MITCHELL (MARGARET)


Typed letter signed ("Margaret Mitchell Marsh"), to Miss Black, telling her that "I have just received your letter of January 6th, in which you wrote of re-reading 'Gone With the Wind' in bomb shelters during raids" and thanking her "for realizing how much your letter would mean to me" and writing "at a period in your life when you must have many more serious and important things to do"; assuring her that "Your letter meant a great deal to me as the author of 'Gone With the Wind' but even more to me as Margaret Mitchell Marsh, a woman" as she is glad that "something I wrote had diverted and interested an Englishwoman through a dreadful period"; explaining that she is currently working at the Red Cross making garments for women and children, pajamas for the wounded and surgical dressings, all of which go to England; and concluding: "So you can understand that I, like thousands of other Americans, have England constantly in mind. I will take your letter to the Red Cross and read it to my fellow-workers. I hope you do not object. Your words will not only interest them but make them realize afresh the courage of English people", 1 page, printed heading 'Margaret Mitchell', upper part pasted into a well-read reprint of the Macmillan London edition, bearing the ownership inscription of Dorothy Black, some staining from glue and otherwise, but otherwise in sound condition (seemingly amenable to conservation), 4to, Atlanta, Georgia, 3 February 1941
|'YOUR LETTER MEANT A GREAT DEAL TO ME AS THE AUTHOR OF "GONE WITH THE WIND" BUT EVEN MORE TO ME AS MARGARET MITCHELL MARSH, A WOMAN' – a heart-felt tribute to an Englishwoman reading Gone With the Wind during the Blitz. Margaret Mitchell was deluged by fans from very soon after the book came out in 1936, explaining to one why she no longer signed copies: 'They came to me in thousands -- in such volume that I was unable to attend to them and still have time to carry on my work...Therefore, I was forced to refuse to autograph books for anyone, even my close friends and relatives' (letter to an unidentified correspondent, 25 January 1937, quoted in ABPC). By contrast, the fan letter she received from a woman during the Blitz clearly meant a great deal to her, as the exceptionally moving reply we have here makes plain: it is hard to think of a more telling interaction between the author of Gone With the Wind and her readership.The recipient of the letter appears to have been the South-African born actress Dorothy Black (1899-1985), who had appeared in films such as Hitchcock's Outward Bound of 1928 and on the London stage in plays such as Philpott's Blue Comet of 1927 (see the photograph of her with her co-star Paul Cavanagh on the V&A website). A letter by her to Margaret Mitchell, dated 1 June 1941, is held by the University of Georgia Library (see Ellen F. Brown, John Wiley Jr., Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller's Odyssey, 2011).