'Gone With the Wind' features trigger warning about 'harmful phrases' and racism in new edition

The publisher of "Gone with the Wind" added a warning in the front of a new edition to advise readers that author Margaret Mitchell's Civil War epic contains "racist" elements and "hurtful or indeed harmful phrases."

"Gone with the Wind is a novel which includes problematic elements including the romanticisation of a shocking era in our history and the horrors of slavery," the book's publisher, Pan Macmillian, wrote in the opening page of the 2022 edition, The Telegraph reported Saturday.

"The novel includes the representation of unacceptable practices, racist and stereotypical depictions and troubling themes, characterisation, language and imagery," the publisher also wrote about the 1930s novel. "The text of this book remains true to the original in every way and is reflective of the language and period in which it was originally written. We want to alert readers that there may be hurtful or indeed harmful phrases and terminology that were prevalent at the time this novel was written and which are true to the context of the historical setting of this novel.

This edition of "Gone with the Wind" was not censored, unlike other classic books from authors such as Roald Dahl.

The book follows the story of Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara and her life during and after the Civil War. "Gone with the Wind" was first published in 1936 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year. It was made into a 1939 film of the same name.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.