MARGARET MITCHELL - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/29/1936 - HFSID 55677

MARGARET MITCHELL
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, sends a letter to Edwin Granberry, who wrote one of the first good reviews of her book. In it, she discusses life as a celebrated author "has been such a hell".
Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 1p, 7¼x10¾. Atlanta, Georgia, 1936 October 29. On personal letterhead to Edwin (Granberry). In full: "I forgot to say in my last letter that I admired very much your tricky side stepping in that article you wrote. How neatly you evaded the fact that you not only stood in the station of a North Carolina hamlet and waited for me but you stood and stood and waited and waited. Dearie, till I die I'll get a laugh at the memory of that day with me getting madder and madder as I waited and you three loafing with your backs against the station while I charged in and out, addressing strangers, asking questions, bargaining with taxi drivers for the trip. Edwin, all the while I was up there with you all, I let you talk about my work. Make up your mind that when next I see you, it will be your work that will be talked about. Are you on your new novel now? Or is it polite to ask? For all I know you may be one of those writers who do not like to speak of work in progress. I hope you are on a new book - I can't help agreeing with Herschel about you being a swell novelist. I'm not good at analyzing how other writers get their effects (or is it affects?) for I do not even know how I get my own. But I'd give a pretty to know just how you put over the sombre [sic] and brooding feeling of the Erl King. Edwin, be frank with me. When and if John and I should start south to see you all -- what would be the most convenient time for you al? I mean when would you rather see us -- when would you have the most time etc. And will you promise me that even if we are just ready to start and Mabel gets bad news from her father, you will wire us to stay home? And what chances have I got of not being asked to make speeches or to autograph or to go to parties? I know you must think that sounds awfully snippy but life has been such a hell these last few months because of such things that I do not answer telephones or door bells and practically never put my foot out of the house. It has been so confining as to almost drive me mad for I have been so accustomed to complete freedom of movement. But I am so weak minded and so well brought up about not being rude to people who are really being sweet and kind to me that when somebody collars me I simply do not know what to do. So I stay home. Best to you both." MARGARET MITCHELL (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 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. Lightly toned. Multiple mailing. Otherwise, fine condition.