Harper Lee

Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926) is an American novelist, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

Background

Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama and is the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee. After graduating from high school in Monroeville, Harper attended the female Huntingdon College in Montgomery for only a year before transferring to law school at the University of Alabama in 1945, where she was a member of the Chi Omega sorority. While there, she wrote for several student publications and spent a year as editor of the campus humor magazine, Rammer-Jammer. Though she did not complete the requirements of her law degree, she pursued studies for a year in Oxford, England, before moving to New York in 1950, where she worked as a reservation clerk with BOAC.

Career

To Kill a Mockingbird

With a handful of short stories, she located an agent in November, 1956. The following month, at the East 50th townhouse of her friends Michael and Joy Brown, she received a gift with a note: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." Within a year, she had a first draft. Working closely with J. P. Lippincott editor Tay Hohoff, she completed To Kill a Mockingbird in the summer of 1959.

Published July 11, 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate bestseller and won her great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It remains a bestseller today and has earned a secure place in the canon of American literature. In 1999, it was voted "Best Novel of the Century" in a poll conducted by the Library Journal.

Many details of To Kill A Mockingbird are apparently autobiographical. Scout, like Lee, is a tomboy, and the daughter of a respected lawyer in a small Alabama town. The plot involves a legal case, the mechanics of which would have been familiar to Lee, who studied law. Scout's friend Dill is commonly supposed to have been inspired by Lee's childhood friend and neighbor, Truman Capote, (Lee, in turn, is thought to be the model for one of the main characters in Capote's first novel, "Other Voices, Other Rooms"). Though Lee has downplayed the autobiographical parallels, biographer Charles Shields cites them as evidence against the persistent theory that Capote wrote all or part of To Kill a Mockingbird, a rumor which Capote himself occasionally allowed to pass without comment, but has other times dismissed. Capote discussed the differences in the style of the two friends writing about the same childhood experiences, explaining that his treatment is far more "gothic" than Lee's.

Citing her failure to produce another novel, at least one notable critic, Harper's editor Pearl Kazin Bell, has gone on record supporting the theory of Capote's co-authorship. The frankest clue, however, may come from a contemporary letter from Capote to his aunt, dated July 9, 1959. In it he indicates that he had seen Lee's manuscript, but did not take any credit for it.

Lee was overwhelmed with the immediate success of this first book. In a conversation with Roy Newquist for his 1964 book Counterpoint, she revealed her reaction:

I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.' I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected.

In Cold Blood

In 1959, Lee worked with Truman Capote as an assistant for his non-fiction book, In Cold Blood, traveling with him to Holcomb, Kansas, to conduct research. Capote credited her with "secretarial work," and dedicated the book to her as well as his lover Jack Dunphy. Lee's contribution exceeded simply being a secretary; she helped him interview people and her presence made people more at ease with the very eccentric-seeming Capote. In 2006, actress Catherine Keener was nominated for an Academy Award for playing Lee in the 2005 film Capote about this episode. The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress was given instead to Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener.

After To Kill a Mockingbird

Since the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee has granted almost no requests for interviews or public appearances, and with the exception of a few short essays, has published no further writings. She did work on a second novel for years, eventually filing it away unpublished. During the mid-1980s, she began writing a book of nonfiction about an Alabama serial murderer, but this too she put aside when she was not satisfied with the result.

She favorably reviewed the 1962 Academy Award-winning screenplay adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird by Horton Foote, saying that, "If the integrity of a film adaptation can be measured by the degree to which the novelist's intent is preserved, Mr. Foote's screenplay should be studied as a classic." She also became a close friend of the late star Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, the father of Scout, the narrator of the novel. She remains close to the actor's family. Peck's grandson, Harper Peck Voll, is named for her.

In June of 1966, Harper Lee was one of two persons named by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the National Council of Arts.

In the same year, on November 28th, Truman Capote held his Black and White Dance in honor of Katharine Graham. In Cold Blood had been published in January, with its dedication to Jack Dunphy and Harper Lee. The 480 invitations included one to Lee.

Lee attended the 1983 Alabama History and Heritage Festival in Eufaula, Alabama. She presented the essay Romance and High Adventure.

In his book Lost Friendships Donald Windham reported that in 1984 Lee attended a dinner at his home after the memorial for Truman Capote. She came with Alvin and Marie Dewey, whom she had met when in Kansas with Capote to do research for In Cold Blood.

Lee has been known to split time between an apartment in New York and her sister's home in Monroeville. She has accepted honorary degrees, but has declined to make speeches. At the urging of Peck's widow Veronique, Lee traveled by train from Monroeville to Los Angeles, in 2005 to accept the Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award. She has also attended luncheons for students who have written essays based on her work held annually at the University of Alabama.Lacher, Irene. (May 21, 2005). "Harper Lee raises her low profile for a friend." Los Angeles TimesBellafante, Ginia. (January 30, 2006). "Harper Lee, Gregarious for a Day." New York Times. Books section. On May 21, 2006, she accepted an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame. To honor her, the graduating seniors were given copies of Mockingbird before the ceremony and held them up when she received her degree.

Her withdrawal from public life has prompted persistent but unfounded speculation that new publications are in the works. Similar speculation has followed contemporaneous American writer J.D. Salinger. Ralph Ellison attracted similar attention during his life.

Lee briefly returned to spotlight in June of 2006, writing a letter to be published in Oprah Winfrey's literary magazine O. Lee spoke of her early reception of books as a child, and of her still steadfast dedication to the written word. Lee wrote ""Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books."(January 30, 2006). "'Mockingbird' author writes for Oprah." CNN.com. Entertainment.

Works by Harper Lee

Lee, Harper. “Christmas to Me.” McCall’s 89 (December 1961) p. 63. (full text)
Lee, Harper. “Love—In Other Words.” Vogue 137 (April 15, 1961) pp. 64-65.
Lee, Harper. "When Children Discover America." McCall's 92 (August, 1965) pp. 76-79.
Lee, Harper. “Romance and High Adventure.” in Clearings in the Thicket: An Alabama Humanities Reader, Jerry Elijah Brown, editor. (Macon, Georgia.: Mercer University Press, 2006) pp. 13-20

References

Erisman, Fred. (April, 1973) “The Romantic Regionalism of Harper Lee.” Alabama Review No. 26. pp. 122-136.
Childress, Mark. (May 1997). "Looking for Harper Lee." Southern Living (magazine). pp. 148-50
Going, William T. (1989) "Truman Capote: Harper Lee's Fictional Portrait of the Artist as an Alabama Child". Alabama Review Vol. 42, No. 2. pp. 136-149
Weaver, Kendal (May 15, 2006) "An AP ARTS REVIEW: A book in search of the elusive Harper Lee." Associated Press.

External links

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