Thoughts Of To Kill A Mockingbird Author Harper Lee

It was with surprise, pleasure, and delight that I read this morning that Lee is writing
an item for O: The Oprah Magazine. For the magazine's July summer reading issue, Lee wrote a letter about growing up a reader in a rural town in Alabama during the Depression. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about Harper Lee, the reclusive author of To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the best novels and movies of the 20th century. Lee, 80, won the Pulitzer Prize for her book. She has a new article coming out shortly, her first published item in more than 10 years.

Lee stopped giving interviews more than 40 years ago. This makes one wonder what is on her mind these days, let alone the questions about whether she is ever going to have another book published.

Lee has been in the news lately because of an unauthorized biography, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles Shields. The book tries to shed light into who Lee was when she wrote the book and who she is now.

My interest in Lee increased earlier today as I watched a documentary about Gregory Peck who played the lead character in the movie version of To Kill A Mockingbird. The documentary is an extra on the DVD. Peck says that role was one of his favorites.

I was watching because I am planning a series of reviews of movies involving Harper Lee and Truman Capote. They are linked in that she helped him write In Cold Blood, but both she and Capote deny he helped her write To Kill A Mockingbird.

While I would be more excited to hear she is writing a new book, fresh words from this wise, brilliant writer will have to suffice.