Almost 80 years after the publication of Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel Gone With The Wind, the character we all know as Mammy, is finally getting her own back story – in book form… at least for now.
Simon & Schuster imprint Atria, announced today that it will publish Ruth’s Journey: The Story of Mammy from Gone with the Wind, a fictional telling of the life of one of the original novel’s central characters – Mammy, who otherwise remains nameless.
Donald McCaig, the award-winning author of the Civil War-set Jacob’s Ladder, and who was also chosen by the Margaret Mitchell estate to write Rhett Butler’s People, the authorized sequel to Gone With the Wind, is the author of Ruth’s Journey.
This prequel, which is also authorized by Mitchell’s estate, will track Scarlett O’Hara’s no-nonsense servant’s life from her birthplace – the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti – to Savannah, GA. in the early 19th century.
The upcoming 416-page novel will reportedly tackle, head on, criticisms Margaret Mitchell faced over her novel, including romanticizing antebellum life, as well as the one-dimensional depictions of the black characters in her original novel, starting, of course, with Mammy, who was immortalized on film in 1939 by Hattie McDaniel, in a performance that saw her become the first black actor/actress to win an Academy Award.
The first two-thirds of Ruth’s Journey will be written in the 3rd person, and the last third in Ruth’s own tongue.
Naturally, with the publication of this prequel (it’s set to hit bookstores in October), the question that immediately comes to mind, is whether a film adaptation will follow – especially as movies set during the particular era the novel takes place, are seemingly in favor right now.
An announcement of one certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
You can preorder a copy of the hardcover HERE at a cost of $22.