Taylor Trade is highlighting two books at this year’s BEA, one sure to be controversial and the other a fresh look at the story behind Margaret Mitchell’s beloved classic.
With a first printing of 50,000, former FEMA director Michael (“Heck of a job, Brownie”) Brown and Ted Schwarz’s book, Deadly Indifference: The Perfect (Political) Storm: Hurricane Katrina, the Bush White House, and Beyond (June), critically details what the government can and cannot do in the face of disasters both foreseen, such as Katrina, and unforeseen, such as a surprise terror attack.
What made Taylor take a chance on an author as potentially unpopular as Brown? “It was his candor,” says editorial director Rick Rinehart. “Once I got to know him, I realized he’s not the type to whitewash anything. He’s as hard on himself as he is on the other major players in the Katrina tragedy.”
Among the things Brown has to say that may surprise you: teams of rescue workers placed in the Louisiana Superdome in response to Mayor Ray Nagin designating it a “shelter of last resort” were asked to leave by the Louisiana National Guard once they realized the severity of the storm. By the time of Hurricane Katrina, Brown had already been responsible for dealing with 160 presidentially declared disasters. FEMA didn’t have the authority to order anyone to do anything. Brown will be signing today at 1 p.m. at Table 4 in the autographing area, and a reception for the book (with wine) will take place at 4 p.m. in the Taylor booth (3713).
Even 75 years after its debut, the popularity of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind remains unabated. But can there still be stories still left untold about this classic? Ellen F. Brown and John Wiley Jr.’s Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood examines a mystery even bigger than would Rhett ever have taken Scarlett back—how a disorganized and incomplete manuscript by an unknown Southern writer was discovered by a major New York publisher and became one of the most popular, profitable, and controversial novels in literary history. In fact, the first printing of Gone with the Wind was a modest 10,245 copies, including overruns, and came off the press in April 1936. One year later, Macmillan estimated 1.35 million copies had been printed. The publisher issued a press release noting that it had used more than 11 tons of ink and 90 square miles of paper (four times the area of Manhattan) to produce the books, and if all the pages in those books were laid end to end, they would reach more than 92,000 miles, encircling the globe three and a half times. Fans of Rhett and Miss Scarlett are invited to meet the authors and pick up a signed copy of the book in the Taylor booth on Thursday at noon.
