Is Gone With the Wind's nostalgia for slavery acceptable?

Eighty years old this month, Margaret Mitchell’s novel continues to charm readers, but is it also seducing them into bigotry?

It was a steamy August day in Atlanta and Margaret Mitchell was crossing the road to go to the cinema with her husband when she was struck by a car and dragged seven feet before the driver could bring the car to a stop. At the hospital, she hung on for a few days, her fans and family hoping and praying. At noon on the fifth day, 16 August 1949, the author of Gone With the Wind died, aged just 48.

The book she wrote lives on. First published in 1936 – 80 years ago this month – Gone With the Wind received a stupendous reception. Despite being sold at the high price of $3 during the Great Depression (around $52 –£37 – today), Mitchell was mobbed, losing a button and a lock of hair to eager fans on publication day. Between June and December, around 1m copies flew off shelves.

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