Gone with the Wind is a famous historical novel about the American Civil War by Margaret Mitchell, a Georgia journalist and writer. The book, published in 1936, won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and became one of the best-selling novels in American publishing history. It has been translated into about 30 languages. The novel was also the basis for a popular motion picture.
Gone with the Wind was Mitchell’s only published book. She wrote it over a 10-year period. The novel is the story of the South during the period of the Civil War (1861-1865) and the postwar Reconstruction period. Mitchell vividly recounts the turbulence and suffering of those periods from the point of view of white Southerners. However, both the book and the movie were controversial from the start. Critics pointed out their stereotypical portrayals of Black Southerners and their idyllic picture of plantation life, which ignored the sufferings of the enslaved African Americans who worked there.
The novel is one of the most famous romances in American literature, centering on its heroine, the fiery Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara. The other central character is the dashing adventurer Rhett Butler. The novel follows Scarlett’s life from her girlhood at Tara, the family plantation, through two unsuccessful marriages. Although she has long wanted Ashley Wilkes, who marries her cousin Melanie, Scarlett eventually marries her third husband, Rhett, a man who can match her independence and willful spirit. Scarlett dedicates herself to ruthlessly rebuilding her family’s fortunes after the destruction of the war. In the process, she loses Rhett, discovering too late that she has sacrificed love for money and security.
The fame of Gone with the Wind was enhanced by its motion-picture version, which was released in 1939. The movie starred Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. The film won eight Academy Awards, a record at the time, including the Oscar for best picture. Victor Fleming won the award as best director. Vivien Leigh won the award as best actress. Hattie McDaniel won the award as best supporting actress for her performance as Mammy, Scarlett’s maid. McDaniel was the first African American to win an Academy Award.
See also De Havilland, Olivia; Gable, Clark; Leigh, Vivien; McDaniel, Hattie; Mitchell, Margaret.
