Letter from the Editor
Dear Reader,
You might consider me an obsessive Gone With The Wind fan. I first read the book when I was not yet twelve. I have read the book more than twenty times. I have been known to recite passages of it out loud at parties. As a child, I wrote short stories about Scarlett O’Hara’s mother, Ellen Robillard.
One thing always haunted me, though: who was Rhett Butler really? In her novel, Margaret Mitchell rarely breaks away from two main points of view, that of Scarlett and that of an omniscient narrator. Sure, if you look closely, you’ll see that she once (and only once) goes into Ashley’s point of view and sometimes, she gives you the thoughts of a minor character (that of the Calverts’ Yankee stepmother for example). But never, ever do we get a glimpse into the mind of Rhett Butler.
It was, to me, a mystery that I accepted would never be solved.
And then, I read Donald McCaig’s Rhett Butler’s People. There is only one word for it: I was spooked. This was Margaret Mitchell’s Rhett. I believed it from page one. This felt like Rhett, sounded like Rhett. This character breathed liked Rhett. Finally, finally I could know what he was really thinking when he saw Scarlett for the first time. Finally I could find out what went on behind those black eyes when they flashed hotly at Scarlett. Finally I could find out what happened to him as a child, and how he became such a rebel and an outcast.
To me, there is only one book that could parallel Gone With The Wind, one way a new story could be told: if that book solved the mystery that is Rhett Butler.
Finally, the mystery can be solved. And we are the luckiest readers alive.
All best wishes and happy reading.
Jennifer Enderlin,
Vice President, Associate Publisher and Executive Editor
St. Martin's Press
