In search of a better story, Margaret set off to Jonesboro, a place where she had spent many summers as a child, and where many of the South's great plantations lie in ruins as a result of the War. On her way, her car smashed into a tree. Margaret walked away from the accident with an injured ankle. One week later, however, the swelling caused her to be bedridden. After reading all the books her husband brought her for entertainment, he finally told her that she would have to write her own.
Before even putting her new story down on paper in 1926, Margaret knew many of the details. It would have two female main characters, as well as two males. Originally, Melanie was to be the leading character, but it was not long before Pansy O'Hara began to steal the show.
One of the leading males, Rhett Butler, would bear striking resemblence to the personality of Red Upshaw, as they were both scoundrels, who were expelled from Military Academies. Note the syllables of the names, and the first letter of both first names.
The second main male character, Ashley Wilkes, was based on a romanticized version of none other than Margaret's own beau Clifford Henry.
Set against the background of Georgia during the civil war, Tomorrow Is Another Day, as it was called, focused on the lives of the women left behind, rather than the battles. For ten years Mitchell fine tuned the story until it blossomed into an epic saga of the American Civil War (1861-1865).
GONE WITH THE WIND, in its final form, was published in June of 1936. Within twenty-four hours, it became a best-seller. In 1937, Margaret Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize. Due to its unprecedented popularity, GWTW was quickly optioned for movie rights at $45,000.00. David O'Selznick turned the award-winning book into a blockbuster motion picture in 1939, which won 10 Academy Awards in 1940.
By the time 1940 and the Academy Awards rolled around, GWTW was the most popular film of all time and held the record for gross earnings for over 20 years.
After suffering injuries from another car accident in which she was a pedestrian, Margaret Mitchell would succumb to her injuries in Atlanta on August 16, 1949. With her went the secret of whether Rhett would ever return and what happened after he spoke the words "Frankly, my dear, I don't give
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