MARGARET MITCHELL - TYPED LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 284119

MARGARET MITCHELL
The year the film version of her Gone with the Wind premiered (1939), Mitchell signed this typed letter, forwarding with skeptical comments a letter she had received. Framed with 2 pictures of Mitchell to an overall size of 29½x18.
Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 1 page, 5¾x9. Atlanta, Georgia, 1939 May 3. On personal letterhead to "Dear Franklin" [Garrett]. One strike-over and ink correction in her hand. Triple suede matted and framed with two portraits of Mitchell to an overall size of 29½x18. In full: "I am enclosing a letter I recently received [Item not included], for I thought some of the information in it might be of interest to you. Because of the manifold errors in the letter I have doubts as to the lady's statement that her father was the first white child born in Atlanta. You will notice that she says her grandfather had fifteen hundred slaves and the plantation covered the 'whole of Dahlonega County.' I believe at that time there were about five thousand people in the county of which Dahlonega is the seat. However, knowing your interest in such matters, I am passing the letter on to you. Please return it when you have finished reading it." 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 - who wrote using her maiden name - 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. Seven months after Mitchell signed this letter, Gone with the Wind had its movie premiere in Atlanta (December 15, 1939), a major event with the film's stars and Confederate veterans present. Despite her tendency to romanticize the old South, Mitchell was well versed in the history of her region, and in a good position to question claims like those in the letter she was forwarding here. This letter was certainly written to Franklin Miller Garrett (1906-2000), official historian of the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Company and a respected expert on Atlanta's history. (He was the author of four books, one about the company and three about Atlanta and its environs). Fine condition. Not framed in the Gallery of History style.