MARGARET MITCHELL - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 11/21/1938 - HFSID 55667

MARGARET MITCHELL
The clever Gone With the Wind author sends long letter to critic Edwin Granberry, discussing the finest of Atlanta's literary society, signs name in black ink
Tyed letter signed: "Margaret", 2p, 7x10¾, separate sheets. Atlanta, Georgia, 1938 November 21. On her personal stationery to Edwin and Mabel [Granberry]. In part: "We were so glad to have your letter for we were afraid that either something awful had happened to the Granberrys or else that you did not like us any more. Either of these happenings would be a catastrophe. I gather that awful things have happened as far as Edwin, Jr. is concerned. I can think of nothing worse than a case of sinus that lasted as long as his did...We went through a stiff siege when my father was very ill. He is recuperating now. Last week-end we went to Sea Island for a few days and, to our great pleasure, Herschel came down and spent two days with us. Of course, we talked of youall (sic)...Yes, he has been off The Post for two or three months and has been doing reviews for The Times and The Herald-Tribune. He has also done some editing and re-writing for various publishers. He and Norma plan to spend the winter in Natchez and Herschel is going on a lecture tour in January for the Book-of-the-Month Club. He told us that he had been taking lessons in public speaking and that his teacher assured him that his upper lip was practically immovable. She is working to get the lip to move and making him recite the most violent harangues of Shakespeare's most desperate characters...I understood that his lectures would be in the South, with Atlanta the furthest point north, so perhaps you may see him in Florida this spring...He came on to Atlanta and Marjorie Rawlings came up from Florida. The four of us had luncheon at the Athletic club and talked for several hours thereafter. Herschel left that night and so did she. Mrs. Rawlings wanted to buy some clothes and had only an hour before her train left. I sent her to a salesgirl I knew. My admiration for Mrs. Rawlings went up enormously when I learned that she bought two dresses in this period. Most women take two hours just trying on. Herschel says he thinks 'The Yearling' will get the Pulitzer award and we agreed that it would be a grave miscarriage of justice if it didn't. I had heard that she had been ill in the spring and summer but she looked very well when we saw her. She put away as much victuals as we did and also had a drink, so, I suppose she must be well. Thank you for the folder on Mr. Hanna's book. He had written me several times in the belief that I was related to some Breckenridges (or maybe it was somebody else who chaperoned Jeff Davis on the flight). I told him several times that I was not related, but I do not know whether he got the idea. You are grand people to invite us down and I wish I could say that we were jumping in the car tomorrow to come to see you. However, we are up to our necks in work and, as the new cheap edition of 'Gone With the Wind' has sold something over 350,000, I know we will be snowed under for the next few months. John talks about getting a vacation in the late winter and I hope he can manage it. Of course, we'll come to Florida and, of course, we want to see all of you, but I don't know when that will be. Now, Edwin, you did not say a word about your writing. I hope the omission does not mean that things have been so hectic that you have been unable to do any writing...." MARGARET "PEGGY" MITCHELL MARSH, 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). Mitchell had met HERSCHEL BRICKELL, a literary critic from Ridgefield, Connecticut, and his wife, NORMA, at a writers' retreat at Blowing Rock in August 1936. Brickell had also written a publication day review of Gone With the Wind in the "New York Post", calling the book a "striking piece of literature." Mitchell had written to him at the same time she had written to Granberry, and, as with Granberry, continued her correspondence with him (she had written to Herschel on October 31, three weeks before she wrote this letter to Granberry). Besides their visits to Blowing Rock, the Marshes often vacationed with the Granberrys at their home in Winter Park, Florida. The Granberry family included EDWIN, JR., their youngest son, who is mentioned in this letter. In this letter, Mitchell also mentions a visit from MARJORIE RAWLINGS, the author of The Yearling, a young adult novel that, like Mitchell's book, reflected the author's love of the land and people of the South. True to Mitchell's prediction, Rawlings' book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1938. And, like Mitchell's novel, The Yearling was made into a feature film (1946). An extraordinarily personal letter with remarkable literary associations! Lightly soiled at blank margins. Fine condition.
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