Book excerpt: Margaret Mitchell was as complex and compelling as her legendary heroine, Scarlett O’Hara, and her story is as dramatic as anything out of her own imagination—indeed, it is the basis for the legend she created. Gone With the Wind took the American reading public by storm and went on to become the most popular motion picture of all time. It was a phenomenon whose success has never been equaled—and it shattered Margaret Mitchell’s private life. In this commemorative reprint of Road to Tara, Anne Edwards tells the real story of Margaret Mitchell and the extraordinary novel that has become part of our heritage.