This study analyzes and explains the connections between characters and situations in Gone with the Wind and their relationship to events and lived experiences in the life of Margaret Mitchell and her ancestors. The book provides a window into 20th century Atlanta, Georgia which will delight lovers of Southern history. It brings to light a multiple of unpublished documents which deepen our understanding of Margaret Mitchell and her seminal work Gone with the Wind.
This wonderful book has been written for readers of GONE WITH THE WIND in an effort to help them better understand the connections between the novel & Margaret Mitchell's personal life & family relationships. Among its many revelations are: how the character of Scarlett O'Hara is related to Mitchell's grandmother Annie Fitzgerald; & how the seminal theme of impossible love at the age of 16 is derived in part from the life of Mitchell's distant cousin, Martha Anne Holliday, who was unable to marry her first cousin, John Henry "Doc" Holliday, & who later became a nun under the name of Sister Melanie. The book also explores Mitchell's record of philanthropy to Morehouse College School of Medicine for the training of black doctors. Finally, he locates for readers, many sites mentioned in the novel & tells where they can be found. There emerges from O'Connell's discussion of the novel a view of GWTW that is less polarizing & more inclusive than it is usually given credit for. To order: Claves & Petry, Ltd., P.O. Box 3075, Decatur, GA 30031. Phone/FAX 404-370-1761. $15.00 postage paid.
In this #1 bestselling sequel to Gone With The Wind, Scarlett O'Hara's story continues, beautifully capturing the spirit of Margaret Mitchell's timeless tale. Who can forget the most popular, beloved American historical novel ever written? Gone With the Wind is unparalleled in its portrayal the American South during the Civil War era. Now, Alexandra Ripley brings us back to Tara and reintroduces us to the characters we remember so well: Rhett, Ashley, Mammy, Suellen, Aunt Pittypat, and, of course, the unforgettable Scarlett O'Hara. The greatest fictional love affair is reignited as the passion between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler reaches its startling culmination. Rich with surprises at every turn and new emotional, breathtaking adventures, Scarlett will find an eternal place in our hearts. #1 New York Times bestseller #1 Chicago Tribune bestseller #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller #1 Publishers Weekly bestseller #1 Washington Post bestseller
“Exquisitely imagined, deeply researched . . . brings to the foreground the most enigmatic and fascinating figure in Gone with the Wind. This is a brave work of literary empathy by a writer at the height of his powers, who demonstrates a magisterial understanding of the period, its clashing cultures, and its heartbreaking crises. ” —Geraldine Brooks, author of March The only authorized prequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind—the unforgettable story of Mammy. On a Caribbean island consumed by the flames of revolution, an infant girl falls under the care of two French émigrés, Henri and Solange Fournier, who take the beautiful child they call Ruth to the bustling American city of Savannah. What follows is the sweeping tale of Ruth’s life as shaped first by her strong-willed mistress, and then by Solange’s daughter Ellen and Gerald O’Hara, the rough Irishman Ellen chooses to marry; the Butler family of Charleston and their unexpected connection to Mammy Ruth; and finally Scarlett O’Hara—the irrepressible Southern belle Mammy raises from birth. As we witness the lives of three generations of women, gifted storyteller Donald McCaig reveals a nuanced portrait of Mammy, at once a proud woman and a captive, a strict disciplinarian who has never experienced freedom herself. Through it all, Mammy endures, a rock in the river of time. Set against the backdrop of the South from the 1820s until the dawn of the Civil War, here is a remarkable story of fortitude, heartbreak, and indomitable will—and a tale that will forever illuminate your reading of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.
Author's abstract: Critics have largely dismissed Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel Gone with the Wind as a serious work of literature. Although various references to Irish culture permeate Gone with the Wind, the novel has not been compared to any Irish literature or mythology. This thesis compares Gone with the Wind with Irish Big House literature and mythology through the lens of biography and history. The works of William Butler Yeats, Maria Edgeworth, and Edith Somerville and Martin Ross are also employed to show evidence of the connection of Gone with the Wind to Irish Big House literature. This comparison results in a new approach to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind that affords a new reading of the novel.
Until recently, the odd thought Margaret Mitchell had only one story to tell: Gone With the Wind. Now meet a heroine to match Scarlett: Courtenay Ross, a feisty, independent-minded woman, and the two men -- one a cool-headed, well-heeled gentleman, the other a hot-blooded, pugnacious sailor -- who adore her. A tale of yearning, valor, and devotion, Lost Laysen enthralls from its delightful beginning to its unforgettable end. Equally intriguing is the story behind the story -- the real-life romance that inspired Mitchell: how she gave the original manuscript as a gift to her beau. Henry Love Angel, and how the manuscript, along with Mitchell's intimate letters and treasured photographs, were lovingly safeguarded only to be discovered decades later in a shoebox Lost Laysen is pure magic, a gift for us to cherish from America's most beloved storyteller.
Fully authorized by the Margaret Mitchell estate, Rhett Butler's People is the astonishing and long-awaited novel that parallels the Great American Novel, Gone With The Wind. Twelve years in the making, the publication of Rhett Butler's People marks a major and historic cultural event. Through the storytelling mastery of award-winning writer Donald McCaig, the life and times of the dashing Rhett Butler unfolds. Through Rhett's eyes we meet the people who shaped his larger than life personality as it sprang from Margaret Mitchell's unforgettable pages: Langston Butler, Rhett's unyielding father; Rosemary his steadfast sister; Tunis Bonneau, Rhett's best friend and a onetime slave; Belle Watling, the woman for whom Rhett cared long before he met Scarlett O'Hara at Twelve Oaks Plantation, on the fateful eve of the Civil War. Of course there is Scarlett. Katie Scarlett O'Hara, the headstrong, passionate woman whose life is inextricably entwined with Rhett's: more like him than she cares to admit; more in love with him than she'll ever know... Brought to vivid and authentic life by the hand of a master, Rhett Butler's People fulfills the dreams of those whose imaginations have been indelibly marked by Gone With The Wind.
Studies of the Irish presence in America have tended to look to the main corridors of emigration, and hence outside the American South. Yet the Irish constituted a significant minority in the region. Indeed, the Irish fascination expresses itself in southern context in powerful, but disparate, registers: music, literature, and often, a sense of shared heritage. Rethinking the Irish in the American South aims to create a readable, thorough introduction to the subject, establishing new ground for areas of inquiry. These essays offer a revisionist critique of the Irish in the South, calling into question widely held understandings of how Irish culture was transmitted. The discussion ranges from Appalachian ballads, to Gone with the Wind, to the Irish rock band U2, to Atlantic-spanning literary friendships. Rather than seeing the Irish presence as “natural” or something completed in the past, these essays posit a shifting, evolving, and unstable influence. Taken collectively, they offer a new framework for interpreting the Irish in the region. The implications extend to the interpretation of migration patterns, to the understanding of Irish diaspora, and the assimilation of immigrants and their ideas.
