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her. Red may have been the inspiration for Rhett Butler. Legend says the last thing he said to her was "My dear, I don't give a damn."

Later Margaret had to resign from the newspaper when she broke her ankle. While she recuperated, her husband Marsh brought her stacks of books from the public library. One evening her exasperated husband told her the library was out of books. If she wanted to read another, she would have to write one of her own. When asked what she should write about, he responded, "Write what you know." Because she had spent most of her childhood around history buffs and Civil War veterans, writing an epic set in the Civil War came naturally.

She typed Tomorrow Is Another Day on a Remington typewriter. She kept her project a secret from most of her friends. Marsh was her only reader at that time. When they had visitors, she hid the growing manuscript under towels, in cupboards and under the bed. Once when they had company, she threw a rug over her stacks of pages. When the manuscript was stacked, it stood taller than Margaret's 4' 9" frame. By 1929 she had almost finished the novel, except for the first chapter. By then she had lost interest in the project. The manuscript remained in storage through several moves.

In 1935 Harold Latham from MacMillan Publishing arrived in Atlanta, scouting for new work. He approached Margaret about her work-in-progress, but she denied its existence. When a friend insulted her by saying she did not have what it takes to be a writer, she dug out her manuscript and packed it in a suitcase to tote to Latham. As Latham left his hotel, Margaret handed him her suitcase and begged him to take her manuscript with him before she could change her mind. By the time she had returned home she regretted her decision. Immediately she telegrammed him to return it. It was too late. He had read most of it on the train ride and was enamored with the sweeping epic. MacMillan sent her an advance so she could finish the novel and write a first chapter. After six months of rewrites, including changing the protagonist's name from Pansy to Scarlett, Gone With the Wind was released in 1936. December 15, 1939 David O. Selznick released the film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.

Margaret Mitchell never wrote another novel. She once told an interviewer that her time was not her own since Gone With the Wind had been published. She was in great demand for public appearances and speaking engagements. She also responded personally to every fan letter. Upon her death at her bequest, the original manuscript and other writings were destroyed. Among those a gothic ghost story she had written prior to Gone With the Wind was discovered.

In 1949 on her way to the Peachtree Art Theatre with her husband, she was struck by a speeding car. She never regained consciousness and died five days later. She was buried in the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. The Margaret Mitchell House where she wrote Gone With the Wind was preserved in Midtown Atlanta. A few miles away in Marietta, Georgia stands the Gone With the Wind museum called "Scarlett on the Square." It displays costumes and other items from the film. In 2000 she was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

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