Editing Margaret Mitchell (section)

==School life==
{{Quote box
 |quote  = '''''Fancy Dress Masquerade'''''

Seventy girls and boys were the guests of Miss Margaret Mitchell at a fancy dress masquerade yesterday afternoon at the home of her parents Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Mitchell on Peachtree street and the occasion was beautiful and enjoyable.

There was a prize for guessing the greatest number of identities under the masks, and another for the guest who best concealed his or her identity.

The pretty young hostess was a demure Martha Washington in flowered crepe gown over a pink silk petticoat and her powdered hair was worn high.

Mrs. Mitchell wore a ruby velvet gown.

| source = ''The Constitution'', Atlanta, November 21, 1914.
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While the [[World War I|Great War]] carried on in Europe (1914–1918), Margaret Mitchell attended Atlanta's Washington Seminary (now [[The Westminster Schools]]), a "fashionable" private girls' school with an enrollment of over 300 students.<ref>Sargent, Porter E. ''A Handbook of the Best Private Schools of the United States and Canada''. Boston: P.E Sargent, 1915. Vol. 1, p. 150.</ref><ref name="seven sisters"/>{{rp|49}} She was very active in the Drama Club.<ref>Bartley, N.V., ''The Evolution of Southern Culture'', p. 94.</ref>  Mitchell played the male characters:  [[Nick Bottom]] in [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' and Launcelot Gobbo in Shakespeare's ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'', among others. She wrote a play about snobbish college girls that she acted in as well.<ref name="before"/>{{rp|138}} She also joined the Literary Club and had two stories published in the yearbook:   ''Little Sister'' and ''Sergeant Terry''.<ref name="before"/>{{rp|163 & 207}} Ten-year-old "Peggy" is the heroine in ''Little Sister''. She hears her older sister being raped and shoots the rapist:<ref name=autogenerated4 />

<blockquote>Coldly, dispassionately she viewed him, the chill steel of the gun giving her confidence. She must not miss now—she would not miss—and she did not.<ref name="before"/>{{rp|204}}</blockquote>

Mitchell received encouragement from her English teacher, Mrs. Paisley, who recognized her writing talent.<ref>Edwards, Anne. ''Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell''. New Haven: Tichnor and Fields, 1983. Photo section between p. 178-179. {{ISBN|0-89919-169-X}}</ref>  A demanding teacher, Paisley told her she had ability if she worked hard and would not be careless in constructing sentences. A sentence, she said, must be "complete, concise and coherent".<ref name="daughter"/>{{rp|84}}

Mitchell read the books of [[Thomas Dixon, Jr.]], and in 1916, when the silent film, ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'', was showing in Atlanta, she dramatized Dixon's ''The Traitor:  A Story of the Fall of the Invisible Empire'' (1907).<ref>Dixon, Jr., Thomas. ''The Traitor: a story of the fall of the invisible empire''. New York:  Doubleday, Page & Co, 1907. {{OCLC|2410927}}</ref><ref>[http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/dixon/summary.html Summary of The Traitor:  A Story of the Fall of the Invisible Empire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404122244/http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/dixon/summary.html |date=April 4, 2012 }}. Retrieved July 22, 2012.</ref><ref>Bartley, N.V., ''The Evolution of Southern Culture'', p. 93.</ref><ref>Slide, Anothony. ''American Racist: the life and films of Thomas Dixon'', Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2004. p.192. {{ISBN|0-8131-2328-3}}</ref>  As both playwright and actress, she took the role of Steve Hoyle.<ref name="lost"/>{{rp|14–15}} For the production, she made a [[Ku Klux Klan]] costume from a white crepe dress and wore a boy's wig.<ref name="before"/>{{rp|131–132}}  (Note:  Dixon rewrote ''The Traitor'' as ''The Black Hood'' (1924) and  Steve Hoyle was renamed George Wilkes.)<ref>Slide, A., ''American Racist:  the life and films of Thomas Dixon'', p. 170.</ref><ref>Dixon, Jr., Thomas. ''The Black Hood''. New York:  D. Appleton and Co., 1924. {{OCLC|1049244}}</ref>

During her years at [[Washington Seminary (Atlanta)|Washington Seminary]], Mitchell's brother, Stephens, was away studying at [[Harvard College]] (1915–1917), and he left in May 1917 to enlist in the army, about a month after the U.S. declared war on Germany. He set sail for France in April 1918, participated in engagements in the Lagny and Marbache sectors, then returned to Georgia in October as a training instructor.<ref>Mead, Frederick Sumner. ''Harvard's Military Record in the World War'', Boston, MA: The Harvard Alumni Association, 1921. p. 669. {{OCLC|1191594}}</ref>  While Margaret and her mother were in New York in September 1918 preparing for Margaret to attend college, Stephens wired his father that he was safe after his ship had been torpedoed en route to New York from France.<ref>[http://athnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/athnewspapers/view?docId=news/ahd1918/ahd1918-1677.xml&query=margaret%20mitchell&brand=athnewspapers-brand "News of Society"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502032846/http://athnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/athnewspapers/view?docId=news/ahd1918/ahd1918-1677.xml&query=margaret%20mitchell&brand=athnewspapers-brand |date=May 2, 2014 }} E. W. Carroll (September 19, 1918) ''Athens Daily Herald'', p. 3. Retrieved February 26, 2013.</ref>

