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World War II-dated TLS signed “Margaret Mitchell Marsh,” two pages, 7.25 x 10.5, personal letterhead, May 25, 1945. Lengthy letter to Mrs. Busey, in full: “Please forgive me for delaying this long in answering your letter. I have not been well. I was delighted to hear the good news about the Library and to know that you are ‘really going places.’ I am trusting you and the other members of the Board to let me know if the Library ever gets in a tight and needs assistance. Those of you who have kept it going through good times and bad and war times and peace, certainly deserve a lot of credit.
I notice in the paper that when our next gas coupons come due A card-ers may expect a few drops more. I wish it would be enough to make a trip to Fayetteville, but I know I can't expect anything that nice until after the war in the Pacific is over. Miss Baugh and I have often talked about what a nice time we had at the party the Library Board gave in the Library that pleasant summer afternoon. While of course we don't like to hint in a too hideously obvious fashion, we do hope that when the war is over the Library will have another party and we will be lucky enough to be there. I wish you had written more about the ‘Civic Club’ because such organizations lie very close to my and my husband's hearts. He is with the Power Company, in the Advertising Department. Perhaps you read about the Better Home Town campaign without knowing that it was partly John's baby. To make the smaller towns of Georgia more interesting and attractive, with better recreation facilities, more civic clubs et cetera, is one of the aims of this campaign. I hope the Fayetteville Civic Club has great success.
As to the information about my Fayetteville connections and ‘important people who are buried in the Fayetteville cemetery’—I do not know if I can be very helpful. Taking up the last part first—the important people—when I get down to our Carnegie Library next week I will look up Fayetteville in White's ‘Historical Collections of Georgia’ and see if that book has any information. I will also ask the Reference Department if they have anything else on Fayetteville.
As to my own family, I can't tell you much, for, as you know, my branch (my mother's mother) lived here in Atlanta since the Sixties. My father, who died last summer, was the family historian and he had a great deal of material about his side (the Mitchells and Sweets) which he intended to put into a book some day. As to whether he had anything about Mother's side of the family I do not know, but doubt that he had much. All his notes and his genealogies are put away at my brother's house, and we've been intending to go through them and decide what to do with them. However, the stack of stuff is so formidable and both of us have been so busy and not very well this last year that we have lacked the heart to go into it. When I see my brother next I'll ask him if there is any information there. If something about our people is to be included in a History of Fayetteville, of course we'd want it accurate, and I know your daughter and her friends would want it accurate too. When they have their material ready, what about writing me again? In the meantime, I'll see if my brother won't go through the records and I will see what Miss Erlich at the Carnegie Library can resurrect.
I thank you for the snapshot of the cemetery. It is such a clear one. I just wish I knew whose back appears in the picture! Please give my regards to my friends.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope. Written just weeks after V-E Day, the letter offers a warm and revealing glimpse of Mitchell's post-Gone with the Wind life, touching on wartime restrictions, Georgia civic affairs, family genealogy, and the historical research interests that remained central to her life.
From the personal collection of a lifelong collector, teacher, and traveler with a passion for world history. His collecting years ranged from the 1970s to the present day, meaning that several of the premier pieces have not been on the market in decades.
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