ATLANTA - The first time Rhett Butler showed up in Georgia, he was nearly challenged to a duel for badmouthing the South's chances in the looming Civil War and had to dodge crockery hurled by a lovesick belle.

On Saturday, Butler returns to town, some 70 years after he walked out of Scarlett O'Hara's life in "Gone With the Wind," his parting "I don't give a damn" swirling in the air along with the many loose ends author Margaret Mitchell purposely left dangling.

When Donald McCaig's new novel, "Rhett Butler's People," is officially unveiled at a party on Peachtree Street, readers will discover what the charming rogue from Charleston was thinking during those key moments at Tara, Twelve Oaks and places previously unknown.

More a retelling of "Wind" from Rhett's perspective than a traditional sequel, the book begins long before Scarlett ever uttered her first "fiddle-dee-dee" and goes nearly 100 more pages beyond where Mitchell ended things with "Tomorrow is another day."

There are no guarantees of success for "Rhett Butler's People," the second companion novel authorized by the Atlanta-based committee charged with protecting Mitchell's fictional masterpiece.

Much has changed since 1991, when the first authorized sequel -- "Scarlett," by Alexandra Ripley -- was splashed across the cover of Life magazine.

Now, Life magazine no longer exists, Rhett Butler and his book have a MySpace page, and even some dedicated "Gone With the Wind" followers wonder how widespread the interest will be.

"It's a different world," said John Wiley Jr., publisher and editor of "The Scarlett Letter" quarterly. "People's attention spans are so short now and there's so many information sources to choose from. They may not even know about the book because they only watch the home and garden channel."

McCaig, a heretofore well-respected but relatively unknown Civil War novelist, faced his own formidable challenge in writing "Rhett" to simultaneously do justice to his and Mitchell's separate stories made out of highly similar parts. Many "Wind" fans won't be satisfied unless they hear plenty -- and plenty more -- about Rhett and Scarlett, Tara, even Belle Watling, the hooker with a heart of Confederate gold.

On the other hand, if "Rhett Butler's People" can't stand on its own, what's the point?

"The public itself wanted another sequel," said Paul Anderson Jr., part of the three-lawyer committee that advises the Mitchell estate on protecting and exercising the original book's copyright. "But this is not like 'Rocky.' We're not coming back every time we think we can make another book."

Huge expectations

In fact, "Scarlett" was a huge financial hit and a loud critical miss. Publisher St. Martin's Press paid $4.5 million for the rights to "Rhett Butler's People," which has nothing to do with "Scarlett" but has to try to live up to the huge expectations created by "Gone With the Wind."

"It's a masterpiece," St. Martin's president and publisher Sally Richardson said about Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1936 novel. "It has intrigue and sacrifice, love and family, death and courage. It's like the American drama."

When it comes to behind-the-scenes drama, though, "Rhett Butler's People" can definitely hold its own:

An author fired after she completed a 500-plus page manuscript. Negotiations over depictions of homosexuality and use of the "n-word." And a somewhat reclusive ex-ad man turned Virginia sheep farmer who'd never read "Gone With the Wind" before agreeing to follow in Mitchell's fictional footsteps.

In the 13 years it's taken to get from a preliminary conversation in London to an initial print run of 1.5 million copies, there have been enough twists and turns in the "Rhett" saga for someone to write a third book.

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