"The first line of the book would be 'After Rhett Butler made love to Ashley, he lit a cigarette, handed it to Ashley, and asked, 'Have I ever told you that my grandmother was black?'"--Author Pat Conroy's proposed first line for his never-written sequel to Gone With the Wind. He was contacted by the Margaret Mitchell estate about writing the book before the family's copyright expired, but they put so many restrictions on him, including no homosexuality and no miscegenation, that he got fed up and suggested that opening sentence. According to Conroy, "it didn't work out." Too bad. The approved sequel wasn't nearly so interesting.
