MARGARET MITCHELL

Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, captures the romance of a bygone era some of which Mitchell experienced herself growing up in the New South. Her work with black residents of Atlanta’s charity wards, for example, caused a scandal, as did a provocative dance she performed at her debut. If that doesn’t remind you of her rebellious heroine Scarlett O’Hara, this certainly will: Mitchell was a tomboy and shared a passion for two men, rugged Red Upshaw whom she married, then divorced for the more staid John Marsh. She wrote Gone With The Wind in 1936 and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. Both the novel and the film remain beloved classics. In 1949, Mitchell was struck by a car near her home and died shortly thereafter.