The enduring popularity and success of Gone with the wind can be put down to various different factors, the superb performances, captivating story, and groundbreaking production to name a few, yet it is the amalgamation of all these factors and more which has made gone with the wind a timeless classic.

When David O Selznick purchased the rights to Margaret Mitchell's novel for $50 000

He intended to make the greatest and grandest of motion pictures, and he succeeded.

At the time of selznicks purchase, Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind was already a best-seller, at the time already having sold around 180 000 copies, now there have been 25 million copies sold world-wide in 185 editions.

Mitchell's novel had a widely popular response from critics and the public alike, yet it was not marketing or the publisher that made the novel such a success but the story and the characters, and selznick saw the massive potential that the novel had to be translated onto the silver screen despite scepticism from the public and his industry peers.

Selznick is still recognised today as perhaps 'the greatest producer in an era of great producers', the film was his personal triumph, in a time

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