Lot 374

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Description:

Margaret Mitchell TLS to Kin of Housekeeper Said to Be Model For Mammy in GWTW

A typed letter signed from "Gone With the Wind" author, Margaret Mitchell, to a member of her staff. 2pp, measuring 7.25" x 10.5", Atlanta, Georgia, dated January 7, 1948. Signed "Peggy Mitchell Marsh" and addressed to Deon Ward Rutledge, the daughter of her head housekeeper, Bessie Jordan. Mitchell writes to discuss a misdirected check, as well as provide an update on her husband's health and a humorous anecdote about their cat. House in a custom red cloth and Lucite presentation folder. With flattened mail folds and light toning. Large and bold signature. Overall very fine.

In part:
"...I am so sorry that there has been a mixup about your standby money. Here is all I know about the whole affair. On December 9th I mailed to you, air mail, a check for $24, which covered the period from October 28th to December 23rd. This was 8 weeks and I was paying you in advance because I thought you might need the Christmas money... there was no one by that name at that address. Bessie gave me your new address and I put the letter, without opening it, into another envelope and sent it off, air mail. This second envelope has not been returned... If you have already cashed the check, please tell me. If you haven't cashed it, please return it to me. I am enclosing in this letter a money order for $30... We are all well and Mr. Marsh continues to improve and to be able to do a little more each day. He went to a party the Historical Society gave last Sunday and stayed nearly an hour. The crowd tired him out and he had to leave early, but he enjoyed it. Maud is a large lovely cat now and has very bad manners. She will not leave the potted plants alone and we have spent the holiday season beating her off the poinsettias and cyclamen which nice people gave us for presents. She continues to like to sit in the kitchen sink and play with the dripping water, and we have to keep the bathtub filled to a depth above her head or else she gets in and paddles. Then she wants to climb up on Mr. Marsh with her wet fur and strop herself dry on him. We miss you very much and we'd like to hear from you..."

Mitchell was extremely fond of Bessie Jordan and her daughter Deon, and repeatedly demonstrated her concern for their welfare. In 1947, when Deon was enduring a difficult period in her life, the author sent her to New York for a week's vacation. After she expressed a wish to stay for a year in the city, Mitchell obliged and sent her a weekly paycheck, which she called 'stand-by pay'. Following her untimely death in 1949, Bessie and Deon were the first people named in her will: 'I want Bessie Jordan and her daughter, Deon Berry Ward, to have the house and lot of 446 Ripley Street... which they now occupy... What ever they owe on the house, I don't want them to pay it. I want the property to be theirs with no further payment to me, my heirs, or my Estate..' Although some have speculated that the character of Mammy was based on Bessie Jordan, Mitchell repeatedly denied any of her characters in the novel were based on real people save for Prissy, whom she confessed was based on one of the housekeepers in her parents' home.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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