I was so excited for Scarlett to be released as a book. Finally, Rhett and Scarlett back together. I had read Alexander Ripley's other historical fiction books and enjoyed them. Scarlett was a disappointment. I didn't even bother with the mini-series when it was on TV. Then Rhett Butler's People came out, and the thought of perhaps learning more about the enigma that is Rhett intrigued me. Short on reading time and with a long commute, I checked it out from the library as an audio book, and nearly rear-ended the car in front of me, as Rhett mused about magnolias and whippoorwills on his way to the duel with the silly girl's brother. I suffered through the entire book, rallying against McCaig's complete and utter ignorance of details in Gone With The Wind, that he either changed or left-out completely. It was annoying to say the least. I did not even bother with Ruth's Journey, the prequel from Mammy's perspective. Pat Conroy was originally approached to write Rhett Butler's story. Which seemed to be a great match and was written up in New York Times. Pat clashed too much with the estate, who he felt was censoring his work, so quit. One suspects his Rhett would've been more interesting and like the actual character. Pat grew up on Gone With The Wind, and wrote a great essay about it's influence on his mother's life that is the preface of the 75th Anniversary edition of the novel. NPR interviewed him about the book and his essay. A brief excerpt of the preface is included.
There have been numerous other attempts to write screenplays and novels for Gone With The Wind, but the conservators of the Mitchell Estate are notoriously conservative, and have successfully blocked most "unauthorized" sequels. The exception being The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall. The Mitchell estate sued to stop the publication of the book. An appeals court overturned a lower courts injunction saying The Wind Done Gone was a parody and therefore protected by free speech. The Mitchell Estate is only one of many estates, and corporations who take an interest in copyright. Previously, a book, film, or other copyrighted work entered the Public Domain 50 years after the author's death, but in 1998 the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act was passed by congress (yes, that Sonny, Cher's ex) and signed by former President Clinton which extended copyright to 70 years after the authors death. The Copyright Extension Act was challenged in Eldred vs. Ashcroft, a case that went to the Supreme Court, and was decided 7 to 2 in favor of Congress having the constitutional ability to change copyright retroactively. The Washington Post 2013 article "15 years ago Congress kept Mickey Mouse out of Public domain. Will they do it again?" discusses the impact this bill had on businesses, individuals, and concepts such as fair use. The Copyright Extension Act ends in 2019, which means there is a slim chance Gone With The Wind will finally enter the public domain.
Despite the questionable estate approved sequels, there are many good sequels, prequels, and alternate universe stories on fanfiction.net Too bad the estate won't let any of these be published.
