Skip to content

Secure Checkout

Website Secured with 256-bit TLS Encryption
Subtotal: $9,200.00
Shipping: $20.75
$0.00
Donation Amount: $0.00
Total: $9,220.75
3 - 6 days
5 - 14 days

All fields are required unless marked optional.

Add Shipping Note
  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • Discover
  • Paypal
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay

Verified and Secured. Guaranteed.

Website Secured with 256-bit TLS Encryption
Please select your payment method from the following list:
Click the button to checkout with PayPal.
You will be charged $9,220.75 when completing this purchase.

Cart Totals

Subtotal: $9,200.00
Shipping: $20.75
: $0.00
Donation Amount: $0.00
Total: $9,220.75

You are about to purchase:

Typed Letter Signed [TLS]

Typed Letter Signed [TLS] by MITCHELL, MARGARET

5 to 10 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $5.00
Details
$6,200.00
( US$)
Seller: The Manhattan Rare Book Company
Title
Typed Letter Signed [TLS]
Author
MITCHELL, MARGARET
Seller
The Manhattan Rare Book Company (United States)
Condition
Very Good
Description
Atlanta: NP, 1936. Letter. Very Good. LETTER WRITTEN AND SIGNED BY MARGARET MITCHELL DETAILING NAMING OF CLASSIC CHARACTER SCARLETT O’HARA. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind was published in the summer of 1936 to almost instantaneous success—reaching one million in sales by December at the unheard-of price of three dollars, a monumental fee in an America still recovering from the Great Depression. Immediately, the book polarized public debate. On one side were the critics: so-called ‘serious’ writers and high-brow detractors bemoaning, as Nathaniel Hawthorne once put it, “a damned mob of scribbling women,” feeding, “trash,” to the public imagination. On the other side was a public deeply engaged with Mitchell’s powerful storytelling. As even Mitchell’s harshest critics admitted, even if Gone With the Wind was not a great novel, it did, undoubtedly, make the reader “weep at a deathbed,” and, “exult at a sudden rescue.” In an America still reeling from the Great Depression, this escape was a much-needed one. Straight away, Gone With the Wind’s protagonist Scarlett O’Hara confounded the public. Psychoanalytic journals and public psychiatrists concluded that, “America’s new princess was a ‘partial psychopath’ and a person of ‘inward hollowness.’” Mitchell was amused and excited by the public’s response (although at times frustrated by the press’s questions). When asked by a Vogue reporter to analyze Scarlett O’Hara in terms of her ‘modernity,’ Mitchell responded by asking the reporter if they thought, “hard-headed women only came to life in the 1930s? Why don’t they read the Old Testament?” Some argued that Scarlett O’Hara served as a symbol of new and changing gender roles. A 1939 Reader’s Digest poll found that O’Hara’s primary appeal lay in her position as, “the master of her world rather than its victim.” A 1957 survey of high school girls found that three-quarters of respondents identified themselves as Scarlett over any other character in the book. In this way, many young women in the mid-20th century saw Scarlett O’Hara as a symbol of the bold women they might want to be—a character defined by, as the novel’s dust jacket put it, her identity as, “a loyal friend and true gentlewoman.” This is a letter postmarked January 5th, 1937, only seven months after the original publication of Gone With the Wind, during the crucial period in which the public discussed, analyzed, and fought over who Scarlett O’Hara was—and what she might represent. In this letter, Mitchell responds to a fan named Miss Gay Scarlett, asking about the origin of the name Scarlett O’Hara. In response to this question, Mitchell expresses concern regarding the naming of her character—claiming she, “didn’t wish to embarrass any present owners of the name,” although she wished to convey to Miss Gay Scarlett that her full “name is so pretty that I wish I had thought of it, for it would make a wonderful name for a character in a book.” It is quite unique that Mitchell expresses fear of embarrassing someone with the last name Scarlett, rather than O’Hara, demonstrating the intense care Mitchell put into her writing, researching individuals with the first and last name Scarlett, before naming her characters. Mitchell also shows her sensitivity towards the concerns of her reader, responding to their questions with kindness and interest. As part of an America searching for themselves in Scarlett O’Hara, the letter writer Miss Scarlett looked for a deeper understanding of her own name by prodding Margaret Mitchell on her character’s identity. Even as Gone With the Wind’s critics derided the book as empty, Miss Scarlett’s letter shows the intense meaning imbued in every aspect of the book, by a deeply interested American public. The text reads in full: “Atlanta, Georgia January 4, 1936 [but actually 1937] Dear Miss Scarlett: I have been away from town for a month and received no letters during my absence, so I am just now finishing your letter. Your name is so pretty that I wish I had thought of it for it would make a wonderful name for a character in a book. As to where I got the name Scarlett — that is a long story. Scarlett was not originally her name, and when I found it necessary to change her name I decided I wanted a two-syllable “family” name. I wanted a Georgia name too, but not a name ever borne by a family living in Clayton County. I didn’t wish to embarrass any present owners of the name who might be living now in this section of Georgia. The name Scarlett is a very well known and old name in our coast section near Savannah and Brunswick. After considering hundreds of names I chose it as I couldn’t find in the records of Clayton County that any family named Scarlett had ever lived there. It may interest you to know that the Scarlett family is a prominent one in Maryland. Sincerely, [signed] Margaret Mitchell [printed] Margaret Mitchell” Atlanta: np, 1936. One page on one sheet (7.25 x 11 in) of Mitchell's letterhead with her name printed in blue at top left. With original envelope postmarked Jan 5, 1937 from Atlanta and with Mitchell's address on back. Letter with usual folds, a few spots (around folds) but generally very good with signature particularly dark. Envelope with significant toning. Housed is custom presentation folder. References -Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “A Critic at Large: A Study in Scarlett.” The New Yorker, August 31, 1992, p. 87.
No image available

