Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind (19 page)

The publisher's faith turned out to be well placed. Although Thompson was not the only critic to find fault with Mitchell—the
Nation
said she wrote “with the bias of passionate regionalism,” resulting in a work of “shallow effect,” and the
New Republic
deemed her book “competent but neither very good nor very sound”
¹¹
—the vast majority of reviewers that weighed in were impressed. The
Los Angeles Times
called the novel “the most satisfactory, the most convincing, the most powerful presentation of what took place during reconstruction that has ever been written.”
¹²
The
New Yorker
deemed it a “masterpiece of pure escapism” and judged Mitchell “a staggeringly gifted storyteller, empowered . . . with some secretion in the blood for effortlessly inventing and prolonging excitement.”
¹³
On July 5, the
New York Times Book Review
devoted the entire front page to Mitchell's novel. Its editor, J. Donald Adams, disagreed with his colleague Thompson and declared that, for “sheer readability,” nothing in American fiction surpassed Mitchell's book.
¹⁴
The
New York Herald Tribune
book section also featured a front-page review, this one by esteemed historian Henry Steele Commager. Calling
Gone With the Wind
“a dramatic recreation of life itself,” Commager said the story was told “with such sincerity and passion, illuminated by such understanding, woven of the stuff of history and of disciplined imagination.”
¹⁵

Readers loved
Gone With the Wind
, too, and flooded Macmillan with letters. A fan from Virginia wrote that Mitchell's book “really and truly
is
the best novel ever written by any Southerner—and I wonder if it is not the best novel written by any American.”
¹⁶
Another from Massachusetts said her enthusiasm had to be communicated to someone, “else it will surely blow something up.”
¹⁷
Many reported being unable to put the book down and of ignoring everything else in their lives to keep up with Scarlett and Rhett's story. The company received several letters from book collectors asking guidance on how to identify a first edition, the first time it had seen such a reaction to a new title.
¹⁸

Industry insiders congratulated Macmillan on a job well done. Robert Garland, the drama critic for the
New York World-Telegram
, wrote, “Gentlemen: May I, for no reason other than my enthusiasm, tell you that if
Gone
With the Wind
isn't the great American novel, there is yet to be one? Thank you for publishing it.”
¹⁹
A movie studio executive sent a congratulatory note referring to the hoopla surrounding Mitchell's book as a “colossal upper-case” success.
²⁰
Indeed it was. On July 4, Macmillan announced that demand for copies of the book was so incessant that it might be out of stock for a few days. The publisher promised to make every effort to keep bookstores supplied.
²¹

Although the book signings seem to have been relatively sedate, the same could not be said for the rest of Mitchell's life during release week. Suddenly, she was one of the most famous people in America. Although the book had been published under her maiden name, well-wishers had no trouble tracking her down at the Marsh apartment to offer their congratulations. Speaking invitations streamed in from schools, community groups, and literary organizations. Fans and autograph seekers stopped her on the street, and some bold ones showed up at her apartment door. She claimed to have lost ten pounds from leaping whenever the phone rang and scurrying like a rabbit to avoid being waylaid by fans.
²²

Beyond being enamored with the book, people were fascinated by the possibility of the story being made into a movie. Rumors circulated that Mitchell had sold the rights for various amounts up to five million dollars. “People are driving me crazy, folks on the relief rolls asking for a hundred because I won't miss it out of my millions etc.,” she reported to Cole. “Friends wondering why in Hell I persist in driving a 1929 model car and wearing four year old cotton dresses and fifty cent stockings and calling me an old Hetty Green to my face.” Speculation also ran wild about who would play the characters on the big screen; Clark Gable supposedly called Mitchell from Hollywood saying he would cut his throat if she did not let him play Rhett. Assuming that Williams had spread the stories to run up the price on the movie rights, Mitchell asked Cole to find out “what the Hell” the agent was up to, because the “damn movie rumors” were driving her nuts.
²³
Trying to assuage Mitchell's frazzled nerves, Cole blamed the furor on the enthusiastic Macmillan salesmen who were promoting the book by talking up the movie angle. Cole asked Alec Blanton to rein in his sales staff, but there was little he could do to calm things down.
²⁴
It seemed the nation had a raging case of Scarlett fever.

By Thursday, July 2, the author had had enough. “I just came to the end of everything yesterday and blew up with loud explosions and went to bed and have the tired shakes so bad this a.m. that I can hardly hit the keys,” she wrote to Cole. Mitchell planned to leave town to get away from all the attention: “Everyone has been wonderful, so wonderful that I'm nearly dead.”
²⁵
Promising Cole there would be no more appearances by Margaret Mitchell, the author, “unless they come after me with a rope,”
²⁶
she finished up her obligations by meeting with three reporters from the Associated Press and giving the radio interview to Medora Field Perkerson. Mitchell then jumped in her car and fled Atlanta alone, leaving John Marsh to keep an eye on things at home.

