To Kill a Legacy

My Thoughts on Harper Lee, J. D. Salinger, a Writer’s Legacy, and Their Wishes for Their Creative Work

On February 3, 2015, it was announced that Harper Lee, the author of the young adult classic To Kill a Mockingbird, approved the publication of a sequel 55 years after her much-beloved, award-winning, singular novel was published. According to a press release from Harpers (who only communicated through Lee’s lawyer and literary agent, not with Lee herself), a manuscript was “discovered” titled Go Set a Watchman attached to an original typed manuscript of To Kill a Mockingbird in storage. Then the frenzy began! “Another book by Harper Lee?!” they mostly said. “I can’t wait!” There were also dissenters who said, “Uh, this sounds fishy. Why now?” And I agree. Why now? For one reason only: Money.

You can Google the history of To Kill a Mockingbird and the behavior and quotes attributed to Harper Lee in dealing with the staggering success of her novel in the decades following the initial publication of the book. She never wanted to publish another book and was also quoted as saying that everything she wanted to say — as a writer — was in To Kill a Mockingbird. She was reticent to talk about the themes of the book, claiming everything you needed to know was also in the book. In the years following the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird the book as well the release of the award-winning and beloved movie version starring Gregory Peck, Lee certainly could have gone to her publisher and said, “I have another book! It’s about Scout and Atticus 20 years later. It’ll be a bestseller. I’ll rule the literary world!” But she didn’t, and the reasons she didn’t make complete sense to me as a writer.

It is easy for me to understand the excitement from readers who love To Kill a Mockingbird and their desire to want to read this newly “discovered” novel titled Go Set a Watchman. To Kill a Mockingbird is an American classic. People love this book. Practically every student in middle school or high school in the United States has read this book. It’s still in-print and sells over a million copies a year. People wanted more from Harper Lee back in the 1960s, and people still want more now. But as it states here, “Ms. Lee abandoned the manuscript [of Go Set a Watchman] after her editor, who was captivated by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, told her to write a new book from the young heroine’s perspective and to set it during her childhood.” Lee pulled out the best parts of this manuscript, abandoned it, and wrote another novel. Lee knew it wasn’t good enough then, and in the years after To Kill a Mockingbird was published, it still wasn’t good enough.

As a writer, I’m appalled at the idea that a few months after her sister died in the fall of 2014 (Alice Lee, a lawyer who was her companion and her protector from public scrutiny) and knowing that Harper Lee was in failing health (she had a stroke in 2007 and was nearly blind and deaf) that she would now, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, approve the publication of a novel she abandoned in the 1950s. It’s just absurd. As great as To Kill a Mockingbird is as a book, great writers don’t always “hit them out of the park.” Sometimes great writers “whiff a few.” Sometimes, they write some stuff, and they think it’s shit. If she would have wanted this novel published years ago, then she would have done it. She was in the position to do it, whether it was crap or not. This is celebrity voyeurism at its worst, and contrary to Harper Lee’s wishes for her legacy.

Read the full article on Medium.com

This blog post originally appeared on Medium.com, January 6, 2020. Written by Scott Semegran.