Details
MITCHELL, Margaret. Three typed letters signed (two "Margaret," one "M") to Herschel Brickell, Atlanta, 31 May, 15 August and 4 September 1938 (to Norma and Herschel Brickell). Together 6 pages, small folio, single-spaced, on her stationary with name embossed in blue at top of each sheet, the first and last letters with a few holograph corrections, usual folds, with three stamped, addressed envelopes (one with holograph address by Mitchell).
31 May 1938 (chiefly concerned with Brickell's request to quote from her last letter): "... Yes, do this if you like... During the last two years I have had to restrain myself both in speech and in print from saying anything, good or bad, about any book... The requests for endorsements have come in such stupefying numbers that if I had given in to them I would have spent the last two years doing nothing but reading books and writing blurbs... Norman Berg, who is head of the trade department of the Atlanta branch of the Macmillan Company, met Mrs. [Marjorie] Rawlings several weeks ago and visited at her home. He returned boiling with enthusiasm, and he is a young man not given either to boiling or enthusiasm." She writes: "I mainly want to prove that my 'Gone with the Wind' problems are over, or mostly over, and that I can walk like a natcherul woman again." See lot 264 for a copy of Gone with the Wind with a Norman Berg provenance. -- 16 August 1938 (chiefly concerned with Brickell leaving the Post to work on a book): "... Writing books aint no pleasure and ditch digging is a far easier profession... I can't figure out from your letter whether you intend to write a book as well as take some other job or whether you are just going to write a book. 'Just going to write a book!' Good Heavens, cold sweat breaks out on me at the thought of doing such a thing and here the temperature is at a hundred degrees!" -- 4 September 1938 (concerning the subject of Brickell's book and the literary scene in Georgia): "... I was excited to learn about the subject of the book. I always thought Charleston and Natchez the most interesting and colorful and (I hate to use the word but nothing else will do) romantic towns we have... Changing the subject abruptly, we sho' Gawd got a flourishing crop of authors in Georgia now!... It looks to me like Georgia has another money crop and it's writers." Writing about the change in the literary scene, Mitchell notes: "I remember all too well the truthful remarks [H.L.] Mencken made in his 'Sahara'. I remember especially that he quoted the immortal words of the late and unsung poet Gordon Coogler--'Alas for the South! Her poets are gittin' fewer! She never was given to Literature.'" Mitchell mentions the turbulent Georgia political scene and a recent trip by Roosevelt which caused the locals to proclaim "'I'm damned if any Yankee is going to tell me how to mark my ballot!'" (3)
31 May 1938 (chiefly concerned with Brickell's request to quote from her last letter): "... Yes, do this if you like... During the last two years I have had to restrain myself both in speech and in print from saying anything, good or bad, about any book... The requests for endorsements have come in such stupefying numbers that if I had given in to them I would have spent the last two years doing nothing but reading books and writing blurbs... Norman Berg, who is head of the trade department of the Atlanta branch of the Macmillan Company, met Mrs. [Marjorie] Rawlings several weeks ago and visited at her home. He returned boiling with enthusiasm, and he is a young man not given either to boiling or enthusiasm." She writes: "I mainly want to prove that my 'Gone with the Wind' problems are over, or mostly over, and that I can walk like a natcherul woman again." See lot 264 for a copy of Gone with the Wind with a Norman Berg provenance. -- 16 August 1938 (chiefly concerned with Brickell leaving the Post to work on a book): "... Writing books aint no pleasure and ditch digging is a far easier profession... I can't figure out from your letter whether you intend to write a book as well as take some other job or whether you are just going to write a book. 'Just going to write a book!' Good Heavens, cold sweat breaks out on me at the thought of doing such a thing and here the temperature is at a hundred degrees!" -- 4 September 1938 (concerning the subject of Brickell's book and the literary scene in Georgia): "... I was excited to learn about the subject of the book. I always thought Charleston and Natchez the most interesting and colorful and (I hate to use the word but nothing else will do) romantic towns we have... Changing the subject abruptly, we sho' Gawd got a flourishing crop of authors in Georgia now!... It looks to me like Georgia has another money crop and it's writers." Writing about the change in the literary scene, Mitchell notes: "I remember all too well the truthful remarks [H.L.] Mencken made in his 'Sahara'. I remember especially that he quoted the immortal words of the late and unsung poet Gordon Coogler--'Alas for the South! Her poets are gittin' fewer! She never was given to Literature.'" Mitchell mentions the turbulent Georgia political scene and a recent trip by Roosevelt which caused the locals to proclaim "'I'm damned if any Yankee is going to tell me how to mark my ballot!'" (3)