Lois Dwight Cole was born in 1903 in New York City. She received her BA at
Smith College in
Northampton, Massachusetts in 1924. She worked at
Macmillan Publishers, who sent her from New York to
Atlanta in 1927. There she met Peggy Mitchell Marsh (who became better known by her pen-name
Margaret Mitchell), and they became lifelong friends. Peggy introduced her to Turney Allan Taylor, a bachelor journalist, who later became Cole's husband. Cole and Taylor had two children. When Cole learned that Mitchell was writing a novel, she asked to see it, but Mitchell refused to let her or anyone else read it. Macmillan sent Lois back to New York in 1930, and promoted her to associate editor. Cole continued inquiring after Mitchell's novel, and in 1933 Mitchell replied that Lois would be the first to read it if it ever got finished. Cole introduced her boss, editor
Harold Latham, to Mitchell in 1935. In April 1935, Mitchell gave him the manuscript to read, and Latham sent it on to Cole after having read the first few chapters. Mitchell later said that "John and Lois are the only persons I ever discussed it with in any detail" before she gave the manuscript to Latham. She continued to assist Mitchell and her husband John on one hand, and Latham on the other hand, in getting the book to a finished state. She edited the blurb, written by John, to its final state. Cole also promoted the book before its release, making sure that it was included in the
Book of the Month Club selection. Finally, in April 1936, Macmillan produced the first printing of
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. She then worked as editor at
Whittlesey House and
G. P. Putnam's Sons, before becoming the senior editor at first
William Morrow and Company and finally
Walker and Company. Cole died in 1979. ==Bibliography==