Margaret Mitchell, Reporter
Allen offers a collection of writing by one of America's most famous authors before she wroteGone with the Wind, when she made a modest living for four years as a reporter with theAtlanta Journal. Allen recounts the editor's reluctance to hire Mitchell, a society debutante with no reporting experience. Mitchell overcame his skepticism and went on to write features, news stories, and book reviews, as well as the fashion and society news she'd been hired to write. The collection provides a glimpse of the sensibilities of comfortable white Southern society during the period. Mitchell chronicles cultural changes from hemlines to popular music and slang. Her reporting style was breezy and engaging, but she had an eye for real news as well. A story about a wealthy fashionable woman's recent return from a European vacation included an eyewitness account of Mussolini seizing control of Italy. Then, too, this collection offers some insights into Mitchell's development as a writer and a look at the cultural context in which she lived before writing her historic novel.Vanessa BushCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.