On this day in 1937, Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" won the Pulitzer Award for fiction. The book was first published in 1936 and was an immediate besteller. The novel depicts the life of Scarlett O'Hara, a daughter of a wealthy plantation owner as she wrestles with love and poverty during the Reconstruction era. According to a 2008 Harris Poll, "Gone With the Wind" is the nation's 2nd most popular book after the Bible. A wildly popular film adaption of the book was realeased in 1939 starring Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh. Love it or hate it, "Gone With the Wind" remains one of the best loved books in America.
For those who want a different view of Southern life during Reconstruction, try Alice Randall's parody "The Wind Done Gone" which tells the story of Scarlett's enslaved half-sister.
