Margaret Mitchell
In April 1935, Latham launched a three-month literary tour through the U.S. in search of new authors, starting in Georgia. He met Margaret at a luncheon in his honor at the Atlanta Athletic Club and asked if he could read her manuscript. She was flattered but knew the awful shape her manuscript was in. The yellow paper had faded, and there were many changes made in pencil. She had different versions of some chapters, and she hadn't even written an opening chapter. Embarrassed, she denied that she had anything to show him. He gave her other opportunities to share her work, and she refused to discuss it each time. But she did promise that he would be the first to look at it when she was ready to show it. She thought this was an unlikely possibility. But then something happened that changed her mind -and her life- forever.
During the ride home from the teatime meeting, Margaret and a number of aspiring authors chatted about the evening's events and it was asked of Margaret why she hadn't given her book to Mr. Latham. She admitted that her writing wasn't any good and that she was ashamed of it. One of the writers remarked that she didn't think Margaret took life seriously enough to become a successful novelist, and found fault that the manuscript had never been rejected by a publisher. "I've been refused by the very best publishers. But my book is grand," she told Margaret. "Everybody says it will win the Pulitzer Prize. But, Peggy, I think you are wasting your time trying. You really aren't the type."
Margaret became angry and stayed that way when she arrived home. She grabbed up what manuscript she could lay her hands on, forgetting the envelopes that were under the bed and in the pot-and-pan closet. She then went to the hotel and caught Latham just as he was about to leave to catch the train. Having no room in his bags, he bought an extra suitcase to carry the large pile of envelopes that Margaret gave him.
When she cooled down Margaret realized what she had done. But by that time Latham was engrossed in her manuscript on a train bound for New Orleans. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Macmillan's spring 1936 catalog devoted a full page to announcing the novel's debut, but a typographical error escaped the eyes of its proofreaders, and it referred to the book as Come With The Wind.
Female authors were first introduced in the late 1800’s; nobody knew what to expect since women never
Instead of judging him, she tries to understand and fix it her own way, and it affects how he sees his writing: I feel guilty sometimes. Forty-three years old and I’m still writing war stories. My daughter Kathleen tells me it’s an obsession, that I should write about a little girl who finds a million dollars and spends it all on a Shetland pony. In a way I guess, she’s right; I should forget it.
fueled her later writing.” (Brantley, par. 3). This shows both people experiencing the situation of
...h. Some readers don’t even read the Epilogue, which in turn leaves her argument silent on the ears of some of her readers. Despite being in the epilogue, Turner brings out in great detail the events she thinks happened to the mysterious journal.
Writing a journal from the perspective of a fictional eighteenth century reader, a mother whose daughter is the age of Eliza's friends, will allow me to employ reader-response criticism to help answer these questions and to decipher the possible social influences and/or meanings of the novel. Though reader-response criticism varies from critic to critic, it relies largely on the idea that the reader herself is a valid critic, that her critique is influenced by time and place,...
She kept going back, again and again. She thought of clever plans that helped her trick the plantation owners. She would take the master horse for the first part of the journey. She would also leave on a Saturday night, since runaway notices couldn't be placed in newspapers until Monday morning. She would also carry a drug to use on a baby if crying might put them in danger.
In the book Margaret Sanger: A life of passion by Jean H. Baker. Margaret Sanger, the subject depicted in Baker’s novel Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion is one of the leading women in the fight for birth control. Born in 1879 to Irish immigrant parents in Corning, New York she is the 6th of 11 children. Her mother was a devout Catholic and had a total of 18 pregnancies in her 22 year marriage 11 of which were births and 7 were miscarriages. “My mother died at 48”, says Sanger “My father died at 80”. Her mother was a victim of tuberculosis not long after her last child was born. Sanger grew up in poverty and soon realized that bigger families were associated with lower means. Sanger was not one for domesticated duties and soon defied social norms and went to nursing school her aspirations included becoming a doctor. She did not complete nursing school she instead married William Sanger, an architect and artist. They settled into domestic life for a short time in the suburbs. Together they had three children, two sons and a daughter. Soon a fire consumed their home and this was the turning point for Sanger. The family then moved back to the city and Sanger became a nurse. Their daughter would later die of pneumonia at a very young age due to horrible conditions at her boarding school. The two older sons would eventually grow to blame Sanger for her death and she would divorce her husband and maintain the company of several men after. Despite the number of suitors she acquires she will be single when she dies.
