August 16

I've written HERE how the date August 16 has been oddly active for me, and now I find out that in addition to Robert Johnson, Babe Ruth and Elvis, it's the day Margaret Mitchell died. Interesting. I still have never read over watched Gone With the Wind, although over Christmas I read a book about the writing of it, which was maddening in it's whole Mitchell became fabulously successful in spite of desperately trying not to be theme.

With the editing help of her husband, John Marsh, Mitchell basically finished the manuscript in 1929. She continued to rework chapters for the next several years, however, and was reluctant to show it to any publishers. When her friend, Lois Dwight Cole, the office manager of the Atlanta branch of the Macmillan Company, dropped by her apartment, Mitchell tossed a towel over the manuscript to hide it. Cole knew she was writing a book, but she was not allowed to see it.

In 1933, Cole heard that Mitchell had finished the manuscript except for the first chapter and asked to read it. Still Mitchell refused. Finally, in the spring of 1935, Macmillan editor Harold Latham visited Atlanta to scout for new literary talent. After much agonizing, Mitchell collected an armful of her chapters, many of them unnumbered and disorganized, and gave them to Latham at an Atlanta hotel. Which hotel is still not clear. Some biographers say it was the Georgian Terrace; others say it was the Biltmore or the Ansley.

Even after delivering the manuscript to Latham, Mitchell had second thoughts and asked him to send it back. Afraid that she might offer it to another publisher, he ignored her request and agreed to publish the novel.