The phenomenal success of "Gone with the Wind" changed the history of publishing and moviemaking. It also changed Margaret Mitchell's existence. "Alas," the Atlanta journalist wrote to screenwriter Sidney Howard in 1937, "where has my quiet peaceful life gone?" Margaret Mitchell was a born storyteller and these 300 or so letters - culled from over 50,000 items in her papers at the University of Georgia - are filled with warmth, humanity, and lively...

After the Civil War sweeps away the genteel life to which she has been accustomed, Scarlett O'Hara sets about to salvage her Georgia plantation home.