Seventy-five years after America fell in love with the cinematic classic Gone with the Wind, LIFE revisits the making of the award-winning movie and gives readers a rare look into the film's captivating, behind-the-scenes drama. This richly illustrated book is a must-have collector's item for old fans and new. At age 75, Gone with the Wind endures magnificently and is often considered one of the best films of all time. The travails of getting the movie made in the 1930s were chronicled in the pages of LIFE (1,400 actresses interviewed before Vivien Leigh chosen; Selznick waited two years for Clark Gable to sign on to the project), as was the frenzy of its premiere. All of this coverage is revisited in this lavish coffee-table edition, which also includes behind-the-scenes photography from the set, stunning pictures of the famed burning of Atlanta scene, as well as all of the fascinating, intimate photography from the making of the movie. Furthermore, LIFE partnered with renowned southern authors to bring readers insight into the influence of the book and film on American culture and presents a side-by-side chronicle of what Gone with the Wind claims, and what really happened during the Civil War. This book is as informative and intriguing as it is beautifully illustrated.

The story of the tempestuous romance between Rhett Butler and Scarlet O'Hara is set amid the drama of the Civil War.

Based on almost 200 previously unpublished letters and extensive interviews with their closest associates, Walker's biography of Margaret Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, offers a new look into a devoted marriage and fascinating partnership that ultimately created a Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. This edition of Walker's biography celebrates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of Gone With the Wind in 1936. In lively extracts from their letters to family and friends, John and Margaret, who also went by Peggy, describe the stormy years of their courtship, their bohemian lifestyle as a young married couple, the arduous but fulfilling years when Peggy was writing her famous novel, the thrill of its acceptance for publication and its literary success, and the excitement of the making of the movie. In telling the private side of this twenty-four-year marriage, author Marianne Walker reveals a long-suspected truth: Gone With the Wind might have never been written were it not for John Marsh. He was Peggy's best friend and constant champion, and he became her editor, proofreader, researcher, business manager, and the inspiration and motivation behind her writing. At every point, including the turbulent years of Mitchell's first marriage to Red Upshaw, it was John who provided the intellectual stimulation, emotional support, and editorial insights that allowed Peggy to channel her talents into the creation of her astounding Civil War epic. From years of meticulous research, Marianne Walker details the intimate and moving love story between a husband and wife, and between a writer and her editor.

Companion publication to the Harry Ransom Center's exhibition, September 9, 2014-January 4, 2015, marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the film's release.

“Exquisitely imagined, deeply researched . . . brings to the foreground the most enigmatic and fascinating figure in Gone with the Wind. This is a brave work of literary empathy by a writer at the height of his powers, who demonstrates a magisterial understanding of the period, its clashing cultures, and its heartbreaking crises. ” —Geraldine Brooks, author of March The only authorized prequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind—the unforgettable story of Mammy. On a Caribbean island consumed by the flames of revolution, an infant girl falls under the care of two French émigrés, Henri and Solange Fournier, who take the beautiful child they call Ruth to the bustling American city of Savannah. What follows is the sweeping tale of Ruth’s life as shaped first by her strong-willed mistress, and then by Solange’s daughter Ellen and Gerald O’Hara, the rough Irishman Ellen chooses to marry; the Butler family of Charleston and their unexpected connection to Mammy Ruth; and finally Scarlett O’Hara—the irrepressible Southern belle Mammy raises from birth. As we witness the lives of three generations of women, gifted storyteller Donald McCaig reveals a nuanced portrait of Mammy, at once a proud woman and a captive, a strict disciplinarian who has never experienced freedom herself. Through it all, Mammy endures, a rock in the river of time. Set against the backdrop of the South from the 1820s until the dawn of the Civil War, here is a remarkable story of fortitude, heartbreak, and indomitable will—and a tale that will forever illuminate your reading of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.

A parody of Gone with the wind, this novel tells the story of Cynara, the mulatto half-sister born into slavery who eventually triumphs.

Originally published in 2011, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller's Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood presented the first comprehensive overview of how the iconic novel became an international phenomenon that has managed to sustain the public's interest for more than eighty-five years. Various Mitchell biographies and several compilations of her letters told part of the story, but until 2011, no single source had revealed the full saga. Now updated with two new chapters that bring the saga into 2021, this entertaining account of a literary and pop culture phenomenon tells how Mitchell's book was developed, marketed, distributed, and otherwise groomed for success in the 1930s—and the savvy measures taken since then by the author, her publisher, and her estate to ensure its longevity.