The title comes from
Le Complainte Rutebeuf, a work by the
French 13th-century poet
Rutebeuf:
Friendship is dead:
They were friends who go with the wind,
And the wind was blowing at my door.
The best-selling novel by Margaret Mitchell was published in 1936, and the phrase itself quickly became somewhat of a cliché. The film, released in 1939, won 10 Academy Awards and is regarded as a classic.