Portraits of the overman: Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell
November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949
Biography:
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Margaret Mitchell was deeply influenced by the South and its complex history, especially the aftermath of the Civil War. Her early life was marked by the loss of her father and she grew up surrounded by family stories about the South’s past, which would later inspire her most well-known novel Gone with the Wind.
Before becoming a writer, she had a varied career. She worked as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal, where she gained experience in journalism, but she ultimately focused on writing fiction. Gone with the Wind took over a decade to complete and was first published in 1936.
Margaret’s first marriage was short and unhappy due to emotional and possibly physical abuse from her husband, Berrien Kinnard. After the divorce, in 1925, she married John Marsh, a journalist and editor, who became her lifelong companion. Marsh was a steady and patient partner, and it was with his encouragement that Margaret pursued her writing, while she recovered from an injury. Despite having a relatively private and quiet life, Mitchell and Marsh were known for their social circle, and the couple had a number of friends in the literary and political realms.
Margaret struggled with bouts of depression and had a deep ambivalence about the fame that followed the publication of Gone with the Wind. She refused to write a sequel or any other novels, stating that she had said all she wanted to say in the book. In 1949, she was struck by a car and died from her injuries.
Significance:
Gone with the Wind is one of the most full-blooded novels ever written as it comprises the stories of compelling individuals, a unique community and of a whole nation in its most difficult moment. Every word of the novel is full of love and the reader gets immersed in the magic of this warm and proud land.
This is a book of values which reflects the values defended by Margaret herself. Even though the South’s moral code is absurd and its rules are tyrannical, its people are proud, loyal and true to what they believe in. The ideals of beauty and dignity, tradition and devotion remain strong even when the reality in which they thrived crumbles around them.
Margaret Mitchel is proof that one can be at the same time an alluring woman, a real artist, and successful in both her private and public life, while remaining true to herself.
Notable work:
Gone with the Wind
Quotes:
Burdens are for shoulders strong enough to carry them.
People must do what they must do. We all don’t think alike or act alike and it’s wrong to-to judge others by ourselves.
The usual masculine dissillusionment is discovering that a woman has a brain.
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