The Real Belle: How a Victorian Madam Became an Antebellum Icon

When author Margaret Mitchell needed a hardscrabble woman to serve as confidante to Rhett Butler, her husband told her about Belle Brezing, the Victorian madam of a famous brothel in Lexington, Kentucky. Brezing entered Mitchell's novel as Belle Watling, but the real Belle's life story is as dramatic as anything to be found in the pages of "Gone With the Wind." Brezing was born illegitimate, raised in poverty in a violent home, and cast off at 15 after her mother's funeral, with a baby in h...