillan offered her a contract and she received a $500 advance and 10 percent of the royalties. Mitchell worked for another six months checking the historical references and rewriting the opening chapter several times.
Gone with the Wind was popular with American readers from the outset and was the top American fiction bestseller in 1936 and 1937. Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the book in 1937. It was adapted into the 1939 film of the same name starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made, it won eight competitive Oscars and two honorary Oscars at the Academy Awards in 1940.
Gone with the Wind is the only novel by Margaret Mitchell published during her lifetime. She died in 1949 after getting hit by a drunk driver while she was crossing the street. She was 48 years old.