{"id":7240,"date":"2010-07-25T14:04:40","date_gmt":"2010-07-25T19:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/"},"modified":"2010-07-25T14:04:40","modified_gmt":"2010-07-25T19:04:40","slug":"nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/","title":{"rendered":"(Nelle) Harper Lee: A Monument Not Built"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"HarperLee2.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Charles Shields\u2019 biography of Harper Lee is baffling because Harper Lee refused to play the game, except she did play the game for a few innings in the early 60s when her famous novel came out and it was made into a movie with Gregory Peck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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I just finished Charles Shields\u2019 biography, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>, and have to say it was a delightful read.\u00a0\n
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Fans and historians and generally interested folks somehow sense they deserve to know more about Harper Lee. Most authors oblige fans in all sorts of ways. Lee didn\u2019t and doesn\u2019t and that\u2019s OK by me, but it makes the whole story of her life a bit baffling. Anyone who studies the life of another asks the why question, and the one whose story is being told often answers the questions or leaves clues.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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But Harper Lee\u2019s what I\u2019d call a Monument not Built. Famous authors, and she\u2019s surely one, often become monuments of fame and attention. This happens because said authors let it happen and encourage it to happen. Lee chose another way. Just when fame was about to go out of control, she knocked it down to size. She was in that game for awhile and then she became a private person and that\u2019s all there\u2019s to it. She evidently likes to read and write and drink coffee, and to do those things by herself.<\/div>\n
\n
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There are some basic facts. She grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. Her father was one of the centers of this Southern town, a lawyer, owned the newspaper, and had a wife who struggled with mental health. One of his daughters, Alice, was called \u201cAtticus with a skirt\u201d by Harper Lee. One of their next door neighbors, at least some of the time and for parts of years, was none other than Truman Capote. Nelle and Truman were best of friends, and Truman took credit for encouraging Nelle to become a reader and writer.<\/div>\n
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For all her efforts, Harper Lee was anything but normal \u2013 she was very bright and independent and thought for herself and often to herself and by herself. Her high school English teacher, along with Alice, were her biggest life-influencers \u2014 that is outside her father. She never married.<\/div>\n
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She went to Univ of Alabama Law school but stopped shy of graduation because she wanted to go to NY to write \u2026 and she did. Her father wasn\u2019t happy. But a friendly family there, in a stroke of what now seems like historical luck, decided to support her for one year so she could write. Which she did \u2026 but she, like all authors, needed wisdom from editors and her agent and friends as she learned the art of fiction writing. Her first novel,\u00a0To Kill a Mockingbird: 50th Anniversary Edition<\/a>\"\"\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>, was her only novel. It changed America. It is likely the only Monument she\u2019ll permit. Good for her, I say.<\/div>\n
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She tried her hand at another novel but the story goes that someone broke into her home and stole it and she didn\u2019t have the heart to start all over. She evidently began research later on another, but it didn\u2019t make it into print either. We can probably all speculate whether there are some more manuscripts sitting in her home and when she passes on we\u2019ll hear about them \u2026 and we can speculate all we want. But I\u2019d have to say if she wanted them in print they\u2019d be in print. Since they aren\u2019t in print, she doesn\u2019t want them there. Good for her, I say.<\/div>\n
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She helped Truman Capote, a weird dude if ever there was one, write In Cold Blood<\/i>, and didn\u2019t get credit for her part because Capote stiffed her. She lived in both NYC and in Monroeville, where she lives the way she chooses to live: involved but unnoticed, independent, and leaving would-be historians and interviewers baffled. We\u2019re told she can be seen in Monroeville, but the locals protect her in uncanny ways. The way she\u2019d want it and the way it ought to be.<\/div>\n
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Shields tells a good story; I\u2019d have liked to hear more about her golf game. She evidently played often.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ms. Harper Lee, if you ever hear about this little review, I want you to know that I like the Monument you did build and I also like the Monument Not Built. Good for you.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Shields\u2019 biography of Harper Lee is baffling because Harper Lee refused to play the game, except she did play the game for a few innings in the early 60s when her famous novel came out and it was made into a movie with Gregory Peck.\u00a0 I just finished Charles Shields\u2019 biography, Mockingbird: A Portrait […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n(Nelle) Harper Lee: A Monument Not Built<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charles Shields' biography of Harper Lee is baffling because Harper Lee refused to play the game, except she did play the game for a few innings in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"(Nelle) Harper Lee: A Monument Not Built\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Charles Shields' biography of Harper Lee is baffling because Harper Lee refused to play the game, except she did play the game for a few innings in the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-25T19:04:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/HarperLee2-thumb-333x561-16426.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/\",\"name\":\"(Nelle) Harper Lee: A Monument Not Built\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-25T19:04:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-07-25T19:04:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Charles Shields' biography of Harper Lee is baffling because Harper Lee refused to play the game, except she did play the game for a few innings in the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/25\/nelle-harper-lee-a-monument-not-built\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"(Nelle) Harper Lee: A Monument Not Built\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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