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Rhett has been long known to have been inspired by ex-husband Red by both MM's family and friends.
Didn't know that, Carol. Thanks for the info.
I doubt very much that Mitchell would have based her romantic lead on her first husband while living with her second husband, who spent every evening editing her manuscript. He'd been Upshaw's roommate and would certainly have recognized the character! See my post about the only charcter that we know for certain was based on someone living during Mitchell's time, as attested by her brother, Stephens Mitchell (at the "Rhett and Melanie" thread).
I don't know about her changing the name of Rhett, but she certainly changed the name of Scarlett, who was originally named Pansy. Mitchell, whose nickname was Peggy, always named her heroines after herself. All her girlhood dramas starred feisty little adventuresses named Peggy or Pansy, so her character in the book got the same name. It was only when MacMillan pointed out to her that in New York, a pansy referred to an effeminate man, that she changed the name. She actually looked back through the manuscript to find something suitable, and came across the family name Scarlett, some of the O'Hara's Irish ancestors. And a legend was born! Funny to be following this thread while working on a Powerpoint presentation for a talk I'm giving at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta about "Gone With the Wind." I keep going back and forth between the two, and forget what I've said where!
I presume in your book you document clearly that the taxi driver was drunk? Margaret Mitchel was such an icon at the time, so famous, so untouchable, that no one, I imagine, would have dared suggest that the accident was other than an accident. I accept what you say, but I'm also aware that sudden impulses do overcome people occasionally and I would like some of these possible avenues to be explored.
And just to ensure I have my facts right, would you confirm that Mitchell's first husband did die a few months before her own death.
Hi, Pauline!
My book is actually about Doc Holliday and the girl who became the model for Melanie in "Gone With the Wind," rather than about Margaret Mitchell herself (although she does appear in the Postscript of the third book in the trilogy.) I would consider myself a fan of Mitchell's writing, not an expert, but I have studied her life for many years and have spoken about her at the Margaret Mitchell House, among other venues. From my research, I have the following:
The driver of the car that killed Mitchell, Hugh Gravitt, was an off-duty taxi driver who was driving his personal vehicle at the time of the accident. He was arrested for drunken driving and released on a $5,450 bond until Mitchell's death. Although the original charge was drunk driving, speeding, and driving on the wrong side of the road, it was increased to involuntary manslaughter after her death. In November of 1949 he was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Red Upshaw died in late 1948 (the year before Mitchell's tragic accident), of a fall from his fifth-floor hotel room window. The police suspected suicide. He left a nineteen-year-old son and he had had three other wives, all of whom divorced him. He also had some sisters and brothers. An alcoholic who had been in and out of mental institutions for years, he had led a tragic life.
I suspect that the "suicide" whispers were really about Red, not Mitchell, and that the story has just gotten confused with time and retelling. During Mitchell's own short marriage to Red, he was charged with assault, and John Marsh (her second husband) had to pay his legal fees. From my own reading, I sensed that Mitchell was actually in love with John Marsh all along, but he was a slow and careful beau, and she tried to use a flirtation with his roommate, Red Upshaw, to make him jealous and hopefully light a fire under him. But as those flirtations sometimes go, she fell for her own deception and ended up married to Red instead of John, first time around. Her brother Stephens Mitchell said it was always John she loved and that the marriage to Red had been a terrible mistake from the start. It lasted less than a year before the assault charges and divorce. Doesn't seem likely she harbored any romantic feelings for him through the years to come. He was, as his own family remembers, a violent and drunken wastrel.
I accept what you say and it all seems plausible. What I find hard to understand is why no one else seems to believe that Mitchell unconsciously or otherwise could have been fascinated still by her first husband and that fascination comes out in Gone With the Wind. I have found this to be the case with many women who had horrid first husbands and then went on to marry that perfect kind man but he never quite fills that gap.
As I understand it, Mitchell discussed the plot of Gone with the Wind with her husband and I can imagine them agreeing that in order for the book not to be recognised as autobiographical, the characters were turned around. It does get complicated I know. Red was the one that got away from her charms, didn't fall for them, and that would always have niggled with her, I believe.
