Margaret Mitchell, Reporter

Rating:
Summary: New insights into this great writer!
Review: Completely charming and so evocative of its time and the diamond-hard sensibility of its author, this collection shows that there is so much more to Margaret Mitchell than her single book. Highly recommended not only for Gone With the Wind fans but for anyone interested in women's and journalism history, the Jazz Age, or Atlanta in a simpler time.

Rating:
Summary: Beyond "Gone With the Wind"
Review: This is a rare and wonderful collection of little known and lost journalism by a very under-rated author. The book was published in honor of Margaret Mitchell's 100th birthday (she was born on November 8, 1900) and it is a fitting centennial tribute. Mitchell writes so engagingly about a variety of things--both the frivolous and the serious. Although Mitchell was, of course, reporting for her hometown Atlanta Journal Magazine, and was therefore putatively neutral, her great ability to draw character and see quirky and telling detail makes this selection of pieces from the early twenties seem more like fiction, even autobiography. Some of the slang and diction is dated, but to me that only made it more charming. Nothing could be more different from the Civil War material we all know from Mitchell, yet the sharp eye and flawless style are clearly evident--a full decade before her great "Gone With the Wind."