Rest in Peace Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird is a favorite of mine. But I have to say a little something about Harper Lee’s wonderful friends, fans, and editor. I blogged about Lee and her novels three times in July 2015 but as the world grieves her death I have to agree with the African proverb that, “it takes a village to raise a child”.

In 2014 Sean Braswell told the story of how a “village” supported Lee’s creative dream: “In 1956 Lee was a rather taciturn 30-year-old ticket agent for the British Overseas Airways Company, who, like many aspiring writers, had come to New York City to pursue her dream. But after seven years of struggle, it seemed beyond her grasp. And without further help, and with no Kickstarter for another 53 years, that is perhaps where her dream would have ended.

Luckily, thanks to an introduction from Truman Capote, her childhood friend and neighbor, Lee had made two very good friends in New York: a Broadway composer named Michael Brown and his wife, Joy, a Balanchine dancer.

Lee became a bona fide extension of the Brown family, and any free time she had that was not devoted to writing was spent with Michael, Joy and their three boys at the Browns’ East 50th Street brownstone. The Browns had read Lee’s short stories, and they appreciated her dream — and her immense gift — better than anyone. They also shared her frustration at the challenges of writing while holding down a full-time job.

The Browns did not want to see Lee spend her life working as an airlines clerk while hoping to become something else.

So, in the fall of 1956, when the Browns came into some cash because Michael had been hired to create a show for Esquire magazine, they decided to do something about Lee’s situation and to give their friend a big break — literally. When Lee opened her Christmas present from the couple that year, she found a note that read: ‘You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.’

In short order, Lee quit her job, got an agent and devoted herself to writing. Just over a year later, she had a finished manuscript and a publisher. And the result of the Browns’ generous gift (which Lee later repaid in full) and Lee’s newfound freedom was no less than the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling novel of the 20th century, To Kill a Mockingbird .”

To Kill a Mockingbird still sells 750,000 copies each year. What writer wouldn’t be thrilled with simply selling 750,000 copies in a lifetime? And what writer wouldn’t welcome a couple of angel investors as well as an astute agent/editor/publisher?

We are all grateful for Lee’s friends and their undying support. But even with all this support, Lee’s editor, Tay Hohoff, didn’t believe Lee’s manuscript was fit for publication. She described it as “more a series of antidotes than a fully conceived novel.” According to Jonathan Mahler, Hohoff worked with Lee for three years before Mockingbird appeared on bookshelves in 1960.

We now see where Mockingbird came from—Go Set a Watchman was the original manuscript that was published last year amid overwhelming controversy. Yes, it’s one of those good novels like so many I read and put down with a sigh. You just know that as good as it is, it’s not going to be a best seller or a ‘change the world’ piece of literature. (I’ve also blogged about this on January fourth of this year: How Harper Collins Cheated Wiley Cash.) So many writers, myself included, never have the good fortune to have our manuscripts picked up by someone like Tay Hohoff who can help us turn our good novels into great novels. Harper Lee could have lived out her life as a ticket agent chasing a dream that was not to be. Instead, she allowed the village to hold her up and let her fly. And the world is a better place because of her.

                                                                             Leo L. Fuchs/Universal Pictures/Photofest

And as long as the world goes on, we’ll remember Atticus, Scout, Jem, Tom Robinson, and Boo with endearment. 

Go Set A Watchman is right up there with Fifty Shades of Grey

In HarperCollins’s press release of Go Set A Watchman, Michael Morrison states, “…that in lines that manage to be both tautological and cliché-sodden, that ‘Watchman’ is a ‘brilliant book’ and a ‘masterpiece’ that will be ‘revered for generations to come.’ Jonathan Burnham, Senior Vice President and publisher of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins believes that ‘Watchman’ “is a remarkable literary event,” although he obviously means publishing event: big difference.

And isn’t this also true of Fifty Shades of Grey, that it was a tautological and cliché-sodden publishing event? The novel by E.L.James was first self-published on Kindle and reviewed mostly on Goodreads where it went viral on social media and garnered a phenomenally high average rating and sold ten million copies in the first six weeks. The novel placed second in the Best Romance Award in the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards. A year later, Vintage Books a part of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and a subsidiary of Random House, won the publishing rights in a bidding war. The war didn’t seem to be about great literature as much as financial gains. To date Fifty Shades has sold over 100 million copies and remained on the New York Times Best Seller List for 100 weeks as of February 2014.

  Yes, I did what I said I’d never do. I read Fifty Shades—well, I actually skimmed it. Both books (Go Set A Watchman and Fifty Shades of Grey) apparently read like comic books, Fifty Shades surely does but I must admit that I only read the first chapter of Watchman and am basing my opinion on the hundreds of articles and reviews online.

The premise of Fifty Shades of Grey is a coming of age erotic romance between Anastasia Steele, an innocent /naïve young woman, and Christian Grey, a psychologically injured young billionaire who are unable to give the other what they need. Anastasia wants to love and be loved while Christian needs to inflict sexual pain on submissive women (BDSM). Anastasia wants to help Christian recover from a childhood trauma yet the story is shallow. Can you imagine what a gifted writer or an insightful publisher could do to make this story worthy of say, a Pulitzer Prize?

The shallow story holds true for Harper Lee’s original manuscript of To Kill A Mockingbird. Fortunately, Tay Hohoff encouraged Lee to turn a rough draft into a beloved masterpiece. Go Set A Watchman, that rough draft, should never havebeen printed. An astute editor could have at least changed the name of the girl, the name of the father, the name of the town, and the name of the accused defendant. Then all we’d have to worry about would be the bad grammar and not the fall of one of American’s greatest literary heroes.

An Amazon review of Go Set A Watchman by VANESSA, titled I WISH I HADN’T READ IT on July 14, 2015states, “GSAW is just not a very good book. This book can only be of interest to writers and literary scholars as it illustrates how a very poor first draft can be reworked to become a masterpiece.”

An Amazon review of Fifty Shades of Grey by meymoon, titled, DID A TEENAGER WRITE THIS? on April 15, 2012 stated: “Then there’s the writing. If you take out the parts where the female character is blushing or chewing her lips, the book will be down to about 50 pages. Almost on every single page, there is a whole section devoted to her blushing, chewing her lips, or wondering, “Jeez” about something or another.”

As for Go Set A Watchman, William Giraldi stated that, "Ponderous and lurching, haltingly confected, the novel plods along in search of plot, tranquilizes you with vast fallow patches, with deadening dead zones, with onslaughts of cliché and dialogue made of pamphleteering monologue or else eye-rolling chit-chat. You are confronted by entire pages of her Uncle Jack's oracular babble, and you must machete through the bracken of listless, throw-away prose in order to get a memorable turn of phrase. 'Jean Louise smiled to herself' and 'Jean Louise laughed aloud' and then 'Jean Louise shook her head' before 'Jean Louise's eyebrows flickered.' Someone has 'green envy' and someone else 'worked night and day,' while someone 'dropped dead in his tracks' and someone was 'bored stiff.'

"For once, none of those flaws in the novel can be blamed on the author. She was learning how to write when she composed Watchman and wasn't able to ready this draft to publication. In the two and a half years it took her to turn this mess into To Kill A mockingbird, she evolved beautifully as a stylist and storyteller, helped along by an astute editor." 

I'll end my rant with one more Amazon review. A TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF A GOOD EDITOR by RosieDee753 on July 14, 2015: "The short version of this review is, if nothing else, Go Set A Watchman, especially compared to the brilliance of, To Kill A Mockingbird, is a testament to the power of a good editor."

And to that I say, "Amen!"

Whose Pulitzer Prize Is It? To Kill A Mockingbird.

Five years ago, on the 50^th anniversary of the publication of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, Louisa Thomas asked the same question I’m going to ask today—Who really wrote ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’?

 I can’t help wondering about Harper Lee’s agent and publisher’s involvement during the almost three years  before ‘Mockingbird’ appeared on bookshelves in 1960. According to her editor at J.B. Lippincott (Tay Hohoff), Nelle Harper Lee’s manuscript was by no means fit for publication. Hohoff described it, “more a series of antidotes than a fully conceived novel and by no means fit for publication.” (The Invisible Hand Behind Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Jonathan Mahler of The New York Times).

Tay Hohoff saw hope for the world when a white lawyer would go full out to represent a Black man. Before all the Civil Rights Leaders of the 50s and 60s there was Atticus Finch showing us ‘freedom for all’. But this idea doesn’t seem to be Harper Lee’s.

When I was new to writing, I submitted a rough draft of my first novel to Gardenia Press, in Wisconsin. The small mid-west press was a far cry from the big publishing houses in NYC but I’d searched for a couple of years for somebody to accept or at least appreciate my writing. I believe Harper Lee did the same. I worked with my editor, Elizabeth Collins, for over a year changing the story from first person to third and learning about point of view and voice, scene breaks and strong verbs. The story slowly improved until Elizabeth suggested I enter it the company’s First Novel Writing Contest 2001 where I won an honorable mention. Gardenia still didn’t think the novel was ready for publication so Elizabeth and I spent another year battling it out. In 2003, Gardenia Press published ‘Child of My Heart’. As much help as I received from Elizabeth Collins, ‘Child’ remained entirely mine. Elizabeth took a heartfelt story and made me write it in proper English.