Thanks for mentioning the links, Morte. Interesting reading. You might also take a look at "The Irish Roots of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind," by David O'Connel. I was an advisor on the book, and admired its thorough investigation of Mitchell's family connections.The Irish Roots of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
Ironic, isn't it? Margaret Mitchell wrote such a brilliantly imagined novel that its characters live -- so much so that we want them to be real, and look everywhere to find the "real" people behind the story -- which ultimately denies her the credit she deserves for her wonderful imagination. Of course she took inspiration for her writing from the world around her, as we all do. But why do we insist on cheapening her work by insisting that her characters are merely thinly veiled copies of real people? Rhett and Scarlett and the rest live because of her writing, not because of what inspired their characters.
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Carol
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Mar 06, 2013 09:11AM
Rhett has been long known to have been inspired by ex-husband Red by both MM's family and friends.
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Didn't know that, Carol. Thanks for the info.
I doubt very much that Mitchell would have based her romantic lead on her first husband while living with her second husband, who spent every evening editing her manuscript. He'd been Upshaw's roommate and would certainly have recognized the character! See my post about the only charcter that we know for certain was based on someone living during Mitchell's time, as attested by her brother, Stephens Mitchell (at the "Rhett and Melanie" thread).
I don't know about her changing the name of Rhett, but she certainly changed the name of Scarlett, who was originally named Pansy. Mitchell, whose nickname was Peggy, always named her heroines after herself. All her girlhood dramas starred feisty little adventuresses named Peggy or Pansy, so her character in the book got the same name. It was only when MacMillan pointed out to her that in New York, a pansy referred to an effeminate man, that she changed the name. She actually looked back through the manuscript to find something suitable, and came across the family name Scarlett, some of the O'Hara's Irish ancestors. And a legend was born! Funny to be following this thread while working on a Powerpoint presentation for a talk I'm giving at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta about "Gone With the Wind." I keep going back and forth between the two, and forget what I've said where!
I presume in your book you document clearly that the taxi driver was drunk? Margaret Mitchel was such an icon at the time, so famous, so untouchable, that no one, I imagine, would have dared suggest that the accident was other than an accident. I accept what you say, but I'm also aware that sudden impulses do overcome people occasionally and I would like some of these possible avenues to be explored.
And just to ensure I have my facts right, would you confirm that Mitchell's first husband did die a few months before her own death.
Hi, Pauline!My book is actually about Doc Holliday and the girl who became the model for Melanie in "Gone With the Wind," rather than about Margaret Mitchell herself (although she does appear in the Postscript of the third book in the trilogy.) I would consider myself a fan of Mitchell's writing, not an expert, but I have studied her life for many years and have spoken about her at the Margaret Mitchell House, among other venues. From my research, I have the following:
The driver of the car that killed Mitchell, Hugh Gravitt, was an off-duty taxi driver who was driving his personal vehicle at the time of the accident. He was arrested for drunken driving and released on a $5,450 bond until Mitchell's death. Although the original charge was drunk driving, speeding, and driving on the wrong side of the road, it was increased to involuntary manslaughter after her death. In November of 1949 he was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Red Upshaw died in late 1948 (the year before Mitchell's tragic accident), of a fall from his fifth-floor hotel room window. The police suspected suicide. He left a nineteen-year-old son and he had had three other wives, all of whom divorced him. He also had some sisters and brothers. An alcoholic who had been in and out of mental institutions for years, he had led a tragic life.
I suspect that the "suicide" whispers were really about Red, not Mitchell, and that the story has just gotten confused with time and retelling. During Mitchell's own short marriage to Red, he was charged with assault, and John Marsh (her second husband) had to pay his legal fees. From my own reading, I sensed that Mitchell was actually in love with John Marsh all along, but he was a slow and careful beau, and she tried to use a flirtation with his roommate, Red Upshaw, to make him jealous and hopefully light a fire under him. But as those flirtations sometimes go, she fell for her own deception and ended up married to Red instead of John, first time around. Her brother Stephens Mitchell said it was always John she loved and that the marriage to Red had been a terrible mistake from the start. It lasted less than a year before the assault charges and divorce. Doesn't seem likely she harbored any romantic feelings for him through the years to come. He was, as his own family remembers, a violent and drunken wastrel.
