Gone with but not forgotten Wind
The most famous scene from "Gone with the Wind". Grew up all my life with this in my background not because of just the epic movie but the author Margaret Mitchell and the scandalous affair that she had with my grandfather. "Henry Love Angel". The grandfather I never knew because he had passed from difficulties from pneumonia. The truth be known was he had passed from an Alcohol binge and could never be revived.
When I was younger, I used to play with all the memorabilia that was stored in an attic. Stored in a grand old trunk. There was a piano shawl, peu de sois pumps made with the finest silk and scads of photos of some woman and my grandfather in all kinds of settings with both and friends at various locations all over Atlanta. There was a an old essay book that had hand written paragraphs or sentences some legible, some faded. Labeled the "Lost Laysen" . I tried to read it but there were also letters that were written from Margaret to Henry. Written to Peg (Mitchell's pen name) Bundles of them. Love letters, quick memos, and there was a ring. This was the ring I found out later was going to be Margaret's engagement ring. She had turned him down after a 12 to 14 year fling from early teens to their 20's.
The Lost Laysen was written before Gone with the Wind. A story of love lost and a relationship that could never happen. A precursor before Gone With the Wind was written. My dad said that my Grandfather was Rhett and Margaret was Scarlett. Both of them from different backgrounds and a tragically ended love affair that according to my dad caused major issues in my family from my grandmother, father, uncles and on down the line always trying to cover up this story.
This is an excerpt from a paper writing a review and summary of my grandfather and Margie, as he called her. ANd actually Grandfather called her "Peg"
Angel was in love with Mitchell, a small, cute, creative young woman - more of a Southern Janeane Garofalo than Vivien Leigh - and was probably closer to her than her other four serious boyfriends. He proposed to her so many times, it became a joke among their friends.
In 1922, however, Mitchell declined Angel for good, marrying another member of their circle, Red Upshaw.
On a side note: My mom had that ring that Grandfather proposed with sized and wore it for many years until she got older and one of the caregivers that I hired to take care of my Mom when I worked stole the ring. It upset my Mom for many years. She never forgot that moment....
As a piece of juvenilia, Lost Laysen will neither enhance nor detract from Mitchell's reputation.
It tells the story of Billy Duncan, a rough Irish seaman in the South Pacific, who falls in love with an independent-minded, upper-crust young missionary, Courtney Ross. Her fiance, the wealthy Douglas Steele, has followed her to the islands.
An evil Japanese crime lord develops a passion for Courtney, to the dismay of both men. Events come to a tragic conclusion during a volcanic eruption on the island of Laysen.
As Freer notes in her introduction, Lost Laysen is a remarkably assured piece of work for a writer so young - a well-structured, sustained narrative.
Like Gone With the Wind, it features a love triangle, a strong-willed heroine, antiquated ideas of honor and themes of loss.
Alas, Lost Laysen also shares Gone With the Wind's racist attitudes. Japanese and Polynesian characters are portrayed as vicious and inferior to the Anglo-Saxon heroes.
In an editor's note, Freer attempts to apologize for this as a product of the time in which it was written.
But this is unconvincing in light of the notion of white superiority that pervades Gone With the Wind, Mitchell's mature work.
Poor Billy Duncan is patterned after Henry Love Angel, while Courtney Ross is given the first and last names of Mitchell's best friend. Like Scarlett O'Hara, however, the heroine is more like the author than anyone else.
Like Angel's, Duncan's love is unrequited. The story doesn't tell whether his eventual fate is as unhappy as Angel's.
Barely three months after Mitchell's wedding, Angel married and started a family. He drank and smoked heavily. In 1945, at the age of 44, he died, a victim of lung cancer, congestive heart failure and other maladies.
Angel never spoke of his relationship with Mitchell to his children, never tried to cash in on her celebrity, never bragged of the association.
As Freer remarks: "Perhaps it was for the sake of love and honor that Henry Love Angel kept silent."
The truth was when my Dad was putting together this deal, he did not listen to my advice on getting an agent and getting his own attorney to draw up the contract. Dad was paid approx $60,000 and the woman that was going to handle the whole deal said she would make sure it would be handled with care. She handled it for $1,000,000 dollars worth of care which my father never received any of that money. That was the only thing truly "Gone with the Wind". But whats done is done. My family scandal is out for the world to see... My father wanted me to be proud of my heritage.... Being true to me is being proud.
This blog is about inspiring and living life to the fullest. The deal with my Grandfather and father moved me to write about not giving up and being true to ourselves. I am not in the least ashamed by my grandfather. He went after Peg with a vengeance, proposed and moved on. He did what he wanted. Loved who he wanted and Peg never forgot. Instead of Gone with the Wind, a fresh breath of air moved in and embraced me. Chalk this up to another amazing adventure of love. Of love not lost but found. Cheers!