Two loves and one nightmare Margaret Mitchell: Why the author of Gone with the Wind slept with a gun under her pillow

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The name Margaret Mitchell was covered with legends during her lifetime, and the day after her tragic death all materials and early manuscripts of "Gone with the Wind" were burned. The wife of the writer, according to her will, left only those materials that made the authorship of his wife undeniable. John Marsh became the second husband of Margaret Mitchell, and for two years he had to put up with the fact that his wife did not part with the gun even at night.

The first love

Margaret Mitchell was three years old when her fluffy dress caught fire from the iron grate that fenced the stove, and since then the girl wore only trousers until a certain age. And brother Alexander Stephens began to assure that in order to play with him she must become a boy Jimmy, and the future writer until the age of 14 was a real tomboy, sharing with her older brother all the boyish games and pranks.

And she also wrote from childhood, first stories about animals, then moved on to fairy tales and adventures. She independently made the covers, collected the scattered sheets into books, supplemented them with her own illustrations, and at the age of 11 even gave the name to her "publishing house" - Urchin Publishing Co. Mom collected all the books with her daughter's creations and kept them in large boxes, of which several pieces had gathered by the time Margaret left for college.

Margaret Mitchell grew up to be a real beauty, pants have long changed from girlish outfits, and the girl had a whole army of fans. She was pleased with the attention of the opposite sex, but her chosen one was Harvard graduate Clifford West Henry, a bayonet instructor.

This novel was very short: Margaret met Henry in June 1918, and on July 17 he left for the front of the First World War. On the eve of his departure to France, the lieutenant presented his beloved with an engagement ring, which she accepted. On September 14 of the same year, the day Mitchell enrolled at Smith College in Massachusetts, Henry was fatally wounded, and on October 17, 1918, he died.

Margaret Mitchell herself kept the memories of her first love throughout her life and wrote that there was no trace of physical passion in these feelings.

First marriage

Margaret never graduated from college. In January 1919, her mother died of the Spanish flu, and the 19-year-old student dropped out to take over the household and care for her father. And she became one of the most popular girls in Atlanta, debuting in society in the winter of 1920. The first appearance of Margaret in the world was scandalous: at a charity ball for debutantes, she performed a dance with elements of eroticism, which included a kiss with a man. However, this did not in the least interfere with Mitchell's success. She at that time, in her own words, "was a desperate flirt." Margaret was engaged to five men, but insisted that none of them had been fooled.

She stopped her choice on not the best candidate. Berrienne Kinnard Upshaw was unable to achieve success in the military field and as a result became involved in the clandestine trade in alcohol. Mitchell thought that this was exactly what her husband should be: brutal, beautiful, passionate and even slightly dangerous. True, she then had no idea what her rash feelings would lead to.

Margaret's family was against this marriage, but she was not going to take into account the point of view of relatives. On September 2, 1922, Margaret Mitchell married Berrien Kinnard Upshaw. Best man at this wedding was John Marsh, who has long been in love with the bride.

Mitchell's family life lasted only three months, and during this time the young wife was able to appreciate the consequences of her rash decision about marriage. Upshaw was hot-tempered, jealous and arbitrary, he loved to kiss the bottle and literally tortured his young wife. Margaret suffered from physical and emotional abuse, and her husband categorically refused to grant a divorce.

Consent was obtained only after John Marsh gave Upshaw a very decent amount of cash, and Margaret promised not to press charges against him for assault, because one day he tried to return and actually attacked his wife. Since then, for another two years, Mitchell constantly carried a loaded pistol with her, which she put under her pillow at night. The divorce was officially filed on October 16, 1924. On January 13, 1949, Berrienne Kinnard Upshaw crashed to his death, falling from the second floor of a barrack in Galveston, Texas.

Real happiness

John Marsh did not leave Margaret without his attention for a day. And on July 4, 1925, 25-year-old Margaret Mitchell and 29-year-old John Marsh were married in the Unitarian Universalist Church and settled in apartment number 1 in the Crescent Apartments in Atlanta.

They were really happy. John Marsh supported his wife in everything, surrounded her with attention and care, admired her articles and reports written for the Atlanta Journal. In 1926, Margaret began to write a column for the Sunday magazine Elizabeth Bennet's Gossip, and when she lost her job after a serious ankle injury, her husband carried armfuls of books for her from the library to distract his beloved wife from sad thoughts.

Later, John Marsh suggested that his wife write a novel herself, instead of wasting time on thousands of other people's works. And even got her a portable typewriter Remington Portable No. 3. And later, all 10 years, while work on "Gone with the Wind" continued, I was looking for the necessary information and was the first and only reader of the novel.

"Gone with the Wind" made a splash in society, the book became an instant bestseller, and its author - a celebrity and Pulitzer Prize winner. Many expected that others would follow the first novel, but Margaret never wrote anything else, which is why rumors often arose that in fact she was not the author of the work.

But Mitchell did not pay attention to criticism, she had more important things to do. She carefully monitored the observance of her copyrights, knocked royalties out of publishers, and during the Second World War she became a volunteer for the American Red Cross. Margaret collected war money by selling war bonds, sewed hospital gowns and patched trousers. And all my free time I wrote letters to the soldiers at the front, sending them words of support.

On the evening of August 11, 1949, Margaret Mitchell was heading to the cinema with her husband John Marsh, hoping to see The Tale of The Canterbury. At the intersection of Peachtree Street and 13th Street, Margaret Mitchell was hit by a car. She died five days later at Grady Hospital without regaining consciousness. Margaret Mitchell was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Georgia. When her husband John died in 1952, he was buried next to his wife.

Assumptions that Margaret Mitchell wrote Scarlett from herself have been repeatedly expressed, but each time the writer categorically rejected such statements and even went into a rage. She never hid her dislike for the main character of the novel. But in fact, in some character traits and life vicissitudes she had much more in common with her scandalous heroine, than it seems at first glance.