Foreword

By Ernie Harwell

Like millions of Americans and folks from all over the world, I loved Margaret Mitchell’s book Gone With the Wind and I also enjoyed the movie when it came out some seventy years ago.

One of the reasons I suppose I took an even greater interest in the book and movie was because of the association that existed between my family and Margaret Mitchell.

Our family moved from Washington, Georgia, a small town between Athens and Augusta, to Atlanta when I was a young boy. My father had multiple sclerosis, so he was unable to work much after his 30th birthday, and my mother became the breadwinner for the family, which included me and my two older brothers, Davis and Richard.

My mother was a great cook and her work quickly became known to the well-to-do ladies around Atlanta. Whenever one of the debutantes had a party, the family would contact my mother to bake the cakes and make the sandwiches for the lunch or dinner or some other special occasion. One of these ladies was Margaret Mitchell.

When I was about twelve or thirteen I got a job as a paperboy for the Atlanta Georgian, delivering the papers for $2.50 a week. Two of my subscribers were Margaret Mitchell and her husband John Marsh.

When I was in college, I worked at the newspaper primarily as a copy reader and headline writer, but one special assignment I received was to help cover the movie premiere of Gone With the Wind in Atlanta, in December, 1939. That truly was a remarkable and memorable night. Though my journalism career went from the newspaper in Atlanta to the baseball broadcast booth (I broadcast the Detroit Tigers for more than forty years on radio and television), I have fond memories of my time in Atlanta and get down there to visit when I can.

My brother Richard, who is buried in Washington, Georgia, had the greatest relationship with Margaret of anybody in our family. He was a historian and librarian and worked as the editor of the Emory Phoenix, the magazine for Emory University in Atlanta. He wrote a review of the book when it was published, and that began their relationship. In fact since he had an advance copy given to the press he received the first autographed book.

Richard worked with Margaret on another project, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind Letters, 1936-1949, editing her correspondence and letters into a book. He also wrote Gone With The Wind as Book and Film and edited Susan Myrick’s newspaper articles sent back home to the Macon Telegraph from Hollywood in a book called White Columns in Hollywood, Reports From the GWTW Sets, by Susan Myrick. Ironically, he was to meet her for dinner the night she was fatally struck by a speeding car while crossing a street in downtown Atlanta. It was August 11, 1949, and she would die five days later.

Everyone in Atlanta, and the world for that matter knew of Margaret Mitchell. We were fortunate that, through Richard, we got to attend some events where she appeared after the book came out. She was just a normal person who did not like to be treated like the celebrity she had become.

My wife Lulu even got to meet Margaret. We went to the Piedmont Driving Club, where Margaret was making an appearance, and she noticed Lulu’s earrings. She said, “I’ve got a pair just like those. Where did you get them?” Lulu didn’t really want to answer her, because she thought they had probably cost less than $5, but Margaret said, ‘I bought mine at Rich’s for $3!’”

This new book by Sally Tippett Rains brings back a lot of those memories of Margaret Mitchell and the story of Gone With the Wind. Through her research and interviews, Rains presents new insight into this classic story, which I found quite compelling. I am sure it will be of interest to every fan of Gone With the Wind.