Margaret mitchell author biography outline

On August 11,she was struck by a car while crossing a street and died five days later. Gone With the Wind was her only full length novel. She wrote the novella Lost Laysen in but it was not published until We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Nikki Giovanni. How Did Shakespeare Die?

After serving the world in literary and practical fields, this legendary figure met a tragic demise when she was struck by a speedy vehicle while margaret mitchell author biography outline a street. She failed to recover from this deadly accident and breathed her last on the 16th of August in Margaret successfully pursued two careers in life; first, she became a journalist, and later emerged as a novelist.

Since childhood, she devoted herself to reading, and writing, and produced various writing pieces. Later, she loved to write about topics that were more inclined towards women, including feminism, fashion, and society. She produced several book reviews, eighty-five stories, and one hundred and twenty-nine feature articles for the journal.

Besides these engaging articles, she tried her hands-on novels as well. She wrote a romantic novellaLost Laysen, during her early years, and presented it to her boyfriend. Mitchell suffered physical and emotional abuse, the result of Upshaw's alcoholism and violent temper. Upshaw agreed to an uncontested divorce after John Marsh gave him a loan and Mitchell agreed not to press assault charges against him.

During this time, Mitchell left the Catholic Church and became an Episcopalian. While still legally married to Upshaw and needing income for herself, [ 87 ] Mitchell got a job writing feature articles for The Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine. She received almost no encouragement from her family or "society" to pursue a career in journalism, and had no prior newspaper experience.

There had been some skepticism on the Atlanta Journal Magazine staff when Peggy came to work as a reporter. Debutantes slept late in those days and didn't go in for jobs. His face was swarthy, so brown that his white teeth flashed in startling contrast to his skin; his eyes—tired, bored, but courteous. Mitchell was quite thrilled when Valentino took her in his arms and carried her inside from the rooftop of the Georgian Terrace Hotel.

Many of her stories were vividly descriptive. The tall white columns glimpsed through the dark green of cedar foliage, the wide veranda encircling the house, the stately silence engendered by the century-old oaks evoke memories of Thomas Nelson Page 's On Virginia. The atmosphere of dignity, ease, and courtesy that was the soul of the Old South breathes from this old mansion One was the first woman to serve in the United States SenateRebecca Latimer Feltona suffragist who held white supremacist views.

The article generated mail and controversy from her readers. Mitchell's journalism career, which began incame to an end less than four years later; her last article appeared on May 9, Mitchell began collecting erotica from book shops in New York City while in her twenties. Mitchell wrote a romance novella, Lost Laysenwhen she was fifteen years old He died in and the novella remained undiscovered among some letters she had written to him until In Lost LaysenMitchell explores the dynamics of three male characters and their relationship to the only female character, Courtenay Ross, a strong-willed American missionary to the South Pacific island of Laysen.

Courtenay quickly observes Duncan's hard-muscled body as he works shirtless aboard a ship called Caliban. Courtenay's suitor is Douglas Steele, an athletic man who apparently believes Courtenay is helpless without him. He follows Courtenay to Laysen to protect her from perceived foreign savages. The third male character is the rich, powerful yet villainous Juan Mardo.

He leers at Courtenay and makes rude comments of a sexual nature, in Japanese no less. Mardo provokes Duncan and Steele, and each feels he must defend Courtenay's honor. Ultimately Courtenay defends her own honor rather than submit to shame. The reader learns of Mardo's evil intentions through Duncan:. They were saying that Juan Mardo had his eye on you—and intended to have you—any way he could get you!

Rhett tells Scarlett:. I always intended having you, one way or another. The "other way" is rape. In Lost Laysen the male seducer is replaced with the male rapist. In Mitchell's teenage years, she is known to have written a page novel about girls in a boarding school, The Big Four. In the s Mitchell completed a noveletteRopa Carmaginabout a Southern white girl who loves a biracial man.

The novelette was rejected; Macmillan thought the story was too short for book form. In Mayafter Mitchell had left her job at the Atlanta Journal and was recovering at home from her ankle injury, she wrote a society column for the Sunday Magazine"Elizabeth Bennet's Gossip", which she continued to write until August. For God's sake, Peggy, can't you write a book instead of reading thousands of them?

She used parts of the manuscript to prop up a wobbly couch. In AprilHarold Latham of Macmillan, an editor looking for new fiction, read her manuscript and saw that it could be a best-seller. After Latham agreed to publish the book, Mitchell worked for another six months checking the historical references and rewriting the opening chapter several times.

