Details
MITCHELL, Margaret. Typed letter signed ("Margaret") to Herschel Brickell, Atlanta, 6 July 1937. 3 pages, small folio, single-spaced, on her stationery with name embossed in blue at top of each sheet, usual folds, with stamped, addressed envelope.
"IT'S NO FUN 'REALLY' BEING MARGARET MITCHELL"
"...Every mail brings in news of my activities [women impersonating Margaret Mitchell] in far distant parts of the country...If I can just catch one and fry her ears in deep fat, it will give me great pleasure and perhaps put a stop to this sort of thing. I wonder why people do this. God knows, it's not fun really being Margaret Mitchell so what possible fun could there be in pretending to be Margaret Mitchell? When I turned up in Nashville (where I have never been in my life) I was glad to learn from the papers that I 'had nice teeth and a modest way about me and it was all but impossible to get me to talk about writing G.W.T.W. [Gone With the Wind].' I should have taken drastic action the first time the first masquerader turned up in Milwaukee, offering to autograph in a book store there..."
"...It's been a bad year and it could easily have ruined my life. Some how, it hasn't. You'll recall that a year ago I said laughingly that I was completely armoured against defeat. I had faced defeat so often that I had acquired good armor. But I said I didn't know about success. I didn't know how true my remark was at that time...I'm glad I dug in my toes and refused to be stampeded. Because I'm a lot happier today (even if I am a bit weary and have grey hairs I've no right to have) for having withstood the storm here at time than if I were just now coming home from an exile -- But who would ever have thought it would have lasted this long...The motion to dismiss the six billion dollar case [for plagiarism] against 'G.W.T.W.' [Gone With the Wind] will be heard in New York on the thirteenth. With any luck at all, it should be dismissed [it was]...but I won't believe it till I hear about it..."
"IT'S NO FUN 'REALLY' BEING MARGARET MITCHELL"
"...Every mail brings in news of my activities [women impersonating Margaret Mitchell] in far distant parts of the country...If I can just catch one and fry her ears in deep fat, it will give me great pleasure and perhaps put a stop to this sort of thing. I wonder why people do this. God knows, it's not fun really being Margaret Mitchell so what possible fun could there be in pretending to be Margaret Mitchell? When I turned up in Nashville (where I have never been in my life) I was glad to learn from the papers that I 'had nice teeth and a modest way about me and it was all but impossible to get me to talk about writing G.W.T.W. [Gone With the Wind].' I should have taken drastic action the first time the first masquerader turned up in Milwaukee, offering to autograph in a book store there..."
"...It's been a bad year and it could easily have ruined my life. Some how, it hasn't. You'll recall that a year ago I said laughingly that I was completely armoured against defeat. I had faced defeat so often that I had acquired good armor. But I said I didn't know about success. I didn't know how true my remark was at that time...I'm glad I dug in my toes and refused to be stampeded. Because I'm a lot happier today (even if I am a bit weary and have grey hairs I've no right to have) for having withstood the storm here at time than if I were just now coming home from an exile -- But who would ever have thought it would have lasted this long...The motion to dismiss the six billion dollar case [for plagiarism] against 'G.W.T.W.' [Gone With the Wind] will be heard in New York on the thirteenth. With any luck at all, it should be dismissed [it was]...but I won't believe it till I hear about it..."