MARGARET MITCHELL - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 09/28/1940 - HFSID 55651

MARGARET MITCHELL
The author congratulates friend and literary supporter Edwin Granberry on completing a play.
TLS: "Margaret", ¾p, 7¼x10½. Atlanta, Georgia, 1940 September 28. On stationery imprinted with her name to Edwin [Granberry, an early reviewer]. In full: "Your letter with its grand news has just arrived. It catches us busting a trace to get the train to visit John's mother in Delaware. I don't know how long we'll be gone but I'll write you when I get back. The news about the play is marvelous and I am sure I am far more excited than you and Mabel can possibly be. I do hope the Lunts like your play because they are not only the world's best actors but the world's nicest people. We had them for supper some months ago when they played here and they are very real people, besides being attractive." MARGARET MUNNERLYN MITCHELL MARSH (1900-1949) had been 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. Mitchell had been stunned -- and thrust into the public spotlight -- when the book sold over 1.3 million copies in its first year and 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, starting a lifelong correspondence -- and a friendship between the two couples: Margaret and her husband, JOHN MARSH, and Edwin and his wife, MABEL. Edwin, who also wrote short stories and plays, had written a play for consideration by America's premier stage couple, ALFRED LUNT and his wife, LYNN FONTANNE. At the time of this letter, the Lunts were appearing on Broadway in There Shall Be No Night (September 9-November 2, 1940). Although Edwin Cranberry wrote four novels, scripted a successful comic strip (Buz Sawyer) and won the O'Henry short story award, there is no record of his playing ever being produced. Lightly creased. Lightly soiled and stained, rust paper clip stains at upper portion touch 4 lines of text (all legible). Lightly toned.