Is Gone With the Wind Racist? A Pulitzer Prize Deep Dive

I've been working on what I want to say about Gone with the Wind, a novel so popular it feels like it has become an American institution at this point. But like most American institutions, it has a dark side. Expand for more information 👇

NOTE: I originally welcomed comments and feedback on this topic because I think a conversation about racism and what the old South represents is important, but almost a year after posting this the productive comments have dropped off. All the comments that have been coming in for the last few months are from racist trolls. After some soul searching, I decided it's not worth my time to engage with these people, and it's not worth my time to read what they have to say when it comes in, and it's not worth my time to block them rather than engage. I hate that shutting down the comment section removes all existing comments from the feed because there was some interesting discussion in the early days. It's just not worth leaving it open anymore. So this comment section is shut down as of February 8, 2023. I apologize if you had something productive to say.

The blog post I wrote about this has a few extra details and features much of the text here (I used it as a sort of reference point): https://supposedlyfun.com/2022/04/06/...

Links 💻
Margaret Mitchell’s Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margare...
PBS Biography: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmast...
Article About Margaret Mitchell’s Will: https://www.nytimes.com/1949/08/24/ar...
The History of the Term Dixie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_(...
NY Times article about the legacy of Gone With the Wind: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/mo...

Further Viewing 🎥
Brian at ‪@BookishTexan‬'s video about Faulkner and Racism:    • William Faulkner: Race and Racism in ...  
Brian’s Review of Gone with the Wind:    • Gone With The Wind: A Review of the N...  
What Is the Great American Novel?    • What Is the Great American Novel?  
1986: Is Lonesome Dove the Great American Novel?    • Is Lonesome Dove the Great American N...  
1988: Beloved and the Ghosts of Slavery:    • Can America Reckon With the Ghosts of...  
The 2012 Pulitzer Controversy:    • Do Book Prizes Owe Us a Winner Every ...  
2018: What Type of Book Deserves to Win Book Awards?    • What Type of Book Deserves to Win Lit...  

Time Stamps:
Snapshot of 1936: 05:50
Why it matters if Gone with the Wind is racist: 08:04
Is this virtue signaling? 24:30
What is Gone with the Wind About? 26:26
How is Gone with the Wind racist? 29:00
The Irish and Feminist Complications: 42:35
Margaret Mitchell’s Background: 45:07
Is Gone with the Wind any good? 51:36
Adaptations and sequels: 53:15
Competition for the 1937 Pulitzer Prize: 56:08
Should Gone with the Wind have won a Pulitzer? 58:30
Conclusion and a challenge: 59:23


My husband made a cookbook! Check it out here:
https://www.blurb.com/b/10189765-my-m...

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Email: supposedlyfungreg-at-gmail.com
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