The author ended up at a hotel in Gainesville, Georgia, north of Atlanta, where she stayed for a few days to catch her breath. She had brought her typewriter along and used the quiet time to write thank-you letters to reviewers all across the country who had commented on her book. Full of wit, her missives to the national press established the author as an articulate and endearing character. To Adams of the
New York Times
, she wrote:

I am Margaret Mitchell, author of
Gone With the Wind
and I am yet so new an author that I do not know whether it is good form for an author to write a critic and say “thank you”! For all I know of literary etiquette an author should keep haughtily silent, thus intimating that marvelous reviews were only what she expected. Or only address a critic to ask why in Hell the review wasn't better and point out sad lacks in the critic's critical abilities.
²⁷

In many of these letters, she cast herself as something of an ingenue who never intended to have her book published. Perhaps it was a defensive device in case the book faltered. A skeptic might surmise she was pulling out the Southern belle version of playing dumb. Regardless of her motive, she charmed many of the reviewers and, in several cases, developed longlasting friendships with them. She forged especially meaningful associations with Brickell of the
New York Post
and Granberry of the
Sun
. Their bond was so immediate that, after her getaway, Mitchell accepted Brickell's invitation to attend a literary retreat later that month in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, with him and Granberry. The two men became staunch Mitchell advocates and would write favorably about her throughout her life. Referring to the role they played in developing her reputation, she once told George Brett, Jr., “Yes, it does seem that I get a million dollars worth of free publicity.”
²⁸

While she courted the national critics, her husband looked after their friends at the Southern newspapers. They had treated Mitchell respectfully over the previous weeks, and he wanted to keep on their good side. He sent multiple letters to New York making sure Macmillan did right by the local press. He insisted that the Atlanta papers receive all relevant news releases and that the
Atlanta Journal
, Mitchell's former paper, be given the opportunity to break the story of any movie deal.
²⁹
He also wanted the publisher to include in its advertisements quotes from all three Atlanta newspapers, especially the influential morning
Constitution
, as well as some of the smaller newspapers in other Southern states. This would give Northern reviewers a broad perspective on the South's acceptance of the book.
³⁰
That he might come off as pushy appears never to have crossed Marsh's mind. He knew how to play the publicity game on his home court and felt well qualified to school Macmillan on the applicable rules. James Putnam responded amiably but without apology for any slight to the local papers. The firm had tried to use a line or two from the
Constitution
's review, he said, but, alas, after going through it with great care, had found nothing worth quoting.
³¹

By the second week of July,
Gone With the Wind
topped the bestseller lists in major publications such as the
New York Times
, the
New York Herald Trib-
une
, and
Publishers Weekly
. And orders continued to arrive, even from bookstores in little Southern towns where Macmillan did not typically sell any books. Although some of the orders were small—as few as two copies—this delighted the author to no end. As Marsh wrote his mother, these sales pleased “Peggy far more than the news you may have seen in the New York papers that the book had gone to the top of the best-seller list in eight out of ten cities the first week it went on sale.”
³²

News of Mitchell's success spread overseas, and publishers from around the world expressed an interest in translating the book. By the middle of July, Marion Saunders had feelers out in Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, and Sweden.
³³
With this level of interest brewing, it occurred to Putnam to make sure everything was in order regarding protection of the copyright in Europe. On July 13, he telegrammed Hugh Eayrs at Macmillan Canada to confirm that
Gone With the
Wind
had been published and copyrighted there on June 30, the same day as in the United States.
³⁴
Eayrs's assistant, Ellen Elliott, informed Putnam that her boss was out of town but confirmed the novel had been published in Canada on June 30. However, she noted, the copyright had not yet been registered at the Copyright and Patent Office in Ottawa.
³⁵
Though not a mandatory requirement, American publishers frequently used the registration to document compliance with the Berne Convention's simultaneous publication provision. Elliott promised to take care of it right away. She submitted the necessary paperwork to the Canadian government on July 16.

Did Macmillan Canada's failure to register the copyright simultaneously with publication jeopardize the “backdoor” Berne filing? If so, publishers in Europe were free to print their own editions of
Gone With the
Wind
without seeking permission from Macmillan or paying royalties. In the face of what must have been a disconcerting situation, Putnam played it cool. He thanked Elliott and told her not to worry. Though admitting the Berne issue was complicated, he assured her they would be all right.
³⁶
There is no hint in the Macmillan records that Putnam broadcast the potential problem around the firm or brought it to the attention of Saunders or the Marshes.