细节
MITCHELL, Margaret (1900-1949). Typed letter signed ("Margaret") to the book reviewer and critic Herschel Brickell, Atlanta, 28 May 1937. 2.2/3 pages, small folio, single-spaced, on her stationery with name embossed in blue at top of each sheet, with a 28-word holograph postscript by her, usual folds, with stamped, addressed envelope, with a large newsclipping about Mitchell laid in envelope.
"IN THE MIDWEST THE NOTION IS PREVALENT THAT I AM A MULATTO"
Most of the letter concerns a suit for plagiarism in Gone With the Wind brought against Mitchell by a Susan Lawrence Davis: "...I had never heard of her or her book, and this despite the fact that I read hundreds of books on this period. Severals months ago her lawyers wrote to me that I had infringed her copyright and made a demand for accounting. Simultaneously they wrote to the Macmillan Company [her publishers]...On one page of her brief she would list words and phrases and page numbers from her book: on the opposite page she would itemize words and phrases which she alleged I had stolen from her. The very first accusation was that she had bound her book in Confederate grey and I had dared to do likewise. Among many other claims were the following: that I had mentioned the poet-priest Father Abram Ryan, Fort Sumter, states' rights, the Freedmen's Bureau, General Wade Hampton, General John B. Gordon, scallawags and carpetbaggers, and the Federal commissioners who tried unsuccessfully to see Abraham Lincoln directly before Fort Sumter fell. It would seem that these phrases and historic events were the product of her own creation and had never been heard of until she wrote her book in 1924...For my part, despite the trouble and expense involved, I would prefer that the case went to trial. If there was a trial and I got a just verdict the news would spread widely and the details would be known and my reputation would be cleared. If the case is non-suited no one would ever know anything about it and several million people would think I bought the old lady off quietly..."
"IN THE MIDWEST THE NOTION IS PREVALENT THAT I AM A MULATTO"
Most of the letter concerns a suit for plagiarism in Gone With the Wind brought against Mitchell by a Susan Lawrence Davis: "...I had never heard of her or her book, and this despite the fact that I read hundreds of books on this period. Severals months ago her lawyers wrote to me that I had infringed her copyright and made a demand for accounting. Simultaneously they wrote to the Macmillan Company [her publishers]...On one page of her brief she would list words and phrases and page numbers from her book: on the opposite page she would itemize words and phrases which she alleged I had stolen from her. The very first accusation was that she had bound her book in Confederate grey and I had dared to do likewise. Among many other claims were the following: that I had mentioned the poet-priest Father Abram Ryan, Fort Sumter, states' rights, the Freedmen's Bureau, General Wade Hampton, General John B. Gordon, scallawags and carpetbaggers, and the Federal commissioners who tried unsuccessfully to see Abraham Lincoln directly before Fort Sumter fell. It would seem that these phrases and historic events were the product of her own creation and had never been heard of until she wrote her book in 1924...For my part, despite the trouble and expense involved, I would prefer that the case went to trial. If there was a trial and I got a just verdict the news would spread widely and the details would be known and my reputation would be cleared. If the case is non-suited no one would ever know anything about it and several million people would think I bought the old lady off quietly..."