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ANATOMY OF A SEQUEL - Who Really Wrote "To Kill A Mockingbird" And "Go Set A Watchman"?
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at 9:28AM ANATOMY OF A SEQUEL -By: Jeb Ladouceur
Who really wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Go Set a Watchman”?
296 pages – Lippincott & Company – 304 pages – HarperCollins
In the mid-1950’s Nelle Harper Lee, childhood friend of Truman Capote, is generally thought to have written “Go Set a Watchman,” a down-to-earth novel suggested by the pair’s racially-torn hometown, Monroeville, Alabama.
Author Harper Lee at age eightyHaving moved to New York City at the age of 23, Lee, who preferred using the name ‘Harper’ (to avoid being called ‘Nellie,’ she claims) found a literary agent for her autobiographical tale centered on a 20-year-old woman living in fictional Maycomb, Alabama. Agent Eugene Winick placed the work with J.B. Lippincott & Company … the publishing house whose stable of writers included such notables as Oscar Wilde, Jack London, and Rudyard Kipling.
It was at Lippincott that the most pivotal event of Harper Lee’s young life came to pass when her editor, Tay Hohoff, became enamored of the charming flashbacks-to-childhood described by “Go Set a Watchman’s” adult narrator, ‘Scout Finch.’ Hohoff wisely suggested that Lee re-write the story, using the voice of 8-year-old ‘Scout’ exclusively.
Because she was an eager, unpublished novelist, Harper Lee acquiesced immediately, and in later years, noted improbably that the unanticipated acclaim accompanying the altered book’s release was, “…just about as frightening as the quick, merciful [rejection] I’d expected.”
Lee’s friend, Truman Capote With “Go Set a Watchman’s” narration now assigned to a child, and after the book was welded into a cohesive unit, the revision was re-named “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and published in 1960. The following year it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, an honor that Nelle Lee’s friend and former neighbor Truman Capote … for all his self-promotion and giant-sized ego … never achieved, and of which he was openly envious.
The book was soon filmed, and more honors ensued … primarily in the form of three Academy Awards, and the same number of Golden Globes.
In recent weeks the so-called ‘long lost’ original manuscript of “Go Set a Watchman” appears to have been ‘found’ by late-blooming lawyer Tonja Carter, 49, who graduated from the University of Alabama law school at the unlikely age of 40. An aggressive and highly protective attorney, Carter soon initiated lawsuits against those whom she saw as infringers on Harper Lee’s copyrights and the interests of her sister, lawyer Alice Finch Lee (Alice died in 2014 at 103—and was replaced as legal counsel by Tonja). Carter is also said abruptly to have issued an unofficial ‘order of protection’ against at least one of Nelle’s longtime friends.
As for author Lee, though partially disabled and reclusive, she appears to be satisfied with both Carter’s role as ‘front man,’ and the assurances of HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham (Lippincott was acquired by Harper & Row in 1978) that the newly unearthed “…Watchman” draft is genuine, and needs only “…minor copy-editing.” It will provide Lee with an advance, in the words of Publisher’s Weekly editor Gabe Habash, “…of well into seven figures.” (Copy-editing is the procedure that ensures the logical progression of written events: If something unfolds on Monday, for instance, and happens again two days later, it can hardly be said to have recurred, ‘on Friday!’).
Oscar-winning Gregory Peck played lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962. Mary Badham portrays the 8-year-old Scout Among interested Long Island readers, and moviegoers there seems to be strong sentiment for the view expressed recently in the Washington Post: that 8-year-old ‘Scout Finch’ is a character whose development has been, “…full and complete.” Said Post columnist Alexandra Petri, “That’s the ‘Scout’ I want to remember—safe, contained within the covers of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’”
Newsday Book Editor Tom Beer, however, is non-judgmental regarding the forthcoming book that will retain “Mockingbird’s” original title, “Go Set a Watchman.” While reporting with meticulous accuracy on the 88-year-old Harper Lee (who now resides in an assisted living facility in Monroeville), Beer adopts a wait-and-see attitude concerning the 304-page sequel, priced at $27.99, and due July 14 from HarperCollins.
In a feature article typically headlined, “‘TO KILL’ AGAIN,” The New York Post reported unequivocally last week that the assumed one-book-wonder, “Harper Lee did write another novel—a ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ sequel that she actually penned before her famed prizewinner.”
There has been persistent speculation, however, that Lee’s childhood chum, Truman Capote, might actually be the more logical creator of the tale inspired by, and set in their humble hometown.
