— Ch. 1 · The Injury That Sparked A Novel —
Gone with the Wind (novel).
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 5
Margaret Mitchell began writing Gone with the Wind in 1926 while recovering from a slow-healing injury sustained in an auto crash. She was born in Atlanta in 1900 and grew up hearing stories about the American Civil War from her grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens. Her mother, Maybelle Stephens Mitchell, was a suffragist who fought for women's right to vote before dying of the 1918 pandemic flu when Margaret was young. After studying at Smith College for one year, Mitchell returned home to Atlanta where she married an abusive bootlegger named Berrien Upshaw. She later divorced him and took a job writing feature articles for the Atlanta Journal. This work experience placed her among debutantes of her class who typically did not hold paid employment. Her second husband, John Marsh, had been the best man at her first wedding and shared her interest in literature. He worked as a copy editor by trade. The couple edited the final version of the novel together after Harold Latham of Macmillan agreed to publish it in April 1935.
A Linear Journey Through Chaos
Mitchell arranged the story chronologically spanning from 1861 to 1873 to follow Scarlett O'Hara's growth from adolescence into adulthood. During this period Scarlett ages from sixteen years old to twenty-eight years old. The narrative structure is smooth and linear without complex flashbacks or non-linear time jumps. Critics describe the book as having exceptional readability due to its rich plot and vivid characters. Some scholars classify it as a historical romance while others argue it fits better within the historical novel genre. A few critics have even described it as an early classic of the erotic historical genre because they believe it contains some degree of pornography. The title comes from the poem Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson. Scarlett uses the phrase when wondering if Tara still stands after the war sweeps through Georgia. The author originally considered titles like Tomorrow Is Another Day and Bugles Sang True before settling on the final choice.