In many places you can read that one of the most famous novels of the 20th century at first did not interest a single publisher. We checked if it was true.

On the Russian Platform of Independent Journalism PayPress Roman Margaret Mitchell is in the first place in the top of books that are required to read, with an annotation: “It was refused to publish 38 times, but nevertheless the only written book throughout her life made the author known to the whole world!” “Doned by the wind” (along with the works of Stephen King, Joan Rowling and many others) often appear in the collections of similar facts about failures, whose main idea cannot be given, you need to believe because of their talent. In this context, a famous science fiction writer mentions the book Alexey Kalugin. Similar collections are popular in the West - for example, one of them is presented in a business social network Linkedin As a fragment from William Long's work “10 tips: how I wrote my first book.” From another book you can to knowthat such a list at one time was compiled by the world -famous colleague of Kalugin Ray Bradbury. The American is alleged at one time he himself received about 700 failures before the first publication, so he decided to motivate novice authors. Among other authoritative sources where you can find the mentioned fact, are sites Communities of New York publishers, National Library of Belarus, California University in Los Angeles, book by Carol Ann Lindsay "Rich writer, poor writer" And many other resources.

Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, a native to her famous heroine Scarlett O'Hara. From childhood, Margaret was imbued with the atmosphere of the slave -owning south, listening to numerous stories (her father was the chairman of the local historical society, and two grandfathers fought on the side of the southerners in the civil war). From the age of 17, Mitchell had to face blows of fate: First, in 1918, her groom died from the wounds received in the fields of the First World War, and a few months later the Spanish virus was taken by her mother. In 1922, she began a career as a reporter and then first married, but unsuccessfully. Three years later, a second marriage followed (with Shafer at the first wedding), and already in 1926 Mitchell received an ankle injury and was forced to complete a short career of a journalist. Since then, she became a housewife in her husband’s care.

In the same 1926, on the advice of a spouse who was tired of bringing armful books from the library, Mitchell sat down to write her own novel. Looking ahead, let's say that there were ten more years before the release of the wind - on June 30, 1936, the book was published in the publishing house Macmillan. The novel immediately became a bestseller - by the end of the year more than a million copies were sold. By 2014, in the USA, "carried away by the wind" Goven In popularity, only the Bible, and the global circulation for all the time amounted to about 30 million copies. In the same 1936, Mitchell sold the rights to a film adaptation, which, in turn, will become The most cash film in the history of the movie.

Thus, refusals, if they took place, should have happened somewhere between 1926 and 1936-indeed, more than a sufficient time to complete the writing of one novel. However, facts are a stubborn thing. How It turns out, Mitchell really wrote the novel extremely slowly, from time to time adding to the chapter, writing a large part by 1929. In 1934, as a result of a car accident, she received another injury, and not contributing to the exits to the street, the cervical bandage became the factor that promoted her to a decisive attempt to finish the book of her life. It so happened that in 1935, Harold Latem, the vice president of the aforementioned Macmillan, undertook trip In the south of the United States in search of new authors. He had already heard about Mitchell from Lois Cole, his assistant and girlfriend Margaret. “If she can write as she says, it should be a wonderful book,” said Cole. Arriving in Atlanta, LETEM I did it An attempt to get acquainted with Mitchell, but she turned out to be a shy woman and politely rejected all the requests of Latem to look at her work. Three days passed, Latem was desperate and a few hours later he had to take a train in the New Orleans. And then the phone rang in the hotel room of the editor. As it turned out, Margaret Mitchell came to Latem herself and waited for him in the lobby. Later, the editor said that this picture would never forget: a tiny woman was sitting on the couch, and next to her, two piles of envelopes with sheets rose to her shoulders. “Here, take this thing until I changed my mind,” she said. In a number of sources indicatedthat the mockery of colleagues who doubted her abilities was promoted to a spontaneous decision.

As a result, the Vice President of MacMillan bought another suitcase-for the manuscript-and already familiarized him with her at night, immediately realizing what kind of fish he attacked. According to sources, Lapet became the first person after Mitchell and her spouse, who read the preliminary version of “Donced by the Wind”. When in the morning in New Orleans he received a telegram “Please return the manuscript back. I changed my mind, ”Latem was no longer going to retreat a single step. August 6, 1935 was signed contractAnd for another six months, Mitchell went to pretend the novel. About what fate was waiting for the novel further, described above.

This story is partially confirmed by the words of Margaret Mitchell from Letters, which she sent one of the book dealers in June 1936: “I wrote a book between 1926 and 1929 and never tried to sell it. I never dreamed that it would be sold, so I did not prepare a neatly printed copy for sending and receiving a refusal. When last year Mr. Les from Macmillan visited Atlanta, received a very dirty, careless copy and bought it, I was amazed. ”

The aforementioned letter Margaret Mitchell

Thus, the story of 38 refusals to publish the novel “Aprinted by the Wind” is fictitious. The book was published after the first familiarization with it of the publishers, and at first Margaret Mitchell opposed this.