Margaret Mitchell: Highlights of her life

1900 Born on November 8 into a segregated Atlanta that was called the "New South." Baptized at Sacred Heart Church on Peachtree Street.

1912 Moves from childhood home in Jackson Hill in southeast Atlanta to a white-columned mansion at 1149 Peachtree Street. In order to play with her brother, Stephens, and the other boys in the neighborhood, Margaret quickly becomes a tomboy. She dresses in knickers and calls herself "Jimmy." She writes, produces, and directs plays, casting her friends and inviting the neighborhood over. The front parlor rooms of her home are perfect staging areas.

1917 Falls in love and becomes engaged to Lt. Clifford Henry, a Harvard man in training at Camp Gordon in Atlanta. He is stationed in France and Margaret starts her first year at Smith College in the fall of 1918.

1911 - 1919 While at Smith, she receives word that Clifford has died. Soon after, her mother becomes ill, and Margaret rushes home to see her but does not make it in time.

1920 Makes her debut and causes a scandal with her "Apache Dance." She is refused admission into the Junior League because of the nature of the dance and because she chose to do charity work in the wards for the black and the poor at Grady Hospital.

Her Working Years

1922 She is surrounded by suitors, but Red Upshaw and John Marsh remain the top competitors for her attention. Margaret marries Upshaw in September of that year and the couple moves in with Margaret's family. Shortly thereafter, Red becomes abusive, and Margaret realizes he is both a bootlegger and an alcoholic. The two separate and eventually divorce. Margaret lands a job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal Magazine. She soon becomes the first woman to cover hard news for the Atlanta Journal.

1925 Margaret marries John Marsh on July 4 (she liked to tell her friends she was married on "Independence Day"). They host their wedding reception in apartment #1 on Crescent Avenue. A former newspaper reporter, John works as the editor of the Georgia Power Company magazine, eventually rising to vice president of advertising and marketing.

Writing Gone With the Wind

1926 Margaret is forced to quit her job at the newspaper because of arthritis in her ankles and feet. She spends time at home in bed, reading voraciously. John, tired of lugging books home for Margaret to read, brings her a second-hand portable Remington typewriter with the words, "Madam, I greet you on the beginning of a great new career." John's thought was that because Margaret had read basically every book in the public library, she should write her own book. Margaret begins composing what her friends jokingly call, "the great American novel," writing about what she had learned from the many stories her elders had told her as she was growing up.

1929 The bulk of her work is completed. Only two people, John and her friend Lois Cole, who worked for Macmillan Publishing Company, know the details of her writing.

1932 Margaret and John move from the Crescent Avenue Apartments to the Russell Apartments at Peachtree and 17th streets.

1935 Harold Latham of Macmillan Publishing heads south in search of new writers after Georgian author Caroline Miller wins a Pulitzer prize for Lamb in His Bosom. Lois Cole asks Margaret to show Latham around Atlanta. Margaret agrees to meet Latham but repeatedly refuses his requests to see her manuscript. After an acquaintance cattily remarks to her that she is "not serious enough" to be a writer, Margaret finally gives in, gathering up her tattered manuscript and driving it over to Latham's hotel. She tells him to "take the damn thing" before she changes her mind. Latham is spellbound by the manuscript. After conferring with the head of the English Literature department at Columbia University, he buys it from Margaret.

1936 The book is published on June 10 and by October has sold one million copies. The popularity of the book begins to change her life and she is besieged by letters and telephone calls from all over the world. The most popular question is "Does Scarlett get Rhett back?" Hollywood producer David O. Selznick buys the film rights to Margaret's manuscript for $50,000, top dollar at the time. Once again, she is besieged, this time by would-be actresses wanting a part in the film.

1937 Margaret wins Pulitzer prize for her best-selling book.

1939 Atlanta rolls out the red carpet for Hollywood at the movie's premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre, located on Peachtree Street in the heart of Atlanta. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh stay at the Georgian Terrace. The black community is outraged that the hotel does not allow the movie's black actors or actresses to stay there.

Her Later Life

1940's Margaret becomes a full-time volunteer and devotes most of her time, energy and wealth to the following projects:

Sponsored undergraduate and medical school education of fifty Morehouse College graduates.
Credited by Hughes Spalding with the inspiration for the Hughes Spalding Pavilion at Grady Hospital.
Funded black and white emergency clinics at Grady Hospital.
Campaigned across the Southeast and raised $65 million to rebuild USS Atlanta after it sank at Guadalcanal.
Helped to rebuild French town of Vimontiers after World War II.
Supported police chief Herbert Jenkins in integrating Atlanta Police Department.
Led creative writing program at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
Covered medical expenses for many nuns associated with the Sisters of Mercy of St. Joseph's Infirmary.
Nursed friends, relatives, and household help at bedside at Grady Hospital and St. Joseph's.

1949 On August 11, while crossing Peachtree Street to go to a theater, Margaret is hit by an off-duty cab driver. Suffering from internal injuries, she dies several days later at Grady Hospital. Her memorial service is at Patterson's Funeral Home, and she is buried at Oakland Cemetery in the Mitchell family plot.

1952 John Marsh dies of a heart attack in his sleep. He is buried next to Margaret in Oakland Cemetery.

1965 Awarded Shining Light Award by Atlanta Gas Light and WSB radio in recognition of her contributions to humanity.

1997 Margaret Mitchell House, birthplace of Gone With The Wind, is dedicated to the City of Atlanta in honor of the indomitable spirit of Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell.

2000 Publication of Before Scarlett: the girlhood writings of Margaret Mitchell, a book comprised of recently-discovered stories, novellas, and plays written by Margaret from ages 7 to 18. The Margaret Mitchell House & Museum has on display the composition books and journals Margaret wrote in as a child.