Editing Gone with the Wind (novel) (section)

===Reviews===
The sales of Margaret Mitchell's novel in the summer of 1936, as the nation was recovering from the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] and at the virtually unprecedented price of three dollars, reached about 1 million by the end of December.<ref name=autogenerated90 /> The book was a bestseller when reviews began appearing in national magazines.<ref name=autogenerated65 /> Herschel Brickell, a critic for the ''New York Evening Post'', lauded Mitchell for the way she "tosses out the window all the thousands of technical tricks our novelists have been playing with for the past twenty years."<ref>Pierpont, C.R., ''A Critic at Large: A Study in Scarlett'', p. 88.</ref>

Ralph Thompson, a book reviewer for ''The New York Times'', was critical of the length of the novel and wrote in June 1936:<blockquote>I happen to feel that the book would have been infinitely better had it been edited down to say, 500 pages, but there speaks the harassed daily reviewer as well as the would-be judicious critic. Very nearly every reader will agree, no doubt, that a more disciplined and less prodigal piece of work would have more nearly done justice to the subject-matter.<ref>[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/print/ababgwtw/Mitchrev.html "Books of the Times: ''Gone With the Wind'' by Margaret Mitchell"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604232010/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/PRINT/ababgwtw/Mitchrev.html |date=June 4, 2011 }}, Ralph Thompson, (June 30, 1936) ''The New York Times''. Retrieved May 13, 2011.</ref></blockquote>Some reviewers compared the book to [[William Makepeace Thackeray|William Thackeray]]'s ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'' and [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s ''[[War and Peace]]''. Mitchell claimed [[Charles Dickens]] as an inspiration and called ''Gone with the Wind'' a "'[[Victorian era|Victorian]]' type novel."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/gone-wind-novel|title=Gone With the Wind (Novel)|last=McAlexander|first=Hubert H.|date=January 20, 2004|website=New Georgia Encyclopedia|access-date=April 25, 2019}}</ref>[[File:Gone with the Wind three dollars.jpg|thumbnail|Mitchell worried the high $3.00 price would ruin its chance for success. When Mary Louise received this copy from Mother and Dad in December 1937, the novel was the best American fiction bestseller for the second year.<ref>Brown, E., et al., ''Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller's Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood'', Taylor Trade Publishing, pp. 44 & 167.</ref>]]

[[Helen Keller]] read the 12-volume Braille edition. The book brought her fond memories of her Southern infancy, but she also felt sadness compared to what she knew about the South. Keller's father had enslaved people and fought as a Confederate captain, but Helen would later support the [[NAACP]] and the [[American Civil Liberties Union|ACLU]].<ref name="Nielsen2007">{{cite journal| title=The Southern Ties of Helen Keller| year=2007| last=Nielsen| first=Kim E.| journal=Journal of Southern History| volume=73| issue=4| url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242408791|url-access=registration |doi=10.2307/27649568 |jstor=27649568 |jstor-access=free| page =800 }}</ref>