RIP Ms. Nelle Harper Lee

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/19/entertainment/harper-lee-obit-feat/


How many times can a person's heart be broken?

Apparently, too many times to count.

As long as we allow ourselves to love, and as long as we allow ourselves to have heroes, we will have our hearts broken.

Harper Lee was a hero and an inspiration to many.


I wrote to Ms. Lee once.  I just wanted to tell her how much I admired her and loved her work.


It was important to me to do that.


Too often we are touched by people but fail to tell them.


We think maybe they're too busy, or maybe they're quite famous, important people and we think of them only in that context  -  too busy, famous, important to hear from someone like me.


Needless to say, I was stunned and over the moon happy when I received a note back from her.

Actually, I received two notes.

Both arrived on the same day.

One on her personalized stationery, one not.  Both saying pretty much the same thing.

I wondered about the why, but finally just decided to forget about the why of two  notes and enjoy the honor bestowed upon this not busy, not famous, unimportant gal who admired Nelle Harper Lee from afar.


There will never be another Harper Lee.


We were all blessed to have had her grace our lives.

Nelle Harper Lee

April 28, 1926 - February 19, 2016

Cover Reveal

Release Date - July 14

Harper Lee - oh yes, still more. When will people leave this woman alone?

Here's what I wish. I wish everyone would leave this woman alone. Just leave her the hell alone. I'm thrilled there was an investigation, and even more thrilled with the results. Of course, I know that's not going to be enough for some people who will assume they know so much, or for those who can't stand that there's not more real drama to the story. But LordAMercy, leave her alone.
"Well-meaning friends" may be causing Ms. Lee a lot more harm than good.


From: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31864223

Harper Lee is said to be "extremely hurt" by claims she has been pressured into publishing her second book

Continue reading the main story

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US investigators have closed an inquiry into whether To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee was pressurised into publishing a sequel.


The Alabama Securities Commission led the investigation, which helps prevent financial fraud against the elderly.


After an agent interviewed Lee, the commission's head said he was satisfied she wanted a second book published.


The new work - Go Set a Watchman - will be the 88-year-old American author's first release since the 1960s.


The surprise move prompted some suggestions Lee was manipulated into publishing the decades-old manuscript, which was discovered by her lawyer in the author's possessions last year.


"We closed the file. Let's just say that she was able to answer questions we asked to our satisfaction from our point of view,'' said Joseph Borg, Alabama Securities Commission director.


Lee is resident in an assisted living home, where investigators spoke to her


The New York Times reported that the investigation was sparked by requests from a doctor that the state investigate whether Lee was capable to have consented to the release of the work.


Lee herself was "extremely hurt" by allegations she was manipulated, her lawyer Tonja Carter said.


To Kill a Mockingbird was published in July 1960 and has sold more than 40 million copies around the world.


Go Set a Watchman was written before To Kill A Mockingbird, and features many of the same characters, with an adult Scout Finch returning to her native Alabama from New York to visit her father.

Wheeeee!

and it continues . . . More about Harper Lee and "Go Set a Watchman"

The speculation regarding the Harper Lee novel, "Go Set a Watchman" continues.

Those who are absolutely sure Ms. Lee is being taken advantage of are sticking to their guns.

In my most humble opinion, I have to say, this makes me sad.

It makes me sad because I honestly feel as though she's being diminished by many who take to heart things they've seen written.

Things like, "she's deaf, blind and frail."

"She's had a stroke."

Failing, I think, to give the benefit of a doubt.

Nelle Harper Lee may very well have had a stroke in 2007, but I'd like to remind folks that not all stroke victims are totally incapacitated after a stroke and are quite able to continue making lucid and valid decisions.

And, there are most certainly degrees of "blind," "deaf," and "frail."

Again - does blind and deaf mean incapable of rational thought and decision?  I don't believe it does.

Frail?  Honey, again - frail?  okay?  HOW frail?  Does frail mean the brain has stopped working?

If I were Harper Lee, truth be told, I'd be damned insulted.

And to believe that she has been cut off from all her friends by this attorney?  Wouldn't the facility in which she's living be aware of this?  Wouldn't they be obligated to look into these allegations?  

And if they're part of this conspiracy, wouldn't all this stuff in the news be enough to alert authorities and family (and yes, she "does" still have family - regardless of those who think she doesn't) enough to investigate these elder abuse charges people are tossing out?

Maybe some of these "friends" who are so worried weren't as close to Ms. Lee as they'd like us to believe.  I mean, that is a possibility, isn't it?  Just as much as the possibility that Ms. Lee is being forced to ignore them all.