The ship was heavily damaged during night surface action on November 13,during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and subsequently scuttled on orders of her captain having earned five battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation as a "heroic example of invincible fighting spirit". On February 6,she christened Atlanta in Camden, New Jersey, and the cruiser began fighting operations in May She was finally sunk during explosive testing off San Clemente Island on October 1, Margaret Mitchell was struck by a speeding motorist as she crossed Peachtree Street at 13th Street in Atlanta with her husband, John Marsh, while on her way to see the movie A Canterbury Tale on the evening of August 11, She died at age 48 at Grady Hospital five days later on August 16 without fully regaining consciousness.

Mitchell was struck by Hugh Gravitt, an off-duty taxi driver who was driving his personal vehicle. Gravitt was originally charged with drunken driving, speeding, and driving on the wrong side of the road. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November and sentenced to 18 months in jail. He served almost 11 months. Gravitt died in at the age of Margaret Mitchell was buried at Oakland CemeteryGeorgia.

When her husband John died inhe was buried next to his wife. When Mitchell's nephew, Joseph Mitchelldied inhe left fifty percent of trademark and literary rights of the Margaret Mitchell Estate, as well as some personal belongings of Mitchell's, to the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history.

Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Wikidata item. American novelist and journalist — For other people named Margaret Mitchell, see Margaret Mitchell disambiguation. Berrien Upshaw. Family history [ edit ]. Early influences [ edit ]. Girlhood on Jackson Hill [ edit ]. The South of Gone with the Wind [ edit ].

An avid reader [ edit ]. Young storyteller [ edit ]. School life [ edit ]. Fancy Dress Masquerade Seventy girls and boys were the guests of Miss Margaret Mitchell at a fancy dress masquerade yesterday afternoon at the home of her parents Mr. Mitchell wore a ruby velvet gown. The ConstitutionAtlanta, November 21, General Edwards Presents Medal Mrs.

The Bridgeport TelegramJuly 4, Marriage [ edit ]. The ConstitutionAtlanta, February 2, Reporter for The Atlanta Journal [ margaret mitchell author biography outline ]. Interest in erotica [ edit ]. Novelist [ edit ]. Early works [ edit ]. Lost Laysen [ edit ]. The Big Four [ edit ]. Ropa Carmagin [ edit ]. Writing Gone with the Wind [ edit ].

Main article: Gone with the Wind novel. Thaw, and a Georgia prisoner who made artificial flowers from scraps and sold them from his cell to support his family. Most important for the development of her later Gone With the Wind were her profiles of prominent Georgia Civil War generals, the research for which, scholars believe, led her to her work on the novel.

The first sketches were so popular with the Atlanta public that her editors assigned her several more. Using Mitchell's own scrapbooks from the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia, editor Patrick Allen collected sixty-four of the columns Mitchell herself considered her best work. They were published under the title Margaret Mitchell, Reporter.

Her portraits and personality sketches, in particular, show an early promise of her ability to draw the kind of characters which have made her Gone With the Wind the most translated and best-selling novel in history. Even as a thoughtfully neutral reporter, the irrepressible personality of the observer shines through and, taken as a whole, this collection of Mitchell's journalism transcends the simple fact-gathering of the reporter's trade to give a portrait of the artist as a young woman and a compelling snapshot at life in the Jazz Age South.

Margaret married Red Upshaw inbut they were divorced after it was revealed that he was a bootlegger. She married Upshaw's friend, John Marsh, on July 4, ; Marsh had been best man at her first wedding and legend has it that both men courted Mitchell in andbut Upshaw proposed first. Margaret is reported to have begun writing Gone With the Wind while bedridden and nursing a broken ankle.

Her husband, John Marsh, brought home historical books from the public library to amuse her while she convalesced.

Margaret mitchell author biography outline

Finally, after she supposedly read all the historical books in the library, he told her, "Peggy, if you want another book, why don't you write your own? Margaret wrote for her own amusement, with solid support from her husband, but she kept her literary efforts a secret from all her friends. She would hide the voluminous pages under towels, disguising them as a pillows, or hide pages in her closets or under her bed.

She wrote in a haphazard fashion, writing the last chapter first, and skipping around from chapter to chapter. Her husband regularly proofread her mounting manuscript to help in continuity. Bywhen her ankle had healed and most of the book was written, she lost interest in pursuing her literary efforts. While she used to say that her "Gone with The Wind" characters were not based on real people, modern researchers have found similarities to some of the people in Margaret's own life as well as to individuals she knew.

Rhett Butler is thought to be based on her first husband, Red Upshaw. Mitchell lived her life as a modest Atlanta newspaperwoman until a fateful visit from a MacMillan publisher, Howard Latham, who came to Atlanta in