Deborah Markus’s Reviews > The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee > Status Update

Re that last update:

In 2012, the magazine's editors, recalling that 1961 survey, wrote about [Harper Lee's] long public silence. "Here's to hoping it wasn't because we cited Lee as the author of "To Kill a Hummingbird." Oy. Some 50 years later, WD still regrets (and heavily cringes at) the error. Sorry, Harper!"

I'll tell you all the good stuff from this book so you don't have to read it yourself.

[In 1961], Writer's Digest asked several authors, "What advice would you offer a person who aspires to a writing career?"

Lee's response was telling. "I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide."

In small type below her signature, the magazine identifies her as the "author of To Kill a Hummingbird."

Out feeding ducks:

The sisters noticed the aggressive ducks and the more passive ones. Nelle commented on the way one new goose briskly circled the lake, small head held high above a slim, regal neck. He was showing who was top goose, she speculated, and Alice agreed. Or maybe he was just checking out the new territory. The interpretations were the Lees'.

This author thinks her readers are morons.

I wondered about [the Lee sisters'] romantic lives. Dating, either as young women or in later years, never came up in conversation with either sister. It didn't seem to be a topic up for discussion. Finally, I asked Nelle if Alice had dated at some point. I asked Alice the same of Nelle. A little, was the answer both gave. And that was that.

It's this kind of discovery that makes the book worth reading.

You would not believe how much time the author spends talking about paper towels in this book.

If you would believe it, congratulations -- your standards are appropriately low enough that you might be able to enjoy this book. I sure as sin can't.

She finally decided to mention how Nelle Harper Lee's first name is pronounced. (Yep, it's "Nell.")

He was short, only five feet four inches, not much taller than I am.

Okay, you can tell me how tall he is. But why do you have to then turn it around to your height? Especially given that this is the second time in under fifty pages you've mentioned how tall you are?

This book is moving veeeery slowly, and the author is an incredibly self-focused writer. I'm not in love here.

As I got to know Nelle and her friends,

Am I the only one who's wondered how "Nelle" -- Harper Lee's first name -- is pronounced? Her mother's name was Ellen, and she was (sort of) named after her. She skipped to her middle name as her nom de plume exactly because she didn't want any confusion as to how her first name was pronounced -- is it Nell-eh? Nellie?

Why isn't the author saying?

One reporter at a Chicago press conference to promote the film took note of her weight and the fact that she didn't curl her hair. "Chicago Press Call" included this description by a reporter for Rogue, a Chicago-based men's magazine, in its December 1963 issue: "Harper Lee arrived. She is 36-years-old, tall, and a few pounds on the wrong side of Metrecal [a popular diet food of the time]."

Grrr.

On Christmas Day in 1956, Harper Lee was spending the holiday at the home of her friends Joy and Michael Brown. She found an envelope addressed to her on the tree in their living room. Inside was a simple message: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas."

Great story. One that can be found elsewhere. Where are the details? Who are the Browns? Where did they meet?