From Publishers Weekly
Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949), author of Gone With the Wind , jilted her kind, protective suitor, John Marsh, and instead married Red Upshaw, an unstable bootlegger who physically abused her. Even after she divorced Upshaw, Mitchell, according to Walker, was a confused romantic who in many ways resembled her heroine, Scarlett O'Hara. A "classic demanding-dependent personality," Mitchell found more than a supportive fatherly mate in public relations executive Marsh, whom she finally married in 1925. Walker, a professor of English and philosophy at the University of Kentucky-Henderson Community College, reveals that Marsh played a vital role in the creation of Mitchell's classic Civil War saga. He offered key ideas and advice, continuously edited the manuscript as his wife wrote it, and helped with the revision. Walker quotes liberally from the couple's letters and also draws on interviews, family papers and archival research to tell a moving love story of a symbiotic union that lasted 24 years. A remarkable piece of detective work. Photos. 25,000 first printing; author tour. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Through her exclusive access to over 200 of Mitchell's and Marsh's personal letters and a close association with some surviving members of their family, Walker succeeds in presenting a fresh, exciting account of the complex, intertwined aspects of the lives of this celebrated writer and her less well known spouse. GWTW was Mitchell's great singular achievement, and the uncertain extent to which Marsh may have written as well as edited the celebrated novel might easily be viewed in today's terminology as being dramatically "codependent." But Walker brings an intriguing perspective to the personal and professional interplay during their long marriage, revealing Marsh's doting attachment to his wife and, in turn, her reliance upon him in all aspects of her life and work. This appealing portrait of a marriage is certain to generate interest among Mitchell's legions of fans. Alice Joyce


From Kirkus Reviews
Perhaps it's only to be expected that the love story of John Marsh and Margaret Mitchell should be--at least as described here- -as romantic as the colossus it produced. Drawing on a cache of family letters and memorabilia, as well as on numerous interviews, Kentucky professor Walker exhaustively examines the loving 24-year marriage (begun in 1925) between two dissimilar but complementary figures. As she details Mitchell and Marsh's early lives, their first meeting, and their bumpy courtship--Mitchell married and divorced another man in the midst of it--Walker also shows that ``Marsh's deep attachment to Margaret Mitchell was pivotal to her work and life.'' A journalist and advertising man, Marsh provided the ``technical skills, the self- discipline or the confidence'' that transformed Mitchell's ideas into the completed manuscript of Gone with the Wind. Meanwhile, though deeply insecure and plagued by ailments both real and imagined, Mitchell had all the necessary ``fiery imagination, the hardy attachment to her environment and raw material'' that a writer needs. While Marsh worked long hours editing at night and on weekends, Mitchell, when well enough, wrote and researched the history. Marsh himself was often ill, and what's so dispiriting about the pair's story is that though Gone with the Wind brought them fame and tremendous fortune, it seems to have brought them little joy. Hounded by the press and public, the couple lived modestly and traveled rarely. The novel became a demanding incubus, the child they never had, as Mitchell dealt with correspondence and Marsh took charge of the business and legal sides--a full-time job in itself. A cautionary tale of excess--too much devotion, too much fame, and, here, occasionally too much detail--that's an informative and thoughtful addition to the ongoing saga of Gone With The Wind (which includes, for those more interested in Mitchell than Mitchell-Marsh, Darden Asbury Pyron's outstanding Southern Daughter, 1991). (Sixty photographs--not seen) (First printing of 25,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Associated Press
...Marianne Walker has carefully documented the marriage that yielded the most successful Old South love story ever.

FROM OUR EDITORS

A fascinatingportrait of Mitchell, her husband & editor, John Marsh, & their "baby" of epic proportions, Gone With the Wind. B&W photos.

ANNOTATION

In telling the private story of the remarkable 24-year marriage of Mitchell and Marsh, Walker has used hundreds of the couple's previously unpublished letters and has conducted interviews with many relatives, friends, and co-workers of the couple. 60 photos.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In telling the private story of the remarkable 24-year marriage of Mitchell and Marsh, Walker has used hundreds of the couple's previously unpublished letters and has conducted interviews with many relatives, friends, and co-workers of the couple. 60 photos.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949), author of Gone With the Wind , jilted her kind, protective suitor, John Marsh, and instead married Red Upshaw, an unstable bootlegger who physically abused her. Even after she divorced Upshaw, Mitchell, according to Walker, was a confused romantic who in many ways resembled her heroine, Scarlett O'Hara. A ``classic demanding-dependent personality,'' Mitchell found more than a supportive fatherly mate in public relations executive Marsh, whom she finally married in 1925. Walker, a professor of English and philosophy at the University of Kentucky-Henderson Community College, reveals that Marsh played a vital role in the creation of Mitchell's classic Civil War saga. He offered key ideas and advice, continuously edited the manuscript as his wife wrote it, and helped with the revision. Walker quotes liberally from the couple's letters and also draws on interviews, family papers and archival research to tell a moving love story of a symbiotic union that lasted 24 years. A remarkable piece of detective work. Photos. 25,000 first printing; author tour. (Oct.)

BookList - Alice Joyce