Margaret Mitchell clearly had a thing for flames.
Not only did she depict the Civil War burning of Atlanta in Technicolor terms in "Gone With the Wind," she insisted that her husband incinerate her final manuscript if he outlived her. Despite annoying rumors about her authorship between the novel's 1936 publication and her death in 1949, Mitchell believed that books should be judged only by the finished product.
For decades, historians assumed that John Marsh followed his wife's wish, feeding the manually typed pages to the furnace at the the Della Manta Apartments across from Piedmont Park. Then, unexpectedly, the final four chapters of Mitchell's manuscript were rediscovered early this year at the Pequot Library in Southport, Conn., as part of a collection donated in the 1950s by the late George P. Brett Jr., chairman of Macmillan Publishing's American division. It's unclear how Brett came to possess the prized pages.
On Saturday, the Atlanta History Center will open "Atlanta's Book: The Lost ‘Gone With the Wind' Manuscript," an exhibit built around the lost chapters, with the 18 pages of final Chapter 63, complete with Mitchell's precise editing marks, mounted across the back wall for visitors to view. The show includes the author's never-before-exhibited diminutive desk, photos, rare first and foreign editions and extensive correspondence.
Here are some details the exhibit paints of Mitchell's life ...
1. The author essentially wrote the epic novel twice: "I think the biggest takeaway," said the exhibit's curator, history center executive vice president Michael Rose, "is how hard she worked on this book."
The first version consisted of loose and incomplete rough-draft chapters Mitchell composed for approximately a decade. In April 1935, she handed manila envelopes containing the rambling work to Macmillan Company editor-in-chief Harold Latham, who was scouting in Atlanta.
"Macmillan said, ‘Yes, we want this,' and then they gave all that back to her, and said simply, ‘Now make a book out of it,'" Rose recounted of the untitled story the publisher dubbed "The Manuscript of the Old South."
From August 1935 to January 1936, the author did a thorough rewrite, completing missing chapters, editing for factual and grammatical accuracy and deleting several scenes.
2. Mitchell had an uneasy relationship with fame. "If you want to lead a double life, write a book," she complained in a 1937 interview. "If you want to learn about your own most private affairs, subscribe to a clipping service."
Not only was there innuendo about her authorship, rumors flew about an impending divorce, health aliments and -- most ridiculous -- that she carried herself on a wooden leg. They only inflamed her desire for privacy.
Still, she remained accessible to the public. "If the phone would ring, she would answer it. If somebody came to the door, she would invite them in," Rose said.
"People would mail her copies of the book to autograph, and sometimes they wouldn't send the postage and she would pay for it. After the millionth book had been sold, her husband said no more autographs. She would send [books] back, and she'd write a nice note explaining why she didn't sign it and then she would sign the note."
3. She was protective of her baby: Mitchell let the fur fly in a 1939 letter to Atlanta historian Franklin Garrett over his involvement in identifying locations for a proposed Atlanta homes tour of "GWTW" characters. "My characters lived," she admonished, "... only in my mind."
It's unknown exactly what Mitchell's response was to an "Atlanta in 1864″ map to "GWTW" "historical places" and "fictitious places" (the latter including Belle Watling's "establishment" -- aka, a bordello). The 1946 Western Reserve University Press map, on view in the exhibit, is credited to English professor Finley Foster. "If she could've gotten her hands on him ..." Rose said, laughing.
4. Long before Harper Lee became famed for her reluctance to write a follow-up to "To Kill a Mockingbird," fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Mitchell made clear that she would not write a "GWTW" sequel: "I don't see how anybody can write anything once they have something published," she said in an interview, "the telephone rings too much."
5. After the Coca-Cola formula, the papers her husband left in a safe deposit box are one of Atlanta's best-kept secrets: In the five-page codicil to John Marsh's 1951 will, included in the exhibit, Mitchell's husband details the contents of an envelope that has been stored in an unnamed bank vault for more than a half-century.
The documents, Marsh wrote, should be accessed if "some schemer were to rise up with the claim that her novel was written by another person." The papers include two or three drafts of some chapters, samples of her notes and lists of details she checked for accuracy.
"Nobody has seen what's in it since John Marsh sealed it up and delivered it to the bank," Rose said. The curator has had many conversations with Mitchell estate attorney Paul Anderson Jr. but never has asked where the envelope is held.
"It's not going to do me any good," Rose said.
Exhibit preview
"Atlanta’s Book: The Lost ‘Gone With the Wind' Manuscript"
Opens Saturday, through Sept. 5. $16.50, $13 ages 65 and up and students 13 and up, $11 ages 4-12. Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road N.W., Atlanta. 404-814-4150, www.atlantahistorycenter.com.
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