Do you have an original copy of the book “Gone with the Wind” hiding in your attic? Does it have a good dust cover, excellent hand written signature by Margaret Mitchell and in good readable condition? When it was published in 1936, it sold for $3.00. Today it’s worth approximately $20,000.00.
This morning’s guest speaker was Mr. Herb Bridges, Member of the Board of Margaret Mitchell House and collector of Gone with the Wind memorabilia.
“Gone With the Wind’ has been published in 43 different languages around the world, including Japanese and Korean. And for over 40 some odd years, our speaker has been trying to find out why the general public in the United States and around the world has this fascination with the characters of this book. Could it be Vivian Lee was the first ‘Women’s Lib leader’? Was Clark Gable more than a “bon vivant”?
Margaret Mitchell was a reporter in Atlanta and her husband was in advertising. She wrote the book in 1926, because she was ‘bored’ and wanted something to do. But it wasn’t picked up by a publishing company until 1936. The movie portraying the characters in her book was finished and released in California in 1937. The setting for the movie was entirely man made. There never was a ‘Tara’ plantation in Georgia.
After the death of Margaret Mitchell, pedestrian car accident in Atlanta, her husband released the rights so a sequel of sorts could be written. It was called “Scarlett”. It did very well financially (4 ½ million dollars in profit) but was not critically acclaimed by the writers’ community.
Step ahead a few years to 2007. November 6th, a second sequel will debut called “Rhett Butler’s People”. It will be published by St. Martin’s Press.
Festival of Trees:
Connie Weatherby said the Kiwanis Christmas
tree will be decorated by our club on afternoon of December 2nd. More
information to follow.
Meals on Wheels:
Club President Sherry Neal said November 20th
many ‘meals on wheels’ members will be attending morning breakfast with the
club.
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