The Nature of Things

My daughter says she doesn't think she can read Go Set a Watchman , the just released first draft of Harper Lee's beloved book, To Kill a Mockingbird . Both of my daughters grew up with To Kill a Mockingbird and the image of a morally impeccable Atticus Finch. He was one of their heroes. That heroic image was enhanced by the wonderful movie in which the sainted Gregory Peck played Finch to such perfection. It is hard to think of that image being tarnished and changed by the knowledge that the author initially had an entirely different profile in mind for Atticus Finch, and I understand that many of those who loved Mockingbird are very troubled by that. I feel quite ambivalent about it myself. But having now read several reviews of Watchman and more about the history of how it came to be, I think I better understand what Alabama writer Harper Lee was trying to do with her first draft and why her editor in New York wanted her to change it to focus on the voice of the younger J...

Both of my daughters worked at bookstores after high school and before they got on with the rest of their lives. Both used to love telling stories about confused patrons who mixed up the titles of the books they were trying to purchase. The classic, of course, is the student who was looking for How to Kill a Mockingbird . Probably everyone who has ever worked in a bookstore can tell similar stories. To Kill a Mockingbird is such a beloved book and is so much a part of our national identity, how we see ourselves - we all strive to be Atticus - that it is no wonder that the recent announcement that a sequel would be published later this year caused such a stir. Perhaps it could have even been predicted that the initial excitement would give way to second thoughts and questioning. After all, for more than fifty years, Harper Lee had declined to publish another book. There had been rumors that there was such a book that was written around the same time as Mockingbird but there was never ...

Four years ago, in July 2010, the literary world celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird and I posted an appreciation of the much-loved book. Here it is once again. *~*~*~* There's been a lot of hullaballoo about the fiftieth anniversay of  To Kill a Mockingbird , Harper Lee's masterwork and only work. Libraries around the country, including our own  Houston Public Library , are celebrating the anniversary with special events. And well they should, for  Mockingbird  is certainly a significant book in the literary history of this country. It may not be a great book by strictly objective literary standards, but it is great in its message of humaneness and humanity and in its moral weight. Lee's story of the summer when Jem broke his arm and all the things that led up to that moment in a small town in Alabama is a simple enough tale of children beginning to learn what the world is all about and losing their innocence, but it is a...