GONE WITH THE WIND was published today in 1936

"Forget it, Louis. No Civil War picture ever made a nickel"
–Irving Thalberg to Louis B. Mayer
"I was the only Negro in the theater, 

and when Butterfly McQueen went into her act, I felt like crawling under the rug"
–Malcolm X


As WWII waged and Americans watched the Old World of Europe crumble, 

they were reassured by GWTW that their American world would live on, no matter what might happen. 


In London, during the War, GWTW was a very popular film, playing throughout the War years. 

It was also popular in liberated Europe after the War, even without subtitles. 

In Nazi Germany, however, Scarlett O'Hara was seen as a bad role model for German women, and subsequently the film was banned.


 In 1926, Mitchell was forced to quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal to recover from a series of physical injuries. 

With too much time on her hands, Mitchell soon grew restless. 

Working on a Remington typewriter, a gift from her second husband, John R. Marsh, in their cramped one-bedroom apartment, 

Mitchell began telling the story of an Atlanta belle named Pansy O’Hara.

 Mitchell drew on the tales she had heard from her parents and other relatives, 

as well as from Confederate war veterans she had met as a young girl. 

While she was extremely secretive about her work, 

Mitchell eventually gave the manuscript to Harold Latham, an editor from New York’s MacMillan Publishing. 

Latham encouraged Mitchell to complete the novel, with one important change: the heroine’s name. 

Mitchell agreed to change it to Scarlett, 

now one of the most memorable names in the history of literature.

Have you ever READ 

Gone With The Wind?

What did you think of the prose, 

the portrayal of the characters 

and their motivations?

Do you think the novel 

and the movie, 

GONE WITH THE WIND, 

are still important?