Today is the birthday of Margaret Mitchell. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1900. She is best known for writing the novel, Gone With the Wind .

Martha Mitchell was brought up in a wealthy family; her father was a lawyer and she attended private schools. She had to leave Smith College in 1919 after her mother died; she returned home to take care of her father and brother.  World War I was still being fought and that same year her fiance was killed in France.  In 1922, she married Berrien Upshaw.  Martha Mitchell started her writing career as a journalist because her husband did not bring in a regular wage. This marriage lasted for 4 years; after her divorce she married John R. Marsh in 1925.  She gave up her career as a journalist shortly after their marriage and it was then that she began to write Gone With the Wind.

Gone With the Wind was published in 1936 and sold over one million copies in less than six months. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1937.  In 1939, the novel was made into a film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Ms. Mitchell attended the movie premiere in Atlanta.

The great success of Gone With the Wind did not always sit well with Ms. Mitchell and she frequently became annoyed by the attention that it brought to her.

Margaret Mitchell was killed in 1949 when she was run down by a speeding car, whose driver turned out to be drunk.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS