Writers Choose Sides In 'GWTW' Dispute
By Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 4/23/2001
Novelist and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, along with such literary luminaries as novelist Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) and Civil War historian Shelby Foote, has gone on record in support of the publication of Alice Randall's forthcoming controversial novel, The Wind Done Gone, slated to be published by Houghton Mifflin in June.
Randall's novel retells the story of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind from a slave's perspective, and the Mitchell estate has filed suit to prevent the work's publication, claiming the Randall book plagiarizes the original (News, Apr. 9). The suit was filed in Atlanta.
In addition to a letter of support signed by 20 prominent writers and historians, a number of literary organizations, including PEN, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the ALA's Freedom to Read Committee, have filed briefs in support of Houghton Mifflin's effort to publish the novel.
Not to be outdone, the Mitchell estate has lined up its own list of academic and literary supporters. Affidavits filed in support of the Mitchell estate's copyright infringement suit include Hope Dellon, executive editor at St. Martin's Press, which paid more than $1 million for the rights to the next Gone with the Wind sequel; Alan Lelchuck, novelist and founder of Steerforth Press; Gabriel Motola, professor emeritus of English at CUNY, and others.
Morrison said Randall's book "neither follows nor copies, nor exploits Gone with the Wind." The letter in support of Randall said that preventing the publication of her novel "would not be in the public interest."