I accept what you say and it all seems plausible. What I find hard to understand is why no one else seems to believe that Mitchell unconsciously or otherwise could have been fascinated still by her first husband and that fascination comes out in Gone With the Wind. I have found this to be the case with many women who had horrid first husbands and then went on to marry that perfect kind man but he never quite fills that gap. As I understand it, Mitchell discussed the plot of Gone with the Wind with her husband and I can imagine them agreeing that in order for the book not to be recognised as autobiographical, the characters were turned around. It does get complicated I know. Red was the one that got away from her charms, didn't fall for them, and that would always have niggled with her, I believe.
There's an article online of a real blockade runner who Rhett Butler is likely based on.
IMO MM probably based Rhett Butler both on elements of Red and on a real life figure.There's too many similarities to deny a connection with Red but there's also recent evidence of real people who share striking similar traits to Rhett Butler. So its both IMO. Enlighten yourselves with these articles.
http://hunleyfinder.wordpress.com/art...
http://www.searesearchsociety.com/201...
http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/19...
IMO MM probably based Rhett Butler both on elements of Red and on a real life figure.There's too many similarities to deny a connection with Red but there's also recent evidence of real people who share striking similar traits to Rhett Butler. So its both IMO. Enlighten yourselves with these articles.
http://hunleyfinder.wordpress.com/art...
http://www.searesearchsociety.com/201...
http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/19...
Thanks for mentioning the links, Morte. Interesting reading. You might also take a look at "The Irish Roots of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind," by David O'Connel. I was an advisor on the book, and admired its thorough investigation of Mitchell's family connections.The Irish Roots of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
Ironic, isn't it? Margaret Mitchell wrote such a brilliantly imagined novel that its characters live -- so much so that we want them to be real, and look everywhere to find the "real" people behind the story -- which ultimately denies her the credit she deserves for her wonderful imagination. Of course she took inspiration for her writing from the world around her, as we all do. But why do we insist on cheapening her work by insisting that her characters are merely thinly veiled copies of real people? Rhett and Scarlett and the rest live because of her writing, not because of what inspired their characters.
Victoria wrote: "Thanks for mentioning the links, Morte. Interesting reading. You might also take a look at "The Irish Roots of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind," by David O'Connel. I was an advisor on the..."
DAYUUUUMM Gone With the Wind is a single work that never had a sequel (a canon one at least written by the author)-yet there are so many books about it from multiple "Official" expansions to the original novel to thousands of biography of Margaret Mitchell (significant when you consider the fact this was the only book she ever wrote not counting the amateur work Lost Laysen), and practically a bazillion commentaries
about the novel itself from how a Southern cookbook to comparisons with histories and such.
Thanks for mentioning your work I'll take a look at yet when I have the chance.
Oh I got a question. Was Margaret Mitchell part Irish? I'm asking because its pretty shocking that Scarlett's actor Vivien Hartley was Franco-Irish in blood just like Scarlett was!
DAYUUUUMM Gone With the Wind is a single work that never had a sequel (a canon one at least written by the author)-yet there are so many books about it from multiple "Official" expansions to the original novel to thousands of biography of Margaret Mitchell (significant when you consider the fact this was the only book she ever wrote not counting the amateur work Lost Laysen), and practically a bazillion commentaries
about the novel itself from how a Southern cookbook to comparisons with histories and such.
Thanks for mentioning your work I'll take a look at yet when I have the chance.
Oh I got a question. Was Margaret Mitchell part Irish? I'm asking because its pretty shocking that Scarlett's actor Vivien Hartley was Franco-Irish in blood just like Scarlett was!
