ATLANTA (AP) — A black writer's version of Margaret Mitchell's classic "Gone With the Wind," penned from the perspective of an ex-slave, has Mitchell's estate charging copyright infringement.
Acting as trustee of the estate, SunTrust Bank is requesting a temporary restraining order to stop the publication of "The Wind Done Gone," by Alice Randall. Publisher Houghton Mifflin says it still intends to publish the novel.
"Once upon a time in America, African-Americans were forbidden by law to read and write," Randall said in a statement Tuesday. "It saddens me and breaks my heart there are those who would try to set up obstacles for a black woman to tell her story."
The lawsuit calls Randall's novel a "blatant and wholesale theft" of "Gone With the Wind."