The Book of Household Management... also Sanitary, Medical, & Legal Memoranda; with a History of the Origin, Properties, and Uses of all Things connected with Home Life and Comfort by Beeton, Isabella Mary

7 to 14 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $15.75
Details
$3,000.00
( US$)
Seller: Rabelais - Fine Books on Food & Drink
Title
The Book of Household Management... also Sanitary, Medical, & Legal Memoranda; with a History of the Origin, Properties, and Uses of all Things connected with Home Life and Comfort
Author
Beeton, Isabella Mary
Seller
Rabelais - Fine Books on Food & Drink (United States)
Description
London: S.O. Beeton, 248, Strand, W.C.; Cox & Wyman, Printers, 1861. One volume rebound in two; small octavos (17.2 x 10.8 cm.), xxxix, [1]-512; [513]-1112 pages. Illustrated with a color frontispiece and engraved title, with twelve additional color plates, and with engravings in the text. FIRST EDITION, first impression in book form (with "18 Bouverie St." on the illustrated title page). Preceded by the very rare issue in twenty-four monthly parts, issued November 1859-1861. ~ Perhaps the most famous of English cookery books, and the one most emblematic of Victorian home life. The Book of Household Management is not only exhaustive, with two thousand seven hundred and fifty one recipes, formulas, and instructions for all aspects of household management, it also is one of the earliest cookbooks to use color illustration (Bitting). The twelve color plates are from the first issue, before the salmon colored background was added. It is also one of the earliest cookbooks – certainly on this scale – to use the standard recipe format which is now expected, with ingredients first, followed by step-by-step instructions. ~ Rebound in mid-twentieth century three quarter morocco over red cloth boards, decoratively gilt-ruled; spine with five raised bands, gilt-paneled and titled. Top edges stained black. Pages 887-888 slightly frayed at the outer margin. A very good copy. [OCLC records fifty-eight copies; Bitting, page 32; Cagle 561 (also see 560a); not in Vicaire].

Hang on… we’re fetching the requested page.