'To Kill a Mockingbird' turns 50 - Harper Lee remains elusive - National Literature

Harper Lee's classic American novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was
published 50 years ago July 11. (Photo: Harper)

'To Kill a Mockingbird' turns 50 - Harper Lee remains elusive - The classic American novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published 50 years ago today. Celebrations have been taking place already in towns around Alabama, where the novel is set and its author, Harper Lee, grew up. As she has been for the last few decades, Ms. Lee remains elusive for reporters, biographers, and those just hoping to get a quick comment from her or any insight into what she thinks about the world now that she is well into her 80s.

Case in point: The Los Angeles Times shares an accounting by Kerry Madden, the author of several novels, who set out to write a young adult biography of Ms. Lee in 2007. Ms. Madden knew that Nelle, as Harper Lee goes by in Monroeville, Alabama, did not do interviews, so she looked up anyone who may know her or know of her in town, including her aging contemporaries. When she finished her book called Up Close: Harper Lee, she wrote to the elusive author and asked to meet her now that the book was done. She got this reply:

Dear Ms. Madden,

I am a patient in an "assisted living" establishment here in Monroeville, and I'm sorry — not up to seeing anybody, not even my biographer!

Sincerely yours,

Harper Lee

Oddly, a friend of Ms. Lee's agreed to introduce Sharon Churcher from the Daily Mail in England to the famous but reclusive author. There was one condition -- do not mention the book. The reporter arrived at the assisted living facility where she spotted Ms. Lee being helped toward the lakeside where she would feed the ducks and Canada geese. She'd brought the author a box of chocolates. After shaking her hand and receiving the chocolates, Ms. Lee said,

"Thank you so much. You are most kind. We’re just going to feed the ducks but call me the next time you are here. We have a lot of history here. You will enjoy it.’

Ms. Madden recounts the last interview about writing that she claims the author had in 1964 with Roy Newquist. Ms. Lee told him:

We simply entertained each other by talking. It's quite a thing, if you've never been in or known a small Southern town. The people are not particularly sophisticated, naturally. They're not worldly wise in any way. But they tell you a story whenever they see you. We're oral types — we talk.

Harper Lee is certainly a storyteller, both as the author of To Kill a Mockingbird and as a daughter of the American South. However, whatever stories she may have to tell she is not telling them to the public and has not done so for some time. No one knows what she does with the money her book continues to earn (the book has sold 40 million copies worldwide) or whether or not she has a stockpile of unpublished manuscripts that she continuously pulls out and revises. If someone does know, he or she is keeping Ms. Lee's secrets. Some say Mockingbird was more autobiographical than its author wanted to admit even to herself until after it was published and this may be some of the source of her discomfort in talking about it. Others point to its wild popularity and mention early success and fear of not repeating it as to blame.

Perhaps going after Harper Lee for a word or two is like hunting the mockingbird, and those who seek her out might do better to heed the comment about the bird in the novel, "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

Ms. Lee wrote a book "for us to enjoy" that also happened to influence the civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. If she didn't do one other thing but "sing her heart out" loud and true that one time for the reading public, might it be called a "sin" for that public to ask for more?

Happy 50th Birthday to To Kill a Mockingbird, and thank you, Ms. Lee, for your song.

Anne Frank House publishes graphic biography of young writer

J. D. Salinger letters reveal he was writing, but 'Most stuff that is genuine is better left unsaid'

'Mocha Dick,' inspired by Melville's 'Moby Dick' whale, on exhibit at W illiams College Museum of Art

Books on Film

Emily Dickinson Examiner

Young Adult Pop Culture Examiner

Connie Ann Kirk is the author of 10 books and has a Ph.D. in English. She is currently at work on a novel and a screenplay. Check out all of her Examiner pages: National Literature; National Books on Film and National Young Adult Pop Culture. Feel free any time to visit Connie's website.

Email Connie at: ConnieAnnKirkOnExaminer@gmail.com.