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MARGARET MITCHELL Autograph, Author of “Gone With the Wind” Typed Letter Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
MARGARET MITCHELL Autograph, Author of “Gone With the Wind” Typed Letter Signed
Autographs
Margaret Mitchell Author of “Gone With the Wind” Thanks Its Film Director George Cukor for his Gift of Perfume
MARGARET M. MITCHELL (1900-1949). Famous Author of the American Civil War era novel, “Gone With the Wind” for which she won the National Book Award for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937.
April 14, 1937-Dated, Excellent Content, Typed Letter Signed, "Peggy," 2 pages, 7" x 11", Quarto, Atlanta, Georgia, upon Mitchell's Personal Letterhead, Choice Extremely Fine+. Boldly signed and the type is strong with a rather vivid, choice overall eye appeal. Written to the famous Hollywood film director George Cukor, who was the original director for “Gone With the Wind.” Here, Margret Mitchell writes, in full:

"Dear George: --- On Monday I smelled like honeysuckles, on Tuesday I smelled of heliotrope, today I am lilaced to the ears and am as happy as a tomcat in a fresh bed of catnip, tomorrow I will smell of rose geranium, and I can scarcely wait until next Sunday when the fragrance of sweet olive will envelop me. Thank you so much for the perfumes. My preliminary sniffings tell me that the rose geranium is more suitable for me, but I love them all. They all lack the heavy musky sweetness of many perfumes and also the sharp chemical odor of most flower scents. Thank you a thousand times.

I hope you are getting something from some of the books I lent you. As you remarked, many of the memoirs of that era are dreary affairs. It is maddening to have to read seven books about faith in God and the sacredness of states' rights in order to discover just how many petticoats a belle of the sixties wore. As I could not find some of the books I wanted you to have, I have had my book dealer advertise for them and we should have them shortly.

Yolande Gwin called me and told me of your dramatic exit from Atlanta. I think it should go down in history side by side with General Hood's retreat from Atlanta. And I only wish discretion did not seal my lips for the whole thing would make a wonderful anecdote .

Through clippings I have received and telephone calls I learn what I already knew, - that is, that you charmed all the regions you visited and everyone like you so very much and felt that 'Gone With the Wind' was in perfect hands. --- If I can be of help to you let me know.

John sends you his best. And please remember us both to John Darrow. --- (Signed) Peggy

P .S. -- I am enclosing two letters, the first of which is self-explanatory. The second I am sending you with the request that you please route it to the correct department of your organization. I do not know whether or not Selznick International has a 'permissions department.' Anyway, this woman wants her 'recording' returned to her. Natually, I wrote her that I could not give her a letter of introduction to Mr. Selznick as I had not yet had the pleasure of meeting him.

I am mailing you today 'The Story of the Great March' which is written from the Yankee soldier's viewpoint. The pictures, especially the ones of 'The Bummer' and of a Yankee squad hunting for silver, may interest you. --- P.M.M."


Margaret Mitchell was American author who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her novel Gone With the Wind, one of the most popular books of all time selling more than 30 million copies. One month after the book's publication in May, 1936, David O. Selznick bought the rights for $50,000, a record amount of money at the time.

Selznick hired Cukor to direct and over the next two years he spent time on various pre-production duties and supervising numerous screen tests of actresses anxious to portray Scarlett O'Hara, including Audrey Hepburn and Paulette Goddard, before casting Vivien Leigh. Hours were spent coaching Leigh, Olivia de Havilland along with Clark Gable on their Southern accents. Despite Selznick's friendship with Cukor, the mounting dissatisfaction with the slow pace of production and quality of the work led Selznick to replace Cukor with Victor Fleming three weeks into filming and then had the script rewritten.

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American author and journalist. One novel by Mitchell was published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel, Gone with the Wind, for which she won the National Book Award for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. In more recent years, a collection of Mitchell's girlhood writings and a novella she wrote as a teenager, Lost Laysen, have been published.