[Nfbv-potomac-announce] FW: Harper Lee, author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird, ' dies

[John Halverson]

Thank you Carl.

I am sending this because the book club has read and discussed this author.

John


-----Original Message-----
From: carl_knoettner at verizon.net [mailto:carl_knoettner at verizon.net] 
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2016 11:43 AM
To: johnh50 at verizon.net
Subject: Harper Lee, author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' dies

 

Feb 19 (Reuters) - Harper Lee, who wrote one of America's most enduring
literary classics, "To Kill a Mockingbird," about a child's view of right
and wrong and waited 55 years to publish a second book with the same
characters from a very different point of view, has died at the age of 89.

Mary Jackson, the city clerk in Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama,
confirmed to Reuters by phone that Lee had died.

For decades it was thought Lee would never follow up "To Kill a Mockingbird"
and the July 2015 publication of "Go Set a Watchman" was a surprising
literary event - as well as a shock for devotees of "Mockingbird."

In the first book, Atticus Finch was the adored father of the young narrator
Scout and a lawyer who nobly but unsuccessfully defended a black man
unjustly accused of raping a white woman. But in "Watchman," an older
Atticus had racial views that left the grown-up Scout greatly disillusioned.

Lee reportedly had written "Go Set a Watchman" first but, at the suggestion
of a wise editor, set it aside to tell a tale of race in the South from the
child's point of view in the 1930s.

For many years, Lee, a shy woman with an engaging Southern drawl, lived
quietly and privately, always turning down interview requests. She
alternated between living in a New York apartment and Monroeville, where she
shared a home with her older sister, lawyer Alice Lee. After suffering a
stroke and enduring failing vision and hearing, she spent her final years in
an assisted-living facility in Monroeville.

Lee's state of mind would become an issue when plans were announced in 2015
to publish "Go Set a Watchman." Some friends said that after the death of
Alice, who handled Harper's affairs, lawyer Tonja Carter, had manipulated
Lee to approve publication.

Carter had said she came across the "Watchman" manuscript while doing legal
work for Lee in 2014 and an investigation by Alabama state officials found
there was no coercion in getting Lee's permission to publish.

Lee's literary output had been a matter of speculation for decades before
"Go Set a Watchman." She acknowledged she could not top the Pulitzer
Prize-winning "Mockingbird" but friends said she had worked for years on at
least two other books before abandoning them. A family friend, the Reverend
Thomas Lane Butts, told an Australian interviewer Lee had said she did not
publish again because she did want to endure the pressure and publicity of
another book and because she had said all that she wanted to say.