Mitchell margaret

1882 · 176004 — Boston: Ginn Heath & Co. 1882. A glimpse into Mitchell's family life and thwarted education A resonant literary artefact from a formative period of Mitchell's life: her family's copy of a dictionary used in her early days at Smith College and inscribed by her upon enrolment. A gift from her father a prominent Atlanta lawyer and historian it is inscribed by both generations on the front pastedown: "Margaret Mitchell Smith College Sept. 24 1918" and above her father's inscription from his own university days: "Eugene Muse Mitchell University of Georgia December 15 1882". Both father and daughter have practised their signatures elsewhere in the volume. It was Mitchell's suffragist mother May Belle Stephens Mitchell who encouraged her to attend Smith the prestigious female liberal arts school; she wanted her daughter to be educated as preparation for life's vagaries. May Belle loomed large as a figure of admiration and influence in Mitchell's early years but she did not live to witness the fruits of her daughter's schooling and the literary success of Gone with the Wind. In 1919 she died of influenza. This and the death of Mitchell's fiancé in action during the First World War prompted Mitchell to abandon her studies after her freshman year. She left Massachusetts and returned to the South to assume a role in her family's household supporting her father and stepping into her mother's role of a society hostess. 2 works in 1 octavo 188 x 140 mm presumably issued thus. Early 20th-century black textured coated cloth cloth labels lettered in manuscript. Housed in a custom green half morocco slipcase. Annotations to rear blank and throughout in an unidentified hand. Spines ends worn repair to covers inner hinges strengthened with linen spine labels toned and lifting slightly couple of small damp stains to edges loss to lower outer corner of first title page small tear to pp. 246-7 in second work contents toned. hardcover