Margaret Mitchell sold the movie rights for $50,000. Fearful of what the studio might do to her story, the author washed her hands of involvement with the film. However, driven by a maternal interest in her literary firstborn and compelled by her Southern manners to answer every fan letter she received, Mitchell was unable to stay aloof for long.
In this collection of her letters about the 1939 motion picture classic, readers have a front-row seat as the author watches the Dream Factory at work. Her ability to weave a story, so evident in Gone With the Wind, makes for delightful reading in her correspondence with a who’s who of Hollywood, from producer David O. Selznick, director George Cukor and screenwriter Sidney Howard, to cast members Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel.
As Gone With the Wind marks its 75th anniversary on the silver screen, The Scarlett Letters, edited by Mitchell historian John Wiley, Jr., offers a fresh look at the most popular motion picture of all time through the eyes of the woman who gave birth to Scarlett.
AVAILABLE FROM YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSELLER OR WWW.ROWMAN.COM.
“John Wiley, Jr., is the world’s greatest authority on Margaret Mitchell. If you think Scarlett O’Hara is fascinating, wait until you meet Margaret Mitchell in these pages — she is laugh-out-loud funny, honest to a fault, often exasperating, and a brilliant judge of character.”
— Pamela Roberts, producer/director of Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel for PBS
1939
JANUARY
JAN. 5
Aviator Amelia Earhart is officially declared dead. Her plane had disappeared in 1937.
JAN. 27:
Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a massive expansion of the German Navy. Hitler intends to build a fleet that can destroy the British Navy.
FEBRUARY
MARCH
MARCH 3:
The strange craze of goldfish swallowing reaches a high point when Time magazine devotes an article to Harvard’s Lothrop Withington, who swallowed a goldfish to win a $10 bet.
MARCH 28:
Dictator Francisco Franco assumes power in Spain. He rules Spain until 1975.
APRIL
APRIL 14:
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is published. It is the best-selling book of 1939.
MAY
MAY 1:
Batman makes his first appearance in a comic book. The May issue of Detective Comics sold for a dime.
MAY 2:
Lou Gehrig, baseball’s Iron Horse, sits out a game, ending his consecutive game streak at 2,130. In June he is diagnosed with ALS, and on July 4, he gives his famous farewell speech, calling himself “the luckiest man on the face of this earth.”
JUNE
JUNE 1:
The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. is officially dedicated. The plaque gallery is pictured below.
JULY
JULY 6:
The last remaining Jewish-owned businesses in Germany are closed by the Nazis.
AUGUST
AUG. 2:
Albert Einstein signs a letter written by Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd to President Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining that uranium may be used to create a nuclear bomb. Roosevelt immediately establishes a committee to investigate, paving the way for the Manhattan Project.
AUG. 15:
The Wizard of Oz premieres. Opening to almost as much fanfare as Gone With the Wind, MGM’s The Wizard of Oz cost a staggering (at the time) $2.7 million.
AUG. 19:
Adolf Hitler orders preparations for the invasion of Poland to begin in earnest.
AUG. 23:
Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact, agreeing to divide Eastern Europe between the two powers. Both nations invade Poland in September with the intent of splitting the country along the lines that they agreed to in this treaty.
SEPTEMBER
SEPT. 1:
The first shots of World War II are fired when the German warship Schleswig-Holstein opens fire on the Polish fort Westerplatte.
OCTOBER
OCT. 17:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington premieres. The Jimmy Stewart classic is another highlight in what many consider Hollywood’s finest year. Other noteworthy films from 1939 include Babes in Arms; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Gunga Din; Ninotchka and Stagecoach.
NOVEMBER
NOV. 15:
President Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
NOV. 16:
Al Capone is released from Alcatraz due to his poor health, the result of syphilis. Ravaged mentally and physically by the disease,