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JOHN MARSH - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/09/1942 - HFSID 55639

John Marsh, husband of author Margaret Mitchell, signed this long typed letter to critic and longtime correspondent Edwin Granberry from Atlanta in 1942. Typed letter signed "John" in black ink, with numerous corrections and additions in pencil.

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JOHN MARSH
John Marsh, husband of author Margaret Mitchell, signed this long typed letter to critic and longtime correspondent Edwin Granberry from Atlanta in 1942.
Typed letter signed "John" in black ink, with numerous corrections and additions in pencil.3 pages, 8½x10¾, single-sided, with three file holes at left edge. Atlanta, Georgia, June 9, 1942. In full: "Dear Mabel and Edwin: Peggy is out of town but before she left she gave me a job to do and I finally got it attended to yesterday. It was the mailing of two books to the young gentlemen of the Granberry Family. Perhaps because Peggy is the Grand Old Lady of Southern Literature, books are always being sent to her - and often the strangest kind of books for G.O.L of S.L. We have never figured the reason for some of them, unless certain publishers have her name on a list to receive books which they consider 'something special', whether they might be expected to interest her or not. Sometimes they come direct from the publishers, sometimes the local bookstores send them out, and then we have the job of getting rid of them. That is often a problem, not so much because of the quantity of them but because Peggy tries to show more discrimination than the donors by putting them into the hands of folks who can really enjoy them. When these two arrived, just before Peggy left last Wednesday, it did not take her long to decide that they should go to Edwin Jr., Julian and Hal. We hope you won't object to their (their books, not the boys) warlike character and we off in rebuttal the fact that knowing how to spot airplanes is useful knowledge these days when all patriotic citizens are being urged to join up with the Civilian Defense. (That might be the reason these books were sent to Peggy. She and I are both Air Raid Wardens). And we hope especially that sending two books to three boys may not cause discord. Peggy will be away for two or three weeks if her Father's condition does not compel her to come home sooner. He has been in the hospital for more than a year now, with kidney trouble, and probably will never get out again. But he has a lot of stamina and he was doing reasonably well recently, so Peggy went ahead on this trip which she had planned a long time ago. I am expecting to go up on June 20 to bring her home after spending a week or thereabouts with her in New York and with my Mother in Delaware. What is the news with you all these days? What ever happened about the play? And did you ever get the new house you were negotiating for last year? It was a great disappointment to us that we could not get down to Florida to see you this past winter. We have talked about you often but that is a mighty poor substitute for talking with you. As a matter of fact, you came mighty near to having a talk with me, by long distance telephone, just now. After I had started writing this letter, I have the impulse to throw it away and call you on the phone instead. I think we have told you how our dealing with Hollywood taught us the long dis-tance telephone habit. It left a mark on me that will never be erased, so that now I seldom write a personal letter in person, if there is a telephone nearby. At first, we thought the movie folks were foolish with their endless telephoning but after we tried it a few times, we were as bad as they were. It gets into your blood, I suppose. About the only think that restrained me this time was the thought that, with schools closing, the Granberrys (or is it berries?) were probably off of to Whitney Beach or some other inaccessible spot. So I have surrendered the pleasure of hearing your voices again, and that is no small sacrifice for me, with Peggy out of town, and me lonesome as hell, and you all two of my favorite folks whom I haven't seen or talked to in a might long time. It would be fun to talk with you and I can't think of a pleasanter surprise than picking up the phone some day and finding you at the other end of the line. [autograph addition] I really mean it - in fact, I would even be willing to pay the charge just for the pleasure f talking with you. [end autograph addition] But that is too much to hope for, I suppose. (Maybe I ought to be working for the A T & T instead of the Georgia Power Company,the way I go around trying to impregnate innocent people with my vices). Seriously we do hop we can get together with you all again some day. The best thing that Peggy got out of 'Gone' was some valued new friends for both of us and you two are right at the top of our list. Our little visits with you in Florida are happy memories and we have always hoped we might have the opportunity to return the hospitality in Georgia. Please put your minds on it and if you have any suggestions as to how me [sic] might arrange another get together, they would be very welcome. We always enjoy being with you and I am sure we would have lots of things to talk about. Our very best to the both of you, John R. Marsh". "Edwin" is probably EDWIN GRANBERRY (1897-1988). Granberry, a freelance book reviewer and critic, had reviewed Gone With the Wind in a glowing and unprecedented 1,200-word piece in the New York Evening Sun on June 30, 1936, the day of the book's publication. Mitchell had been so impressed by the report, which compared her book to Tolstoy's War and Peace, that she wrote to thank Granberry. Her letter started a lifelong correspondence and friendship between the two couples: Margaret and John, and Edwin (a Southerner himself) and his wife MABEL. Marsh was the husband of Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell from 1925 until her death in 1949. Marsh, a professor of English and philosophy at University of Kentucky-Henderson Community College, played an important role in the writing of Gone With the Wind. After his wife was rendered bedridden after a 1926 accident, Marsh suggested that she write a novel, then continually edited her manuscript and offered key ideas and advice. Interestingly, Marsh had been Mitchell's suitor before she married her first husband, ex-footballer and bootlegger Berrien "Red" Upshaw, in 1924. Her stormy marriage to Upshaw ended in divorce, and she married Marsh, an editor at the Atlanta Journal Sunday Journal, where she worked. He later became director of Georgia Power Company's advertising department. Lightly toned, foxed and creased. Missing top left corner. Paper clip impression in top left corner. Folded once horizontally and twice vertically and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.

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