Telling Stories: Gone with the Wind and American Memory | Exhibitions

One of the most popular stories in American history originated in a small apartment in Midtown Atlanta.

When author Margaret Mitchell lived in Apartment No. 1 from 1925 to 1932, she spent many hours at a small desk in front of her Remington portable typewriter. Born in 1900, Margaret Mitchell (known as Peggy to her friends) grew up in a dynamic and ever-changing Atlanta while hearing stories of the Civil War from her grandparents and friends from the family.

The resulting novel was Gone with the wind-a vast romantic epic set against a backdrop of civil war and reconstruction.

No one was as shocked as Margaret Mitchell when her book became a runaway bestseller. His star rose when famed Hollywood producer David O. Selznick transformed the 1,037-page novel into a 4-hour epic pushing the boundaries of cinematography and imagination. Its contradictions were always apparent, both praised and criticized upon its publication, Gone with the wind highlighted the continuing struggle to make sense of the deadliest conflict in the nation’s history and to address racial issues in the context of Jim Crow segregation.