When I think of Tay Hohoff I’m astonished. Harper Lee brought a subpar novel to Hohoff, a genius editor, and after years of revisions ‘Go Set A Watchman’ evolved into ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’—a best seller, an acclaimed novel, and the winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But who really deserved the Prize?

Tay Hohoff assisted Lee in turning, “a distressing narrative filled with characters spouting hate speech” (MichikoKakutani, chief book critic of The New York Times) into one of the most popular and beloved books of all time. Which brings me to this: The 72-year-old Atticus Finch in ‘Watchman’ is not the wise and heroic young lawyer of ‘Mockingbird’ and this older Atticus was a man both Tay Hohoff and Harper Lee refused to show the world. Tay Hohoff died in 1974 at the age of 75. Nelle Harper Lee suffered a stroke in 2007 and is by many accounts completely deaf and blind. Lee is 89 years old and resides in an assisted living facility in Alabama. So who in the world allowed ‘Watchman’ to be published? Tonja Carter, Lee’s estate trustee, lawyer, and friend? And why didn’t Lee or Carter change the character’s names since ‘Watchman’ and ‘Mockingbird’ are supposed to be two completely different stories? I am personally heartsick at the change in Atticus Finch as he aged. It’s an abomination of the character of a beloved American icon.

I guess we’ll see in the coming weeks if ‘Watchman’ flies or bombs. If it bombs then I say the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for fiction should be re-awarded to Tay Hohoff. 

Atticus Finch, Dixie Land, and The Confederate Flag

Who in the world doesn’t agree that Harper Lee’s, Atticus Finch, in her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, is the most endearing fictional image of racial heroism?

I believe that Lee’s editors were correct in encouraging her to hold back a later story of Atticus and Scout to focus on the 1936 account of the life and times of Maycomb, Alabama.

If you haven’t heard by now, last week The New York Times as well as the BBC panned, ‘Go Set A Watchman’, by Lee stating that this older Atticus is a racist who says things to Scout like, “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theatres? Do you want them in our world?”

The theme of ‘Mockingbird’ is empathy for those like Boo and Tom Robinson, while the theme in ‘Watchman’ is empathy for bigots like the 72-year-old Atticus.

It’s ironic that the release of ‘Watchman’ took place in the same week as the removal of the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s Capitol after a 54-year run. For most, this is a good thing. On Sunday people in Ocala, Florida rallied in support to put the Confederate flag back up at the McPherson Government Complex with the Southern Pride Ride—a parade to support Southern heritage. “The flag has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people,” said David Stone, 38, who organized the event. “It doesn’t symbolize hate unless you think it’s hate—and that’s your problem, not mine.”

In the week before the ‘ride’ two small protests were held in Ocala in opposition to the Confederate flag—for those who see it as a symbol of racial hatred. The protests and rallies are spreading and this is a very good thing for the shooter in Savannah. This is just the beginning of what he wanted to happen—not the peaceful ride for pride but the bitter disputes between races.

When I walk on my new treadmill, I try to sing or recite something to lose track of time. When I started walking this morning, I found myself pondering the young Atticus Finch and the rebel flag and I broke out singing one of my favorite Girl Scout songs from my childhood, ‘Dixie’ by Daniel Decatur Emmett of Mount Vernon, Ohio. 

Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Old times there are not forgotten,

Look away, look away, look away Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land, where I was born in,

Early on a frosty mornin’,

Look away, look away, look away Dixie Land.

I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray, Hooray!

In Dixie Land I’ll take my stand,

To live and die in Dixie.

Away, away, away down south in Dixie.

Away, away, away down south in Dixie.

This is a benign song about a dearly loved place. Back when I was ten, I imagined that while the Southerners sang ‘Dixie’ they waved the rebel flag in pride and not in hate. Southerners are proud of their heritage and proud of their part in the Civil War. They’re proud of their Armies and especially their Generals and forts and the battles so bravely fought. Even Southern Black soldiers fought for the Confederacy. Southerners fought for their land, their cotton fields, their farms, for their red clay, and for their muddy rivers. The Confederate flag is honored and cherished as a remembrance of a proud society that reeked of the blood of their ancestors. But today, we see that the fight was really about keeping the Blacks down and not so much about anything else. The flag that means land and family and Southern pride for some, means white supremacy and segregation to others.

So when I sing Dixie, I sing about the pride in my roots. I sing about The South that I love so much and like someone at the rally said, “we’re not looking back, but to the future.” The Confederate flag is a military flag and I hope it will find a proud place to wave. I hope we can put our violent past and the 72-year-old Atticus Finch behind us and look to the future through the eyes of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Don’t let the white shooter in Savannah win. He massacred nine innocent Black people, ‘to start a racial war,’ and that’s what’s happening—with the older Atticus Finch on the front lines.

I won’t say any more than this: I won’t be reading ‘Watchman’.