Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer prize for her first novel today in 1937. It was a sprawling Civil War epic called Gone With the Wind and was later turned into the Worst Film in History (and I am including John Carter and Titanic in the list) starring Clark Gable.
Bad luck, Maggie; you can't win 'em all.
In other news ...
Niccolo Machiavelli was born today in 1469, one of the most misunderstood Italians of all time (see Benito Mussolini, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Silvio Berlusconi etc etc). His book Il Principe (The Prince) written in 1515 is a brilliant description of the realpolitik of his day, a time when nobody's virtue was overnice. His works were banned in most European universities and he himself equated with the Devil - 'Old Nick' - which is incredibly unfair. He was, after all, telling it like it was.
He has achieved a kind of immortality though - of all the names of the 16th century Italian political scene, which one has come down to us as an adjective? His!
