Who Was Margaret Mitchell? Biography, Books, and the Story Behind Gone with the Wind

Early Life and Roots in the Old South

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was born on 8 November 1900, in Atlanta, Georgia—a city that still bore the scars of the Civil War. Her father, Eugene Mitchell, was a lawyer and president of the Atlanta Historical Society, while her mother, Mary Isabelle ‘Maybelle’ Stephens Mitchell, was an active suffragist who fought for women’s rights. From a young age, Margaret absorbed both her father’s reverence for Southern history and her mother’s rebellious spirit.

Growing up, she listened to family stories of the Old South—of plantations, battles, and survival. These vivid tales would later serve as the foundation for her great novel. Her imagination flourished in this world of nostalgia and loss, and even as a child, she was already inventing dramatic stories, often reading them aloud to captivated friends and relatives.

Mitchell attended Smith College in Massachusetts in 1918 but left after her mother’s death during the influenza pandemic. Returning to Atlanta, she took on household duties and soon found her independent streak impossible to suppress. She scandalised local society with her penchant for bobbed hair, short skirts, and candid conversation—a modern woman in a city still clinging to its past.

Journalism and an Unconventional Career

In the early 1920s, Mitchell defied expectations again by becoming a reporter for The Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine. At a time when women were seldom found in the newsroom, she wrote more than 100 feature articles covering everything from politics to human interest stories. Her writing was sharp, witty, and unapologetically female—a reflection of the times that were changing, albeit slowly.

Yet journalism didn’t fully satisfy her. She longed to write fiction, to explore the grand emotions and conflicts that simple reportage could not contain. After an ankle injury in 1926 forced her to stay home for months, Mitchell finally turned to storytelling again—this time, with a project that would alter her life forever.

The Birth of Gone with the Wind

Confined to her apartment, Mitchell began writing a sprawling historical romance set during the Civil War and Reconstruction. She wrote in secret, keeping the manuscript hidden from visitors and even from her husband, John Marsh, who later helped her type it up. What began as a private experiment grew into a 1,000-page saga about love, loss, and resilience in the face of catastrophe.

The novel’s protagonist, Scarlett O’Hara, was unlike any female character readers had encountered before—vain, selfish, ambitious, and utterly human. Through Scarlett’s eyes, Mitchell explored not just the collapse of the South, but the rebirth of a nation, and the evolution of a woman who refused to be destroyed by circumstance.

In 1935, a visiting publisher’s scout learned of Mitchell’s secret manuscript and persuaded her to submit it to Macmillan. Reluctant at first, she finally sent it in, joking that it wasn’t fit for publication. The manuscript was accepted immediately, and Gone with the Wind was published in June 1936.

A Literary Phenomenon

What followed was nothing short of astonishing. The novel became an overnight sensation, selling more than a million copies within its first year and earning Mitchell the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. Readers across the world were captivated by its grandeur, its vivid characters, and its portrayal of a civilisation in ruins.

At its core, Gone with the Wind was more than a love story between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler—it was a meditation on survival, pride, and the stubborn endurance of the human spirit. Critics were divided: some hailed it as a masterpiece, while others criticised its romanticised depiction of slavery and the antebellum South. Yet, despite the controversies, the novel cemented its place as a classic of American literature.

Other Works and Contributions

Though Gone with the Wind was Mitchell’s only novel, her literary legacy extends beyond it. During her lifetime, she wrote dozens of articles, essays, and short stories—many of which were rediscovered and published posthumously.

Among them was Lost Laysen, a romantic novella written in 1916 when she was just sixteen years old. The manuscript, long thought lost, was discovered in 1994 and published to great interest. The story, though far simpler than her later work, revealed Mitchell’s early fascination with themes of love, independence, and cultural conflict—motifs that would define Gone with the Wind.

In addition to fiction, Mitchell made significant contributions through her philanthropic work. After her novel’s success, she quietly funded scholarships for medical students at historically Black colleges in Atlanta, particularly at Morehouse College. She avoided publicity for these efforts, preferring to help others behind the scenes. Mitchell also remained involved with local charities and hospitals, embodying a sense of civic duty that often goes unnoticed in discussions of her life.

Hollywood and the Making of a Legend

In 1939, Gone with the Wind was adapted into a film directed by Victor Fleming, starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. The movie became one of the most successful and beloved films of all time, winning ten Academy Awards and immortalising lines like ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.’

Mitchell, however, did not revel in her fame. Overwhelmed by attention, she retreated from the public eye and never published another book. She often said she had nothing more to say—that Gone with the Wind had drained her creative reservoir. Still, she remained gracious to her readers and used her success to quietly support medical education for Black students through scholarships—an understated gesture that reflected a more progressive side of her character, contrasting sharply with the racial views often debated in her novel.

The Tragic End of a Private Life

On 11 August 1949, tragedy struck. While crossing Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Mitchell was struck by a speeding taxi. She died five days later at the age of 48. The city mourned her as one of its own, and her death marked the end of an era. Atlanta—forever intertwined with her fiction—had lost its most famous storyteller.

Legacy and Reflection

More than eight decades after its publication, Gone with the Wind continues to provoke debate and admiration in equal measure. It remains one of the best-selling novels of all time, translated into over 40 languages, and still sparks conversations about race, gender, and history.

Margaret Mitchell’s legacy is complex—her novel both romanticises a troubled past and reveals the unflinching determination of those who survive it. In Scarlett O’Hara, Mitchell gave the world a heroine who refuses to surrender, even when everything she loves is gone.

Perhaps, in that stubborn defiance, we glimpse the author herself—a woman who, in a world that tried to confine her, wrote her way to immortality.

Also read: Alcott, Abolitionism, and Women’s Rights: Louisa May Alcott's Role in 19th Century Reform Movements