Stephens Mitchell thought college was the "ruination of girls".<ref name="daughter"/>{{rp|106}} However, May Belle Mitchell placed a high value on education for women and she wanted her daughter's future accomplishments to come from using her mind. She saw education as Margaret's weapon and "the key to survival".<ref name="seven sisters" /><ref name=autogenerated8 /> The classical college education she desired for her daughter was one that was on par with men's colleges, and this type of education was available only at northern schools. Her mother chose [[Smith College]] in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]] for Margaret because she considered it to be the best women's college in the United States.<ref name="seven sisters"/>{{rp|13–14}}

Upon graduating from Washington Seminary in June 1918, Mitchell fell in love with a Harvard graduate, a young army lieutenant, Clifford West Henry,<ref>Edwards, A., ''Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell'', p. 46-48.</ref> who was chief bayonet instructor at [[Camp Gordon (World War I)|Camp Gordon]] from May 10 until the time he set sail for France on July 17.<ref name=autogenerated10 />  Henry was "slightly effeminate", "ineffectual", and "rather effete-looking" with "homosexual tendencies", according to biographer [[Anne Edwards]]. Before departing for France, he gave Mitchell an engagement ring.<ref>Edwards, A., ''Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell'', p. 47-48 & 54.</ref>

On September 14, while she was enrolled at Smith College, Henry was mortally wounded in action in France and died on October 17.<ref name=autogenerated10>Mead, F.S., ''Harvard's Military Record in the World War'', p. 450.</ref> As Henry waited in the Verdun trenches, shortly before being wounded, he composed a poem on a leaf torn from his field notebook, found later among his effects. The last stanza of Lieutenant Clifford W. Henry's poem follows:
<blockquote><poem>
If "out of luck" at duty's call
In glorious action I should fall
    At God's behest,

May those I hold most dear and best
Know I have stood the acid test
    Should I "go West."<ref>Harvard Alumni Association, ''Harvard Alumni Bulletin'', May 8, 1919, Vol. 21, No. 31, p. 645.</ref>
</poem></blockquote>
{{Quote box
 |quote  = '''''General Edwards Presents Medal'''''[[File:Flag of the United States.svg|50px|right]] [[File:Army distinguished service cross medal.png|50px|left]]
Mrs. Ira Henry of Sound Beach was presented the Distinguished Service medal from the War department today in honor of her son, Captain Clifford W. Henry for bravery under fire during the World war. The medal, recommended by General Pershing, was presented by Major General Edwards.

Captain Henry, who during the war was a lieutenant with Co.F, 102nd infantry, captured the town of Vignuelles, nine kilometers inside the Hindenburg line on September 13, 1918. Lieutenant Henry and 50 of his men were killed the next day by a terrific explosion in the town. Captain Henry was a graduate of Harvard University.

| source = ''The Bridgeport Telegram'', July 4, 1927.
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Henry repeatedly advanced in front of the platoon he commanded, drawing machine-gun fire so that the German nests could be located and wiped out by his men. Although wounded in the leg in this effort, his death was the result of shrapnel wounds from an air bomb dropped by a German plane.<ref>Harvard Alumni Association, ''Harvard Alumni Bulletin'', April 10, 1919, Vol. 21, No. 27, p. 539.</ref>  He was awarded the French ''[[Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (France)|Croix de guerre]] avec palme'' for his acts of heroism. From the President of the United States, the [[Commander in Chief]] of the [[United States Armed Forces]], he was presented with the [[Distinguished Service Cross (United States)|Distinguished Service Cross]] and an [[Oak Leaf Cluster]] in lieu of a second Distinguished Service Cross.<ref name=autogenerated10 /><ref>[http://militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/recipient.php?recipientid=27088 Valor awards for Clifford West Henry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104084838/http://www.militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/recipient.php?recipientid=27088 |date=November 4, 2013 }}  Retrieved January 20, 2012.</ref>

Clifford Henry was the great love of Margaret Mitchell's life, according to her brother.<ref>Edwards, A., ''Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell'', p. 54.</ref> In a letter  to a friend (A. Edee, March 26, 1920), Mitchell wrote of Clifford that she had a "memory of a love that had in it no trace of physical passion".<ref>Mitchell, M., et al., ''A Dynamo Going to Waste: Letters to Allen Edee, 1919–1921'', p. 75-76.</ref>

Mitchell had vague aspirations of a career in psychiatry,<ref name=autogenerated12>Pierpont, Claudia Roth. "A Critic at Large: A Study in Scarlett." ''The New Yorker'', August 31, 1992, p. 93-94.</ref> but her future was derailed by an event that killed over fifty million people worldwide, the [[1918 flu pandemic]]. On January 25, 1919, her mother, May Belle Mitchell, succumbed to pneumonia from the "Spanish flu". Mitchell arrived home from college a day after her mother had died. Knowing her death was imminent, May Belle Mitchell wrote her daughter a brief letter and advised her:

<blockquote>Give of yourself with both hands and overflowing heart, but give only the excess after you have lived your own life.<ref name=autogenerated12 /></blockquote>

An average student at Smith College, Mitchell did not excel in any area of academics. She held a low estimation of her writing abilities. Even though her English professor had praised her work, she felt the praise was undue.<ref>Edwards, A., ''Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell'', p. 56 & 60.</ref>  After finishing her freshman year at Smith, Mitchell returned to Atlanta to take over the household for her father and never returned to college.<ref name=autogenerated12 /> In October 1919, while regaining her strength after an [[appendectomy]], she confided to a friend that giving up college and her dreams of a "journalistic career" to keep house and take her mother's place in society meant "giving up all the worthwhile things that counted for—nothing!"<ref>Mitchell, M., et al., ''A Dynamo Going to Waste: Letters to Allen Edee, 1919–1921'', p. 30 & 42.</ref>