Caitlin Whiteaker Addresses Philadelphia Winn Chapter NSDAR on Margaret Mitchell House

Lawrenceville – On May 19, Caitlin Whiteaker spoke on the Margaret Mitchell House to the Philadelphia Winn Chapter NSDAR. Whiteaker manages the home where Mitchell penned Gone with the Wind. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and managed by the Atlanta History Center, the three-story Tudor Revival house at 990 Peachtree Street is one of Atlanta’s most treasured landmarks and tourist attractions. Visitors from everywhere come to tour. 

Whiteaker noted similarities between Mitchell’s life and that of her main character, Scarlett O’Hara. At eighteen, Mitchell fell in love and was engaged to Clifford Henry, who died in France in WWI. Whiteaker noted that young Scarlett’s first husband’s initials were “CH” for Charles Hamilton, and he died in war. Also, Margaret Mitchell’s mother contracted influenza and died the day before her daughter reached home from college. Like Scarlett, Mitchell returned home to find her mother dead and stayed to care for her father.

Scarlett is an independent woman at a time when society limits female roles. A rebel herself, Mitchell was a tomboy who called herself “Jimmy” until she turned fourteen. May Belle, her mother, was a suffragist. In Mitchell’s twenties, she lived the unconventional life of a flapper, proof that May Belle’s feminism rubbed off on her daughter.

Mitchell married John Marsh in 1925. They moved into “The Dump,” their nickname for the house. While recuperating from an ankle injury in 1926, Mitchell wrote to amuse herself. She finished GWTW in three years, and then let it languish for the next six.  

In 1935, Macmillan House Editor Harold Latham came South in search of writers. A friend retorted to Mitchell, “Why would he choose your book?” The remark stung and prompted Mitchell to give Latham the manuscript. After reading it on the train home, he decided to publish it. In four months, GWTW sold a million copies.

Email www.margaretmitchellhouse.com for tour information. For information on Philadelphia Winn Chapter, email www.philwinndar.com.

Caption: (from left) Philadelphia Winn Chapter NSDAR Regent Peggy Freeman of Lilburn and Caitlin Whiteaker, manager of the Margaret Mitchell House.