MARGARET MITCHELL - TYPED LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 55672

MARGARET MITCHELL
Letter to friend and fellow author Edwin Granberry about her pending visit, delayed by a extortion threat!. Granberry's glowing review had been one of the first signs that Gone With the Wind would prove a literary classic.
Typed Letter signed: "M", 1 page, 7½x9½. No place, no date. To Edwin [Granberry], in full: "Edwin, your wire came but your letter has not arrived and I have delayed in making my final plans until hearing from you by mail. I have been trying to get train schedules straightened out but with little success as it seems it will take me three days to get to Sarasota. There must be some quicker route and I'm going back to the ticket man again to try to discover it. Don't look for me before Monday, however because what with the tangle of schedules and a little business that has just turned up I may be delayed. The little business is an out and out extortion note and I may have to stay in town a day or two - if we put it in the hands of the G men. But keep it under your hat for nothing may come ofit. I know this is a wild and disconnected note but I wanted to get something off to you quickly so you wouldn't be expecting us Saturday or Sunday. I'll write you as soon as possible when I will come. I wish I knew whether you were near a telegraph or telephone so I could let you know my plans sooner. Looking forward to seeing you. Love to you both". 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 resurgence in sales with the release of the 1939 film based on the novel. Although proud of her novel's success, Mitchell soon tired of being in the spotlight, and began refusing interview and autograph requests. John Marsh, Margaret Mitchell's husband from 1925 until her death. Had been a professor of English and philosophy at University of Kentucky-Henderson Community College, and played an important role in the writing of Gone With the Wind., editing her manuscript and offering suggestions. Interestingly, Marsh had been Mitchell's suitor before she married her first husband, ex-footballer and bootlegger Berrien "Red" Upshaw, in 1924. Her stormy marriage to Upshaw ended in divorce, and she married Marsh, an editor at the Atlanta Journal Sunday Journal, where she worked. He later became director of Georgia Power Company's advertising department. 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). Granberry was himself a noted author, a winner of the O'Henry Award for best short story. Strangers and Lovers, praised by Mitchell here, was one of his four novels. Multiple mailing folds. Toned and creased. Notches at edges. Foxing near fold creases. Otherwise, fine condition.