Lost Laysen by Margaret
Mitchell is really two stories in one volume. The first half is a real-life
love story told in letters and pictures which Mitchell's beau, Henry Love
Angel, had kept secret throughout his life. When he died in 1945, Angel left
behind love letters from Mitchell, photos taken over the years, and two
notebooks which she had entrusted to him. Although those materials were passed
on to his son, Henry Jr. did not really examine them until he heard about the
Atlanta museum dedicated to Mitchell and Gone With the Wind. He decided
to contact the museum to see if they would be interested in what he had.
The letters and photos tell the
story of Angel's unrequited love for Mitchell and of his repeated proposals and
her refusals. Though she had great affection for him--affection that is made
plain in her letters, she ultimately chose to marry two other men in quick
succession. She realized that her first husband had been a mistake almost
immediately and divorced him. It is interesting to speculate why she did not
choose the faithful Angel. And although he finally fell in love with another
and married, he still remained her faithful friend, keeping her letters and her
notebooks safe and secret until his death.
The second story is found in the
two notebooks. Written by Mitchell in 1916 when she was just shy of her 16th
birthday, Lost Laysen is a story of a spirited young woman determined to
be "a missionary" to the people on the island of Laysen and the two
men who loved her. One is a rough deckhand on the ship which carries her to the
island; the other is a gentleman of her own class who is determined to follow
her and bring her home to marry him. All three of them value honor--the men
will go to any lengths to defend her honor against a villainous man and she
values her honor over her life.
It is interesting to see some of
the themes and characteristics which Mitchell would fully develop in GWTW here
in tentative form. She's clearly a young writer, but she does an excellent job
taking on the voice of the rough seaman (our narrator) and attempting to work
out complex issues. An impressive early novella from a fifteen-year-old. ★★★
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