gone with the wind book margaret mitchell

Margaret’s mother was a devout Catholic with proud Irish roots and she instilled that pride in her children. She quickly learned not to take what wasn’t hers since plagiarism was considered the same thing as stealing. One time, Margaret dramatized “The Traitor” by Thomas Dixon, she was scolded and received a spanking from her father for plagiarism. Margaret wrote spooky ghost tales and short skits that often had violent plots, the plays were performed in full costume and Margaret usually cast herself as the hero. Margaret enjoyed reading Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens, The New York Sun to which her father subscribed, and several children’s magazines they received at home. Mitchell paid her for the reading of each play. “Well, I never could learn the multiplication table above the sevens but I was frightened and impressed enough by her words to learn enough rhetoric to land a job on a newspaper some years later.” By the time Margaret was eleven she had gone through Shakespeare, although that could be because of the small amount of money Mrs. Mitchell made an impression on her daughter when she explained to Margaret how precarious life is and the only thing that will save her is what she has in her head.

When Margaret was six-years-old her mother taught her the importance of having an education, both classical and practical. Margaret’s interest in reading and writing came from her mother’s encouragement to read the classics and write her own stories. Cavalry knees had the tendency to trot and bounce and jog in the midst of reminiscences and this kept me from going to sleep, fortunately for Gone with the Wind.” Margaret recalled, “When we went calling, I was usually scooped up onto a lap – told that I didn’t look like a soul on either side of the family – and then forgotten for the rest of the afternoon while the gathering spiritedly refought the Civil War. Parties and family gatherings supplied her with much Civil War history that she would later use in the writing of Gone with the Wind. She enjoyed discovering the history of Atlanta and Peachtree Street, where she lived. She had an enduring connection and great love for Atlanta. From an early age, Margaret took an interest in Atlanta’s history and the Civil War. She wrote and produced plays and cast herself and her friends in the parts. Margaret enjoyed writing stories and plays and relished in the telling of her tales. She would gather her friends around her as she told them tales.

Margaret was a writer from the time she could hold a pencil and a storyteller almost as soon as she could talk. Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was born on Novemin Atlanta, Georgia where she lived all of her life. She said that if her novel, Gone with the Wind, had a theme it was survival, “I wrote about the people who had gumption and the people who didn’t.” Margaret Mitchell admired people who had gumption, people who fought their way through hard times triumphantly and came out survivors.

Gone with the wind book margaret mitchell