Beschreibung:

Typed letter signed "Margaret Mitchell Marsh" to Mr. Haggard, declining his proposal for her to write captions for a book of Civil War photographs, but writing at length on "the pictures of that sad era."
Atlanta: 15 October 1937. 1 p., single sheet of personal stationery (275 x 180 mm). Condition : usual folds. a wonderful mitchell letter on the art of civil war photography, written the year following the publication of gone with the wind. The letter begins with a reference to Gone With the Wind and a comment on her future as a writer: “I appreciate all the wonderful things you wrote me about my book. Thank you, too, for the very great compliment you paid me in wanting me to write captions of your book of Civil War photographs. It is with sincere regret that I must refuse. I am not doing any writing of any kind these days and I do not know when I will ever do any more…” The letter continues with a discussion of Civil War photography, recollecting looking at an album of Brady photographs as a child: “Yes, I know the pictures of that sad era. Among my earliest recollections are those Sunday afternoons spent in looking at a collection of Brady’s pictures owned by a Northern neighbor of ours … You are right about those old photographs. No one has ever approached their art and they made war more vivid and dirty and repulstive…” The letter concludes with Mitchell suggesting that he contact Clifford Dowdey to write the text.