Here's the most recent article, which I found to be of interest.  Although, please don't assume I'm trying to change anyone's mind - heaven forbid!  But if you're following the story, I think it might behoove us all to follow, and perhaps open our minds, to both sides of the story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/09/books/harper-lee-lawyer-offers-more-details-on-discovery-of-go-set-a-watchman.html?emc=edit_na_20150208&nlid=3674496

Before you go saying to me, "but, she said . . . "  Maybe she did, maybe she didn't.  Did she say it to you?  If not, don't bother me with it.  I've read everything you've read, I promise you.  And maybe she did say some of those things.  Have you ever changed your mind about something you once said?  Circumstances have a way of making things look a little different than they once did.  At least, that's my experience.

Harper Lee

From author Mark Childress, posted on his Facebook Page:  

Folks, for those of you who have asked, I am only a slight acquaintance of Harper Lee and not a friend, though she has been kind to me at various junctures in my career. I have not read her new book and have not seen her in years.

I trust my longtime friend and international agent Andrew Nurnberg (I'm his OTHER client from Monroeville), who saw her just a couple weeks ago and reports that she is "feisty and fiery" and delighted about the publication of her "new" old book. Here is a statement he released yesterday:


"There will inevitably be speculation regarding Harper Lee as she has lived a very private life," he said. "She was genuinely surprised at the discovery of the manuscript but delighted by the suggestion to publish what she considers to be the 'parent' to 'Mockingbird.' I met with her last autumn and again over two days in January; she was in great spirits and increasingly excited at the prospect of this novel finally seeing the light of day."

Andrew tells me the novel is "really fine." So I think folks can quit worrying so much.




Meet Nelle Harper Lee's attorney - the woman who found the "new" manuscript - http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2015/02/04/meet-the-lawyer-who-found-harper-lees-new-novel/



I found this interview with an Alabama historian, and friend of Harper Lee's to be quite interesting -- http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/02/new_harper_lee_book_totally_le.html


Note:  More about this story from the NYT  here:  http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/books/harper-lee-author-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird-is-to-publish-a-new-novel.html?referrer&_r=0.  




The below article was copied From BBC News -
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31118355




I am so excited I can hardly stand it!

I adore Harper Lee and have read everything I have ever been able to find written about her.

This after I was swept off my feet, like millions of others, after reading To Kill a Mockingbird many, many years ago.

I wrote her a fan letter some years back and almost fell over in a swoon when I received a short, elegant note back from her. It's one of my most prized possessions -

But.

There's more to the story.

I also received this note

I'm not sure why I got two notes, and the only thing I can guess, is that Ms. Lee was perhaps answering fan mail and somehow sent me two.  Whatever may have been the reason, I was thrilled. 

And still am.

So.

Reading this bit of news about a new Harper Lee novel being found and published has tickled me to death.

And yes, I do plan on reading "Mockingbird" again before the new Harper Lee is released. How 'bout you?

Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

To Kill a Mockingbird is among the most beloved novels in history

An unpublished novel by Harper Lee is to finally see the light of day, 60 years after the US author put it aside to write To Kill a Mockingbird.

Go Set a Watchman, which features the character Scout Finch as an adult, will be released on 14 July.

Lee wrote it in the mid-1950s but put it aside on the advice of her editor.

"I thought it a pretty decent effort." said Lee in a statement. "I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years."

Set in the fictional southern town of Maycomb during the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman sees Scout return from New York to visit her father, the lawyer Atticus Finch.

According to the publisher's announcement: "She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father's attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood."

To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961

Lee's editor persuaded her to rework some of the story's flashback sequences as a novel in their own right - and that book became To Kill a Mockingbird.

"I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told," the author revealed.

The manuscript was discovered last autumn, attached to an original typescript of To Kill a Mockingbird.

"I hadn't realised it [the original book] had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it," Lee continued.

"After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication."

Harper Collins plans an initial print run of two million copies.

To Kill a Mockingbird was published in July 1960 and won a Pulitzer Prize. Two years later it was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Gregory Peck.

Lee has rarely spoken to the media since the 1960s and is unlikely to do any publicity for her "new" book.

'Extraordinary gift'

In a statement, Harper Collins' Jonathan Burnham called Go Set a Watchman "a remarkable literary event" whose "discovery is an extraordinary gift to the many readers and fans of To Kill a Mockingbird".

He said: "Reading in many ways like a sequel to Harper Lee's classic novel, it is a compelling and ultimately moving narrative about a father and a daughter's relationship, and the life of a small Alabama town living through the racial tensions of the 1950s."

Go Set a Watchman will be published in the UK by William Heinemann, the original UK publisher of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Tom Weldon, of parent company Penguin Random House, said its publication would be "a major event".

"The story of this first book - both parent to To Kill a Mockingbird and rather wonderfully acting as its sequel - is fascinating," he continued.

"Millions of fans around the world will have the chance to reacquaint themselves with Scout, her father Atticus and the prejudices and claustrophobia of that small town in Alabama Harper Lee conjures so brilliantly."