Darden Asbury Pyron

Southern Daughter is the biographer of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind. I've read GWTW, I think, once when I was 16 or 17 and was fascinated. I tend to get bored by long books and overly long descriptions, but Mitchell had a way of drawing you into her characters and keeping you reading. I've watched the movie a couple of times and the cinematography and art direction is breathtaking and I am a little in love with Rhett Butler. "Southern Daughter" provided great insight into both the writing of the book and the adaptation into a movie, as well as into the author herself.

The biography is comprehensive. While not dwelling too much into the mundane everyday life of Mitchell, it provides enough background on the author and her family to see the connections between GWTW's characters and people in Mitchell's life. Pyron does a good job of analysing the book as Mitchell wrote it, though she does dwell on the "mother-daughter relationship" strain of the book as well as Mitchell's life, which may well be Pyron's take on Mitchell's intention rather than actuality. However, the effects of the movie, the changing political climate and the changes in literary criticism on the reputation of the book have been dealt with comprehensively. Mitchell herself has been described well. From her journalism days to the writing of her book, the significance of letter-writing in her life, her illnesses, publishing and copyright woes, it's all in here.

Highly recommended if you loved GWTW and want to know more about its origins.… (mer)