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Two pages, on her personal stationery, 64 lines, approx. 375 words. 1 vols. 4to. Margaret Mitchell s novel Gone with the Wind was the colossal best seller of the twentieth century, selling more than a million copies within months of its appearance in 1936. David O. Selznick bought the film rights soon after publication but the film version was not released until December 1939. The Nordic lands were among the first to secure translation rights, and a Danish edition, Borte med Blæsten, illustrated by Axel Mathiesen, was published in the autumn of 1937. It was a publishing sensation in Denmark (population under one million at the time): the first printing of 10,000 copies sold out almost immediately and went back to press. A cordial and informative letter of appreciation reading (in part): "My dear Mr. Mathiesen: "Your original illustrations arrived on Christmas Eve, and they gave more pleasure than I can express to you on paper. How very kind you were to send them! I was happy enough to have copies, and I am overwhelmed at having the originals. I shall frame them with great care and hang them on the wall of my living room above the divan, where all my visitors can see and admire them. You were very generous to part with them. I am sure if I had been the artist I could never have been as generous. […] "Gone With the Wind" is still enjoying a remarkable sale at the original price and, naturally, my publishers, The Macmillan Company, see no reason why a cheap edition should be published. I told Mr. Hasselbalch that my American publishers had seen the Danish edition with your illustrations, for I had presented copies to Mr. George P. Brett, Junior, the president, and Mr. Harold Latham, the vice president. They were both charmed with your pictures. Furthermore, I told Mr. Hasselbalch that I thought it would be well for him, as my Danish publisher, to communicate directly with Mr. Brett, my American publisher, about the matter of using your illustrations in some future edition. "[…] I learn with some interest that the film of "Gone With the Wind," which has been delayed for a year now, will probably be begun on February 1st. I have no connection with the picture and am not responsible for anything in it, but, of course, I am interested. As yet the moving picture producers have not announced what actors and actresses will play Rhett and Scarlett. The public, however, believes that Clark Gable will be cast as Rhett." Mitchell sent Mathiesen a carbon of her detailed letter to Danish publisher Steen Hasselbalch expressing appreciation for the drawings, describing her belated Christmas gift, old Confederate currency with the poem "Lines on the Back of a Confederate Note", and suggesting that the publisher might wish to take out American copyright on Mathiesen s drawings to prevent piracy. Fine. With mailing envelope and a carbon copy of Mitchell s letter of same date to publisher Hasselbalch Two pages, on her personal stationery, 64 lines, approx. 375 words. 1 vols. 4to.
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