"Fiddle-dee-dee!" cried .... Pansy?!
What if?! Can you imagine if Margaret Mitchell had stuck with her original plan and named her headstrong heroine "Pansy"??! A Gone With The Wind devotee since girlhood (I read the 1,036 page library book in four days when I was in third or fourth grade, then turned around and read it in three days to match my best friend/competitive nemesis Lisa Susanka's reading time: also an avid reader, Lisa TORE through the book after I'd given it such good press: she might've read it faster, but I read it FIRST!), I was delighted to discover on today's edition of Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac" that, on this day in 1936--when my mother, who introduced me to GWTW, was a few weeks shy of her first birthday--Gone With the Wind was first published. My mom's other early book/movie legacies included Dr. Zhivago (ah, Yuri), Wuthering Heights (sigh, Heathcliff), and Giant (mmm, Bic and oh you, Jett!). And of course, her girlhood copies (circa 1930s) of the Nancy Drew and Pollyanna serials. Thanks, Mom!
Mitchell's sloppily presented GWTW draft also had a different title: Tomorrow is Another Day (for obvious reasons, if you know Scarlett and her train of thinking). Read about it yourself, here (and while you're visiting, I suggest you also read lovely poem/prayer that kicks off Garrison's monologue; and if you've never LISTENED to his learned musings, I urge you to do yourself a favor and check out the podcast version: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008/06/30). As Garrison intones: Be well; stay safe; and be in touch. And as Wills would say, I must away. But wanted first to note this very special day in the life of literature and cinema--two of the things that most inflame me!
P.S. Daughter Veronica, who is Scarlett's 21st century incarnation (though I had to work on her for YEARS before she'd read and then watch GWTW, stubbornly resisting because "I don't like war stories": she finally capitulated last year and caught GWTW fever, BIG time), helped me find some GWTW book/movie quotes this eve, in honor of this very momentous occasion in publishing: www.imdb.com/quotes. I especially like Rhett's line to Scarlett that she needs to be kissed often, and by someone who knows how (photos, here: http://us.imdb.com/media/rm3864041728/ch0006054). Mmm, Rhett, is it just me or is it hot in here? I don't just love you cuz you're a dashing blockade runner with a rakish air and a tender heart. But we won't think about that now: We'll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day....

