Oct 22, 2015 - Sale 2394

Sale 2394 - Lot 341

Unsold
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
"I HAVE HAD A GREAT DEAL OF TROUBLE WITH IMPOSTERS" MITCHELL, MARGARET. Typed Letter Signed, "Margaret Mitchell Marsh," to the Editor of the San Antonio Light, pointing out that someone impersonating her had misled the newspaper into publishing things damaging to her reputation, explaining that similar things have happened on other occasions since the publication of Gone With the Wind, and requesting that a correction be published. 2 pages, 4to, personal stationery, written on rectos only. Atlanta, 23 December 1947
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"I am . . . author of 'Gone With the Wind.' I am writing you about an item published in your newspaper on August 5 . . . stating that 'Mrs. John R. Marsh (Margaret Mitchell) . . .' had just arrived in San Antonio . . . . I have learned that this woman . . . autographed copies of my novel 'Gone With the Wind' and in other ways created the impression she was me.
"This has caused me great embarrassment and I must ask you to publish a correction. . . . I have never been in your city, much to my regret. I have never been in Mexico City, where you said I had been, and I have never been in Dallas or Hollywood, where you said I was going. The photograph you published is not my photograph and does not resemble me in any manner.
"At the time when your paper stated I was in San Antonio, I was at my home in Atlanta. . . . I have scarcely been outside of our apartment, for my husband has had a long and serious illness and my place was here with him. That made your item especially embarrassing, for it wrongly gave the impression that I was gadding about on a pleasure trip when my husband was dangerously ill.
"Since 1936, when 'Gone With the Wind' was published, I have had a great deal of trouble with imposters. Texas and the Southwest have been the scene of operation . . . . Time and again . . . , reports and rumors have come to me of some woman traveling about . . . representing herself to be me--and the reports I got were definitely not flattering to my reputation.
". . . I think the people in your section ought to be warned that one or more women . . . are supposedly the author of 'Gone With the Wind' but definitely are not.
". . . My Mitchell grandfather, though Georgia born, was always proud of having been one of Hood's Texans. He practiced law at Alto, Texas, prior to his enlistment in the 1st Texas Infantry, C.S.A. . . . Other Texans have written me wince the publication of 'Gone With the Wind' and in a most kindly way. . . . I have looked forward to the time when I might visit Texas and meet these people in person. Now, as a result of your misleading item and the other rumors, my friends in Texas believe that I have already been there and have ignored them. You owe it to me to help in dispelling that impression by making a public acknowledgment in your newspaper that your item was wrong . . . .
"I would be glad to have you check on my veracity so that you may be certain this letter is not from another imposter. I refer you to the following Atlanta newspapermen: Mr. W.F. Caldwell, of the Associated Press; Mr. John Paschall or Mr. Wright Bryan of the Atlanta Journal; Mr. Ralph McGill or Mr. Jack Tarver of the Atlanta Constitution."