Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell

Gone with the Wind swept away the public when it appeared in 1937 and later when it became the most successful film epic of its time. In this well-documented biography, which contains never-before-published material, Pyron has unearthed the fascinating life of its author. Born into the upper crust of Atlanta society, she eschewed the role of Southern lady to be a journalist. After quitting, she began to write the novel that would set a standard for historical realism in fiction. She was a perceptive perfectionist whose characters were genealogically linked to her own family. Obsessed with the novel and uncomfortable with its ensuing success, she eventually withdrew into a world dominated by ill health. The author treats the multifaceted Mitchell evenhandedly and empathizes with the crosscurrents in her life, as she tried to counterbalance her ties with the antebellum South and her interest in the contemporary literary scene of the 1920s. Particularly fascinating is the chapter that traces the making of the film and the search for the perfect Scarlett. Recommended for public libraries and Mitchell scholars. (Illustrations not seen.)-- Mary Ellen Beck, Troy P.L., N.Y.
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"Riveting reading....Pyron offers a compelling portrait of the spirited, complex author of Gone With the Wind, a perceptive psychological analysis of the novel, and an examination of the work's changing critical fortunes as the South has been transformed....The reader is swept right along....A fascinating portrait."--Kirkus Reviews"Not just a biography of an interesting woman (although it certainly is that). It is also a fascinating portrait of the 'smart set' of the interwar South, a class itself now gone with the wind, yet one that in its time produced a remarkable outpouring of literary and journalistic talent. Pyron's account deserves the attention of anyone interested in twentieth-century Southern letters--or twentieth-century Southern life."--John Shelton Reed, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "Riveting reading....Pyron offers a compelling portrait of the spirited, complex author of Gone With the Wind, a perceptive psychological analysis of the novel, and an examination of the work's changing critical fortunes as the South has been transformed....The reader is swept right along....A fascinating portrait."--Kirkus Reviews "Not just a biography of an interesting woman (although it certainly is that). It is also a fascinating portrait of the 'smart set' of the interwar South, a class itself now gone with the wind, yet one that in its time produced a remarkable outpouring of literary and journalistic talent. Pyron's account deserves the attention of anyone interested in twentieth-century Southern letters--or twentieth-century Southern life."--John Shelton Reed, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "Riveting reading....Pyron offers a compelling portrait of the spirited, complex author of Gone With the Wind, a perceptive psychological analysis of the novel, and an examination of the work's changing critical fortunes as the South has been transformed....The reader is swept right along....A fascinating portrait."--Kirkus Reviews "Not just a biography of an interesting woman (although it certainly is that). It is also a fascinating portrait of the 'smart set' of the interwar South, a class itself now gone with the wind, yet one that in its time produced a remarkable outpouring of literary and journalistic talent. Pyron's account deserves the attention of anyone interested in twentieth-century Southern letters--or twentieth-century Southern life."--John Shelton Reed, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "Riveting reading....Pyron offers a compelling portrait of the spirited, complex author of Gone With the Wind, a perceptive psychological analysis of the novel, and an examination of the work's changing critical fortunes as the South has been transformed....The reader is swept right along....Afascinating portrait."--Kirkus Reviews"Not just a biography of an interesting woman (although it certainly is that). It is also a fascinating portrait of the 'smart set' of the interwar South, a class itself now gone with the wind, yet one that in its time produced a remarkable outpouring of literary and journalistic talent. Pyron'saccount deserves the attention of anyone interested in twentieth-century Southern letters--or twentieth-century Southern life."--John Shelton Reed, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill