Last week we talked about one of the great one hit wonders of the 20th century - Margaret Mitchell and Gone with the Wind.
Her name was Nelle - it was her grandmother’s name, Ellen spelled backwards - and she grew up in small Alabama town called Monroeville in the thirties and forties.
She studied law for a time but then went to New York in 1950 seeking fame and fortune as a writer.
She was not an overnight success - she supported herself by working as a reservation clerk for BOAC.
But she did have one thing in her favour; her best friend from Monroeville was an up and coming young writer called Truman Capote.
He introduced her to his agent who saw possibilities in a series of vignettes she had written about life growing up in a small Alabama town.
She also befriended Broadway composer Michael Brown and his wife Joy, from whom she received this rather special Christmas gift - a year’s wages with a note that said:
“You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.”
In fact Nelle spent two and a half years rewriting her novel. At one point she got so frustrated she tossed the manuscript out the window into the snow. Her agent made her retrieve it.
The editorial team warned her she would probably sell only several thousand copies when Atticus was published in 1960. But under its new title, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee did much better
It was highly autobiographical. Her father, like Atticus, practiced law and once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper; and as a child, she was a tomboy like Scout.
Her best friend and next door neighbour Dill -alias Truman Capote - later told reporters that he also remembered a man who used to leave things in the trees, and lived just down the road from them.
(Incidentally, Harper was also the model for a character in Capote’s first novel, other Voices, Other Rooms.)
Her novel won the Pultizer Prize in 1961 and remains a bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print.
In fact it has never been out of print. It also became a major movie starring Gregory Peck - Harper later became a close friend. Pecks’ grandson, Harper Peck Voll, is named after her.
She never wrote another novel in her life. Her only other major work was helping Capote research his landmark novel, In Cold Blood.
She has granted few requests for interviews and has made only rare public appearances and, except for a few short essays, published nothing further. She started work on another novel but never finished it.
A close friend ofd Lee’s, Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, said Lee once told him why she never wrote again: “Two reasons: one, I wouldn’t go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again.”
I think we’d all agree that what she wanted to say was pretty damned good.
She may have been a one hit wonder. But what a hit it was.
‘Spectacular historical fiction blazing with intrigue, romance and dramatic action’
- Booklist
OR SEE THE KINDLE VERSION HERE.
IT’S ALSO AVAILABLE ON BARNES AND NOBLE, KOBO AND APPLE.
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I have never read the book, but did see the movie. She had a very interesting attitude about writing. It makes me wonder how many other authors have stopped after one book, feeling they told all there was to tell. It also makes me wonder what Lee might have been able to do if she hadn’t stopped there. I suppose it’s possible she didn’t really consider herself a ‘real’ writer, but it’s too bad. I’d bet she had more stories than she realized.
Kristy, I’m back. I suppose a real late reply is better than no reply at all … it’s a good question - JD Salinger springs immediately to mind. I believe that Harper Lee did start writing another novel but trashed it, unfinished. To Kill a Mockingbird was highly autobiographical so perhaps she found herself writing the same thing and came to the conclusion she’d said all she wanted. Margaret Mitchell never wrote again after Gone With the Wind. I really admire her for not writing the sequel - these days the publishers would be throwing money at her to do it.