Donald McCaig

By Cynthia Murphy

For the Salisbury Post

Reviving iconic characters is never easy. Most sequels languish away, never capturing the spark of the original work — most great novels stand alone.

For nearly 60 years, Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" was such a novel. Then came the sequels.

The first authorized sequel, Alexandra Ripley's "Scarlett," was a commercial success, but panned by critics. Many die-hard fans loathed it. The response was so passionate that the Margaret Mitchell estate felt compelled to authorize another sequel.

The estate spent six years searching for the right author. After negotiations with Pat Conroy fell through, the search hit a stalemate. Then an editor at St. Martin's Press spotted a copy of "Jacob's Ladder" by Donald McCaig, and the estate found its author.

At the time, McCaig had not read "Gone with the Wind," nor had he seen the movie. Despite this, he was willing to take on the daunting task of reviving Rhett and Scarlett. Fortunately for the Mitchell estate, McCaig liked a challenge.

"I wanted to do this because it was so difficult. It seemed the whole job would be difficult to impossible, but I gravitate toward the difficult," he said. It took McCaig six years to meet the challenge.

The resulting novel, "Rhett Butler's People," is not a straight sequel. Rather, it is a "companion sequel." McCaig focuses on one of the glaring omissions from "Gone with the Wind" — Rhett's background.

"Most peculiarly for a Southern book ... you know nothing about his family. 'Who are your people?' is the first thing Southerners ask. But that's missing (from 'Gone with the Wind'). That's why I didn't want to write a straight sequel. The idea of an intertwined story appealed to me."

As a result, in "Rhett Butler's People," McCaig develops characters who earn only a passing mention in the original work and he introduces several new characters.

Before he could write his intertwined story, McCaig needed to meticulously research both the fictional world of Rhett and Scarlett and the real world events of the period. McCaig's wife helped, and she put together a 150-page, chapter-by-chapter guide including events and characters only mentioned in one chapter.

The next step was to construct a chronology of events in "Gone with the Wind." This chronology included major events such as Gerald's arrival at Tara, Scarlett's birth, and Rhett and Scarlett's first meeting. Then another chronology covered the events of the real world.

In addition to this research, McCaig used maps of Civil War era Charleston, Atlanta, New Orleans, Wilmington and Franklin, Tenn., to verify details in the novel. He also visited the cities that are the settings for "Rhett Butler's People." Local research libraries played a vital part in the construction of the novel, and McCaig is quick to acknowledge their assistance.

"My 97-year-old great-aunt asked me how I know so much. I don't, but I know the people to ask." In all, McCaig spent about four months doing research at libraries in the various settings of the book. The resulting research allowed him to include historical references and details without creating a textbook tone. The history becomes a part of the book, without ever slowing the narrative.

Before he began writing his companion novel, McCaig knew he had to include scenes from the original work. Fans and critics alike would expect major events such as Rhett and Scarlett's initial meeting and the burning of Atlanta to appear in any parallel story. Portions of these scenes are taken verbatim from Margaret Mitchell's work, and McCaig has managed to blend her words with his own almost seamlessly.

But McCaig avoided a recreation of Rhett's famous exit at the end of "Gone with the Wind." He described this as "a tactical decision." It allowed him to move the story forward without reducing Scarlett to a secondary character in the scene.

McCaig is cautious in his handling of Scarlett. She appears only sporadically throughout the first half of "Rhett Butler's People." McCaig does not attempt to further develop her character until after Rhett has left. This was another tactical decision.

"It was easier to write her in the latter part. It was much easier to write her without Rhett," he explained. So Rhett and Scarlett have surprisingly little interaction in the sequel portion of the novel. Part of McCaig's hesitancy when dealing with Scarlett stems from his reaction to Mitchell's creation.

"Scarlett is a stunning creature. She is one of the most real characters in literary history — both complex and contradictory. Because Scarlett is so contradictory, people can read many different viewpoints: feminist, entrepreneur, a dope. She's been praised by everyone from modern feminists to German fascists. She and Rhett are universal characters."

While Scarlett was already a well-developed character, Rhett provided a different challenge. His presence in much of "Gone with the Wind" is sporadic, with long, mysterious absences. Essentially, his character was a blank slate for McCaig. In the book, he fills in some details of Rhett's past and his long absences from the action in Mitchell's work. McCaig's goal was to flesh out the character while maintaining much of his original charm.

"I don't want to explain everything," McCaig said. "I set out to explore Rhett as a real person. Mystery doesn't interest me much."

Mystery may not have interested McCaig, but he had to solve one major one — what happens after Rhett walks out on Scarlett. His approach was more practical than literary. In fact he makes it sound surprisingly easy.

"Life goes on. I thought of Rhett and Scarlett as real people instead of literary characters. They are a bored, wealthy couple with a recent miscarriage. They recently lost the daughter who was the light of their lives, and they just lost their only confidante (Melanie Wilkes). Now, who buries Melanie? Where does Rhett go? All you have to do is ask what real people would do."

In "Rhett Butler's People," McCaig answers those questions and the crucial Southern question of "Who are your people?"

Not all fans will be pleased with the work. Some details don't quite ring true, and McCaig has already been criticized for creating a Rhett Butler who is too politically correct. He has dismissed such criticism by pointing out that both his work and Mitchell's are products of their times. Regardless of the criticism, the novel has already found its way onto bestseller lists. Time will tell if it is the last hurrah for Rhett and Scarlett.

Cynthia Murphy is an avid reader in Salisbury.