MARGARET MITCHELL - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 01/05/1939 - HFSID 55668
Price: $2,800.00
MARGARET MITCHELL
Letter to friend and fellow author Edwin Granberry, mentioning
several other writers.
Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 2p, 7¼x10½. Atlanta,
Georgia, 1939 January 5. On personal letterhead to Mabel and Edwin
(Granberry). In full: "I intended to write you immediately after
hearing the radio broadcast but, as you know, hell is paved with mice and men,
to use a scrambled metaphor. Father was very ill following an operation and his
condition worried us tremendously. He is now almost well and can go to the
office for short intervals. Then the Christmas season came upon us and the mad
rush to close up the books by the end of the year. That's over now, thank
Heaven. Seriously, we liked the radio dramatization and we hope you did too. The
'pappy-mammy' business did not bother us for it sounded very natural. I found it
all very moving and, even though I knew what was coming, I had a sense of
growing horror at the inevitability of it all. Confidentially, I received a copy
of 'Flight into Oblivion.' There was no covering letter. As is my custom, I
returned the book to the publisher. As I am unable to give endorsements or make
statements about books, I always return them because I feel embarrassed at
getting them under false pretences. When I get the time to do some reading, I am
going to buy the book for I know I'll find it interesting. It has had excellent
reviews, I thought, and I was glad the book drew such good critical comment. I
haven't heard a word about Herschel's plans since we saw him at Sea Island early
in November. At that time Norma was packing for the trip to Natchez and Herschel
expected to begin his Book-of-the-Month Club lectures in January. I don't know
whether something delayed their trip and they are still in the North or whether
they are now in Natchez. I wish you two could have been with us when Herschel
was describing his stay at Breadloaf this summer and his subsequent jauntings
about New England to Peterboro to see Robert Frost, Jim Still and Kenneth
Roberts. The recital was highly entertaining. I gathered that most of the
'fellows' at Breadloaf were young lady authors of exceptional beauty and charm
and that a good time was had by all. We expected to get a Christmas vacation or,
at least, a short trip in January, but we have given up the idea for the time
being. Father's illness put it out of our minds and my brother Stephens has just
had his tonsils out and may be laid up a couple of weeks. During his illness we
will have to handle the work he customarily does for us. I have got another case
coming up in the Dutch courts this month and do not feel that I can leave town
now. This was a great disappointment to us as we hoped to come to Florida and
see you. We still hope for a vacation before spring. We hope that sinuses and
housemaid's knee are things of the past". MARGARET MITCHELL MARSH
(1900-1949), a native of Atlanta, Georgia, was awarded the 1937 Pulitzer Prize
in Fiction for Gone With the Wind, her epic novel set against the
backdrop of the American Civil War and Reconstruction South. At first uncertain
about her book's literary merit, she had submitted her manuscript to Macmillan
Company in 1935. Mitchell was stunned -- and thrust into the public spotlight --
when the book sold over 1.3 million copies in its first year. It remained on the
best-seller list for 21 weeks, enjoying a resurgence in sales with the release
of the 1939 film based on the novel. EDWIN GRANBERRY, a freelance book
reviewer and critic, had reviewed her book 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 had written to thank him.
Her letter started a lifelong correspondence -- and a friendship between the two
couples: Margaret and her husband, JOHN MARSH, and Edwin (a Southerner
himself) and his wife, MABEL. Margaret and John first met the
Granberrys at Blowing Rock, North Carolina, the summer campus of Florida's
Rollins College, where Granberry was a Professor of English. It was during
this visit that she had agreed to accept $50,000 in movie rights for her
book pending contract negotiations with producer David O. Selznick (against
Granberry's advice). Besides their visits to Blowing Rock, the Marshes often
vacationed with the Granberrys at their home in Winter Park, Florida.
Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.
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