Harper Lee wrote one of the most famous, iconic novels of our lifetime, To Kill a Mockingbird, but most people don’t know much about the rest of her writing career. It’s understandable since her first book won her a Pulitzer Prize, but she has accomplished many other goals throughout her lifetime, like other novels and collaborations with fellow authors, that are worth acknowledging.
Famous Author Friends
Lee obtained a law degree from the University of Alabama in 1949, then she went to New York and worked as an airline reservation clerk for several companies. After a few years and before Lee’s first book came out, she traveled with the now-renowned author, Truman Capote, to Holcombe, Kansas to help him conduct research for his novel. Ever heard of In Cold Blood? Yeah, she helped with that. Lee and Capote had been friends since childhood, and Lee actually based the character Dill from To Kill A Mockingbird off of Capote.
Her Unknown Investigation
While most author’s first finished books are never even published, Lee’s (To Kill a Mockingbird) was published and went on to be incredibly successful. After the book became a major success, Lee did not write for a while and lived in rural Alabama to avoid the paparazzi. It has come out recently that after Lee wrote this book, she started another book, a true crime novel, in the late 1970s. It was based on a man named Reverend Willie Maxwell and the suspicious deaths of many of his relatives. Lee never finished the book, but the living descendants of Maxwell’s lawyer are still hoping that a manuscript will transpire.
The Surprise Sequel
This past year, news came out that Lee was going to release the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, which is titled Go Set a Watchman. The plot follows Scout and Atticus Finch, about twenty years after the events in the first book. In fact, Go Set a Watchman was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird, but Lee’s publisher encouraged her to write a piece about Scout’s home town and childhood. And we’re glad she did. Fans of the first book are incredibly excited about the sequel (set to release July 14, 2015), but there has been some controversy surrounding the release.
Critics have stated that it may not have been entirely Lee’s decision to publish the book because she has said for years that she would not publish another book. So, there are allegations that she is being taken advantage of in her old age. A few newspapers and journals have even asked fans to boycott the work. If you aren’t sure what to do in light of this information, just ask yourself: What would Atticus Finch do?
