Introduction: Gone with the Wind
The public perception of Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gone
with the Wind has been inextricably tied to that of its Hollywood film adaptation since the
latter’s release in 1939. With as much Hollywood magic as he could muster, producer
David O. Selznick presented a cinematic version of the novel that was hailed as
. Complete with renowned actors, lavish costumes, elaborate sets, elegant
lighting and a moving orchestral score, Selznick’s Gone with the Wind was a legendary
success, winning 10 Academy Awards and creating a legacy of its own. By creating
such an aesthetically beautiful and expertly crafted film, Selznick ensured that the general
public’s image of Gone with the Wind would be seen through his lens. Unfortunately for
Margaret Mitchell, this means that her descriptions, expositions and critical commentary
have been over-powered by Selznick’s own. The understandable yet fallacious tendency
to collapse Mitchell’s vision into Selznick’s does Mitchell a great disservice, for it
renders her authorial voice mute. If we are understand Mitchell’s project on its own
terms we must disassociate her book from his film.
1
All citations of Gone with the Wind refer to the Warner Brooks paperback edition first published in 1993.
Since there are so many editions in circulation, I have included chapter numbers in addition to page
numbers to aid in navigation of the text.
2
The New York Times named it one of the 10 best films of 1939, and it received additional rave reviews
from The Atlanta Journal, The Atlanta Constitution, and the New York Daily News. Top film journals –
Photoplay magazine and The Film Daily – also lauded the film. And of course, MGM famously declared it
“The Greatest Motion Picture Ever Made.” See Herb Bridges and Terryl C. Boodman, Gone with the
Wind: The Definitive Illustrated History of the Book, the Movie, and the Legend, New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1989, pg. 238-39.
2
Convention