Publication of "Gone With the Wind"

On June 30, 1936, Macmillan Publishing released Margaret Mitchell's debut and only novel, Gone with the Wind, a sprawling historical epic set in Georgia during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. The novel followed the fiery, resourceful Scarlett O'Hara through war, loss, and rebuilding, against the backdrop of the collapsing Confederacy.

Mitchell had spent nearly a decade quietly writing the manuscript beginning around 1926, often keeping the drafts hidden under towels and furniture, uncertain whether she would ever seek publication. Encouraged by an editor from Macmillan who tracked her down after hearing rumors of the unfinished manuscript, Mitchell finally agreed to submit it for consideration.

The novel's publication was met with immediate and overwhelming public enthusiasm. It sold an extraordinary one million copies within six months, an almost unheard-of pace for the era, and went on to become one of the best-selling novels of all time, with tens of millions of copies sold worldwide in the decades since.

The book's vivid, romanticized portrayal of the Old South, its complex and unconventional heroine, and its sweeping narrative of survival amid devastation captured the imagination of Depression-era America. While later scholarship has critically examined the novel's romanticized treatment of slavery and the Confederacy, its literary and cultural impact remains undeniable, cementing Mitchell's place as one of the most commercially successful American novelists of the 20th century.