Margaret Sanger was born in Corning, New York, on September 14, 1879. She was sixth child of her mother’s eleven children. Anne, her mother, suffered several miscarriages which lead Margaret to believe that is what caused her mother to have such poor health. Her father was a stonemason and did not support his family like he should have financially. She married William Sanger and had three children. They settled in New York City. She later separated from her husband and remarried James Noah H. Slee. He died in 1943. Margaret lived to be 86 and died in Tucson, Arizona, on September 6, 1966. Her life achievement of creating oral contraceptives is still appreciated by women everywhere today.
Noted by Darryl Hattenhauer, Shirley Jackson, an American gothic author, "ranked among America's most highly regarded fiction writers" during the "1940s, 1950s, and 1960s" (1). Jackson argued that “a good story must engage its reader, persuade him that he wants to belong in the story for as long as it lasts,” and if the author fails to provide such experience then they can consider their work a failure (Hall 113). The idea of authors providing an experience of enjoyment by involving them in the story, made Jackson a successful writer. She also believed that if an author is asked where their ideas come from they would simply “find [themselves] telling over, in some detail, the story of [their] life”, another reason why Jackson was a great writer (Hall 117). Jackson’s continuous refusal to agree with her mother’s beliefs about how women should portray themselves, repeated struggle against depression, and life as a wife/mother, influenced many of her stories.
Gwendolyn Brooks once said “I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it, and experiencing the challenge”. For some, writing may not be enjoyable or easy, but for Brooks writing was her life. Gwendolyn Brooks not only won countless awards, but also influenced the lives of several African Americans.
Margaret Sanger, born September 14, 1879, was a women’s rights activist who led the birth control movement and dedicated her life to fighting for access to sexual health information for women. The impact of her work can still be felt today as reproductive health is no longer a forbidden topic and access to birth control or other contraceptives is mainstream. Sanger fought for women to have access to sexual health information so they could properly educated themselves about the control they have over their own bodies. In order to understand where the world is now with sexual health, it is important to understand the world in which Sanger started her work.
During the early twentieth century, the rate of unwanted childbirth was very high. Women in poor neighborhoods lived their lives in an almost constant state of pregnancy. Margaret Sanger recognized the need for women to be able to control their childbearing. She believed that unintentional childbearing caused many problems. She felt it led to poverty, abuse, crime, alcoholism, and joblessness. She saw the effect it had on the women’s emotional states and decided to make a difference. She provided women with the means and the knowledge to control their offspring. She gave them hope.
In 1942, Margaret Walker won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for her poem For My People. This accomplishment heralded the beginning of Margaret Walker’s literary career which spanned from the brink of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s to the cusp of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s (Gates and McKay 1619). Through her fiction and poetry, Walker became a prominent voice in the African-American community. Her writing, especially her signature novel, Jubilee, exposes her readers to the plight of her race by accounting the struggles of African Americans from the pre-Civil War period to the present and ultimately keeps this awareness relevant to contemporary American society.
Griffin, Susan. “Our Secret.” 1992. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. 9th ed. Ed.
Throughout her life Virginia Woolf became increasingly interested in the topic of women and fiction, which is highly reflected in her writing. To understand her piece, A Room of One’s Own Room, her reader must understand her. Born in early 1882, Woolf was brought into an extremely literature driven, middle-class family in London. Her father was an editor to a major newspaper company and eventually began his own newspaper business in his later life. While her mother was a typical Victorian house-wife. As a child, Woolf was surrounded by literature. One of her favorite pastimes was listening to her mother read to her. As Woolf grew older, she was educated by her mother, and eventually a tutor. Due to her father’s position, there was always famous writers over the house interacting with the young Virginia and the Woolf’s large house library.