The Archdiocese of Atlanta has received a multi-million dollar gift from the estate of the nephew of Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell, and includes a 50 percent share in the trademark and literary rights to the book.

The Catholic News Servise (CNS) is reporting that the gift comes from Joseph Mitchell, son of the the late Margaret Mitchell’s brother, Stephens. Joseph, who died in October of last year, was a member of the Cathedral of Christ the King and specifically asked that his multi-million dollar gift be used for the cathedral in some way. Joseph and his brother Eugene inherited a trust with a half share of the literary and trademark rights to the famous book. Eugene died in 2007, leaving Joseph as the sole remaining direct descendant of the Mitchell family.

Also included in the gift is a collection of signed first editions of “Gone With the Wind” along with an unpublished history of the Mitchell family which was handwritten by Margaret’s father, Eugene Muse Mitchell. Her wallet, press card, library card and some furniture from her apartment were also given to the  archdiocese which they hope to one day donate to a major institution for display.

The archdiocese is honoring Joseph’s request to use the money to help the cathedral parish and has designated $7.5 million of the gift to the cathedral’s building fund. Some of this money will be used to purchase the nearby archbishop’s residence and renovate it as a rectory. A new residence will be built for Archbishop Gregory and future archbishops of Atlanta on property given to the archdiocese by Joseph Mitchell.

Archbishop Gregory has also allotted $3.5 million to Catholic Charities of Atlanta. He has also asked the Catholic Foundation of North Georgia to create an endowment fund for each parish, mission and Catholic school of the archdiocese with a $10,000 gift apiece from the Joseph Mitchell estate, totaling more than $1 million.

The remainder of the Mitchell bequest will be held in reserve and used by the archdiocese for general religious purposes as requested in Joseph Mitchell’s will.

“The Archdiocese of Atlanta has been blessed with a generous gift through the kindness of Joe Mitchell,” Archbishop Gregory said. “This gift is a reservoir of the funds earned through the genius of Margaret Mitchell and her depiction of the harsh struggles of Southern life during and after the Civil War. The Mitchell family has a proud Catholic legacy, and this gift will allow that legacy and that pride to be shared with many others in the archdiocese.”

Gone with the Wind, which was published in 1936, became an instant success. Within three years, it sold two million copies and was made into an Academy Award winning motion picture. Even today, the book sells about 75,000 copies a year in the United States. 

Margaret Mitchell’s mother, Maybelle Stephens Mitchell, was a staunch Catholic who was educated in a convent school in Quebec and founded the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, a group devoted to explaining the Catholic faith and defending the church against anti-Catholicism.

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