Prof. Wayne Flynt, Auburn UniversityRetired professor Wayne Flynt of Auburn University, himself a Pulitzer Prize nominee, disputes the theory. He has told NPR News that Capote, in a 1959 letter to his aunt, stated he had seen Lee’s novel and liked it very much. Moreover, nowhere in that letter does the author of “In Cold Blood,” (the book for which Harper Lee contributed considerable research, by the way) claim any involvement with Lee’s book … though Capote almost certainly was sufficiently gifted to have assumed her writing style if he so chose.
Obviously, many principals in this 50-year-old sequence of events have died, retired, or been replaced in their business functions—as in the case of attorney Alice Finch Lee who was supplanted by Tonja Carter. For these reasons, and because author Harper Lee is such a private person (oddly, she has steadfastly refused to speak whenever publicly feted), resolution of any skepticism surrounding Lee and her Pulitzer will likely be left to language scholars. They, rather than historians, are probably better equipped to investigate and analyze the matter.
Lee’s reticence is a key reason why the sudden appearance of “Go Set a Watchman” is considered such a tantalizing development in literary circles.
In any event, and in many ways, the mystery that has grown up around the iconic “…Mockingbird” and now “…Watchman,” is becoming as interesting as anything Lee or Capote (or the unlikely duo in concert) could have composed for our collective edification.
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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of ten novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. In his current thriller, HARVEST, an American military doctor is seized by a gang of organ traffickers in The Balkans, and ordered to perform illegal surgeries. Ladouceur’s tenth novel THE QUANTUM SYNDROME, suggested by the Atlanta child killings of the 80’s, is due in mid-April.
Reader Comments (6)
As Ladouceur has implied, criticism of the first work and the suggestions for its revisions turned out to be spot-on (assuming that's the way it really happened). New authors should be much encouraged from the knowledge that even the very best can miss on the first effort. (As an aside, it is hard to imagine Capote abstaining from bragging about any influence he might have had on Lee's Pulitzer winning effort. He was not famous for "going quietly").
- Genie Myers
I met Capote at Bobby Van's Restaurant in Bridgehampton. It was 1:30 on a weekday afternoon, when I ordered a drink and a sandwich at the nearly empty bar. The bartender asked if I would slide over to the next stool ... Capote was expected at any time, and I was in his favorite end seat. The little guy showed up, I introduced myself, bought him a bourbon on ice, and mentioned that I had started writing a fictional story based loosely on the Atlanta child murders. He shrugged, unimpressed. I happened to have a copy of his new collection of biographical essays, 'Music For Chameleons,' in the car (it was 1981) and I asked if he'd personalize it for me. He sighed deeply with rolling eyes and purred, "Oh, I suppose so." I abandoned my straight-up martini and BLT, retrieved the book, and Capote inscribed it 'Jeb - Welcome to the jailhouse.' and he signed it T.C. Two weeks later, an English professor from Dowling College borrowed the book to show to his wife. Shortly thereafter he retired to someplace in Arizona ... and my personalized book went with him.
I think both books were the creations of Harper Lee. Her father was an attorney who had once been involved with a case where Southern justice might have gone awry. I believe that Harper Lee modeled Atticus Finch on him. I deeply enjoyed reading Jeb's enlightening analysis which contrasts varying viewpoints.
- Elise Pearlman
Elise Pearlman points out correctly that Harper Lee's father was an attorney, as was the fictional Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird." But that fact does not, in my view, rule out Truman Capote's potential involvement in the writing of the book.
Young Truman knew Amasa Lee and his family plenty well enough to have convincingly fictionalized the locally acclaimed lawyer and politician.
Capote was a small, withdrawn lad, 18 months Harper's senior, who was frequently bullied in the school he and Lee attended together. In fact it is commonly acknowledged that she, a notorious tomboy, regularly came to her frail, friend's defense by physically attacking his abusers.
One can well imagine Truman's lifelong appreciation, and willingness to add his creative talents to her literary efforts. But I doubt that either of them would ever admit to Capote's having ghostwritten for Harper ... a factor that will probably obscure the issue forever in the fog of speculation. - Jeb Ladouceur
Interesting comments! Growing up, Harper Lee and Truman Capote sat together on the bone fence in their neighborhood, challenging each other with new words they'd learned and otherwise talking things over. It wouldn't be a surprise if their writing styles bear a slight resemblance. Harper wrote most of her book in NYC, supported by a family she'd worked for, who were well off enough to offer her board without obligation to work--for a year--in order to finish her book.
-- C.B. Knadle
Doctor Knadle's image of young Harper and Truman is a charming (and important) one.
The implied kinship does much to explain what I think was an unspoken, literature-based bond.
This symbiotic relationship might well account for a lifelong pact of silence concerning the literary contributions of Lee and Capote, one to the other.
- Jeb Ladouceur