A recent edition of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind published in the U.K. contains a warning about the novel’s contents, the Telegraph reports.
Mitchell’s novel, originally published in 1936, tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a Georgia woman born into wealth whose life is changed forever by Sherman’s March, the Union military campaign that destroyed much of Georgia during the Civil War. The book was adapted into one of the most iconic films of all time, directed by Victor Fleming and starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.
The novel and film have been criticized for their racist portrayals of the Civil War, slavery, and Black people. In 2020, HBO pulled the movie from its streaming service, reinstating it weeks later with an introductory video disclaimer.
An edition of the novel published last August by Pan Macmillan in the U.K. contains a warning at the beginning of the book, which reads in part, “Gone with the Wind is a novel which includes problematic elements including the romanticization of a shocking era in our history and the horrors of slavery.…We want to alert readers that there may be hurtful or indeed harmful phrases and terminology that were prevalent at the time this novel was written and which are true to the context of the historical setting of this novel.”
Pan Macmillan’s edition of the book also contains what it calls “an introductory essay offering a context to the novel” by historical novelist Philippa Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl).
The publisher said that Gregory, who is White, was chosen to write the essay because “we believed it was important that no author from a minority background should be asked to undertake the emotional labor of being responsible for educating the majority.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
