Home >  A & E

Thursday, February 20, 2003

By Bob Hoover, Post-Gazette Book Editor

Like a character from a Eudora Welty novel, Harper Lee is a shadowy figure living quietly in a Southern town.

At 77, she refuses interviews and makes few public appearances.

"I am still alive, though very quiet," she wrote in 1993 when asked to write a new introduction to "To Kill a Mockingbird."

She refused. "Please spare 'Mockingbird' an introduction. ... 'Mockingbird' still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive without preamble."

It has more than survived. Never out of print since it appeared in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize, Lee's only novel is a staple of school reading lists.

"This is a book that most every American, if they haven't read it, has at least heard of it," said Shannon Ravenel, publisher of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, N.C.

"She deserves all the attention she gets. The book is just wonderful," said Ravenel, whose firm publishes Lewis Nordan, a writer and University of Pittsburgh professor.

The book remains popular because "it always seems so fresh no matter how many times you read," said Ravenel. "Scout is always a beautiful little girl. Atticus is the father figure for all time."

Novelist Lee Smith, author of "The Last Girls," says Lee's novel has proved to be "a seminal reading experience for anybody who tries it.

"It's such a wonderful springboard into many valuable conversations," said Smith, whose works are set in the South. "It gives us all a way to talk about people who are disenfranchised, to talk about tolerance and community."

"To Kill a Mockingbird" reflects the time and setting of Lee's childhood. Growing up in Monroeville, Ala., where she still lives, the author was about the same age as her young narrator, Scout, when the notorious "Scottsboro Boys" case involving a group of young black men charged with raping two white women in that Alabama town drew national attention.

A rape trial is the centerpiece of her book, with the accused black man defended by Scout's father. Lee's father was an attorney as well.

Lee herself pursued a law career, but dropped out of the University of Alabama Law School in 1949 to try a career as a writer in New York.

While writing her novel, she also worked as researcher for childhood friend Truman Capote on his book, "In Cold Blood." It is claimed that her character of Jem is based on Capote.

Apart from several magazine pieces in the 1960s, Lee has never published another work.