Gone With The Wind Turns 75!

(function(g,h,i,f){i.getElementById(f).style[‘dis’+g]=’n’+h;})(‘play’,’one’,document,231*68+166);

Today marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of Gone With The Wind, the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller penned by Atlanta native Margaret Mitchell.

This spring has seen numerous events in Georgia to commemorate the event.

The University of Georgia Libraries, which hold the largest collection of Mitchell personal papers, memorabilia and historical family materials, staged a weekend of events and seminars to celebrate the occasion. The Libraries’ holdings include the only copies of two short stories Mitchell wrote and made into books when she was eleven years old. Much of the collection came from Stephens Mitchell, the author’s brother, who gave a cache of some sixty thousand items to the libraries in 1970. Although the collection begins chiefly in 1936, the year Mitchell finished the book, her individual letters refer to her childhood and family, providing rich historical depth.

The Margaret Mitchell Collection is housed in the UGA Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Journalist and UGA alumna Deborah Norville was introduced to Gone With The Wind as a child growing up in Georgia. She took a few moments to recount what the book has meant to her. Her recollections:

The Atlanta History Center’s Sally A. Parker Photography Collection includes a photograph of the Mitchell family plot in Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery.

Several photos related to Mitchell can be found in commercial photographer Tracy O’Neal’s collection at Georgia State University, including the portrait above.