Gone with the Wind by Mitchell, Margaret - 1936

New York: Macmillan, 1936. First edition. Fine/Near Fine. First printing, May 1936, in first issue jacket. A Fine copy of the book in a lovely Near Fine dust jacket. Jacket with only minimal edgewear and one very small chip at the crown. Two short tape-ghosts on the front flap. Overall a very clean and attractive example. Housed in a custom quarter-leather clamshell case.

Set in Georgia during the Civil War and Reconstruction, the novel follows the fall of the South and its gentility as experienced by Scarlett O'Hara, one of literature's most ruthlessly optimistic characters. More than a war story, Gone With the Wind is a reflection on humanity. "Mitchell carefully analyzes the nature of human resilience, and hold up hopefulness as the critical tool for getting through the worst of times" (The Guardian). Popular from its release and an almost-immediate best-seller, Gone With the Wind won the Pulitzer Prize the following year and would be transformed into one of the most iconic Hollywood golden-era films, starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. No other work of literature more fully captures the old Southern gentility than Gone With the Wind. "This is beyond a doubt one of the most remarkable first novels produced by an American writer. It is also one of the best" (contemporary New York Times Book Review). Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.