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Gone With the Wind was first published in 1936, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, and has continued to be a best-selling novel after all these decades. The saga is about human survival and its plot is timeless even though it takes place during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Period following the War Between the States. It encouraged the generation during the Great Depression, World War II, and still continues to inspire not only people of the United States but the people of the world. Some of the languages it has been translated into include Spanish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Japanese, Polish, and Russian. This one novel, and, until recently, the only novel published by its author, influenced the fashions of the 1930's and 1940's and also led to an equally famous movie. This one novel created immense changes for its author, her husband, her father, brothers, and nephews. It also helped to transform the careers of Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and David O. Selznick, the producer of the movie version, to mention only a few associated with the movie.
What is my point? Margaret Mitchell wrote the manuscript of Gone With the Wind on a secondhand manual Remington typewriter which was a gift from her husband, John R. Marsh. She used this typewriter for the approximate ten years it took her to write her famous novel. My point is, I do not believe Miss Mitchell could have written a better book if she had today’s latest Pentium computer with the most sophisticated word processing program. I do not think it would make any difference if she had used a top quality color ink-jet printer rather than her Remington and the yellow typing paper she used in it. Her novel was a result of what was inside her and not a result of what she used to get the ideas inside of her head onto hard copy. If she wrote Gone With the Wind with a purple crayon on the back of a brown paper grocery bag it would still be Gone With the Wind. Her whole life seemed to be geared so she could write her novel. Growing up, her family and family friends would tell of their first-hand experiences or the experiences of their parents during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Her mother would show Margaret the ruins of great plantations and tell her stories of the people who used to live there. As one of the first women journalist in the Twenties, Mitchell would do research and interview people. In short, when John Marsh first brought home the Remington typewriter to his wife, she did not just up and start writing her epic novel. There was a lifetime of preparation and following years of fine tuning. Her typewriter did not write her book. She wrote her book. Margaret Mitchell used her mind and talents to write her creation.
The same can be said of photographs. It is not the camera, lens, or film which creates the final image. These are only the tools which help the photographer create what is in his/her mind much like the Remington helped Margaret Mitchell in her accomplishments. It is what the photographer does with the available tools that create the final image. I have heard people compliment photographers on their works and then say "but they have a good camera"; or, when people get prints back they may take a look and be disappointed and remark "these did not come out like I wanted them to, I must need a new camera." As long as the camera is in working order, it should not matter what type of camera we use. A person can take excellent shots from an inexpensive disposable camera just as easily as another person can take bad photos from the most expensive of equipments. It takes skill, practice, and fine tuning of our skills to create good photographs. The most important component in our photography is us, not our equipment, just as the most important element of Gone With the Wind was Margaret Mitchell and not her typewriter.
© Paul Joseph Towarnicki