Fight brews over papers tied to 'Gone With The Wind' author

<p>A batch of purported business correspondence belonging to "Gone With The Wind" author Margaret Mitchell is now the prize in a legal battle, three decades after a Georgia man says his father bought a file cabinet containing the documents.</p><p>No one who has seen the documents is talking, and the Atlanta History Center, which is holding them until a judge decides who they belong to, won't say for certain if they are authentic _ though the center has suggested in court papers it believes they are.</p><p>A lawyer for the bank that is executor of Mitchell's late brother Stephens' estate wants the materials returned to the estate, while a rare book dealer in New York and a Connecticut collector want to sell them.</p><p>There could be a lot of money at stake. Just how much, though, also is unclear.</p><p>According to court papers, Philip B. Battles of Canton, Ga., says his father unwittingly acquired the letters and documents relating to the authorship, publishing and production efforts of the 1930s book and movie "Gone With the Wind" in the mid-1970s when he bought a file cabinet at an auction of abandoned office equipment in Atlanta. How the material ended up in the cabinet, which court papers say was constructed in the "mid-20th century," is unclear.</p><p>The father some time later opened the cabinet containing the documents, but never did anything with them, Battles says in a March 9, 2005, notarized letter in which he asserts the materials are authentic.</p><p>Battles says the cabinet passed to him after his parents died, and last year he sold them for an undisclosed price to John Reznikoff, a collector who lives in Wilton, Conn. Court papers say Reznikoff and New York rare book dealer Glenn Horowitz both claim to own the correspondence and together they tried to sell it to the Atlanta History Center earlier this year.</p><p>The Atlanta Historical Society oversees both the history center and the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum.</p><p>In July, Horowitz sent the correspondence to the history center's offices so it could review the materials and decide whether it wanted to buy them. The following month, the center received a letter from lawyer Gregory Hanthorn, on behalf of SunTrust Bank, demanding return of the documents to Stephens Mitchell's estate.</p><p>Hanthorn said in the letter that except for certain papers donated to the University of Georgia years ago, Stephens Mitchell did not authorize the transfer of her business correspondence to anyone. Stephens Mitchell inherited his sister's writings when she died in 1949 after being struck by an off-duty cab driver in Atlanta.</p><p>The history center filed a motion Aug. 31 asking a Fulton County Superior Court judge to determine who owns the documents. As of Wednesday, no hearings had been scheduled and no action taken by the court, according to the case docket.</p><p>The Atlanta History Center plans to hold on to the documents until the dispute is resolved. Spokeswoman Hillary Hardwick said Tuesday the center does not claim ownership of the documents, nor has it paid any money for them. She declined to answer any other questions, even ones about the importance of Mitchell's writings.</p><p>Hanthorn also declined to comment. Reached Tuesday at his New York office, Horowitz said, "You'll have to ring me on Friday. I cannot talk until then." He then hung up and did not return repeated phone calls Tuesday and Wednesday. Reznikoff also did not return repeated calls to his Connecticut office. His home number is unlisted.</p><p>Battles, who says his father found the documents, could not be reached for comment. People who answered the phone at two numbers listed to a Battles in Canton said there was no Philip Battles there. The history center spokeswoman and the SunTrust lawyer refused to provide contact information for Battles.</p><p>Margaret Mitchell, an Atlanta native, and her second husband, John Marsh, had no children. The author had two nephews, Eugene and Joseph. Efforts to reach the nephews at listings for them in Detroit and Atlanta were not successful. The director of the UGA library that holds some of Mitchell's other writings did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment.</p><p>Reznikoff and Horowitz are no strangers to the world of collectors.</p><p>Former astronaut Neil Armstrong threatened legal action against Reznikoff after Reznikoff bought some of Armstrong's hair from his barber. Armstrong demanded that the hair be returned or a donation of $3,000 made to a charity of his choice. Reznikoff has said he offered to make a donation. He has also said he owned the typewriter Ernest Hemingway used to write his last book, the last car that President Kennedy got out of alive and some of Marilyn Monroe's bras.</p><p>Horowitz brokered the delivery of some of writer Norman Mailer's papers to the University of Texas Ransom Center. In 1989, Horowitz bought the first Bible printed in America, in the language of the Algonquin Indians, for $330,000 at a Christie's auction.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/9/116948