Who wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird?"

[DemoTex]

Harper Lee or Truman Capote? Or both?

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Harper Lee.

Definitely.

[Dookus]

2. Harper Lee, alone

Truman Capote's ego would NEVER have allowed somebody else to take credit for such an acclaimed work.

[mitchum]

6. Well said, Dookus!

:)

[eileen from OH]

16. Ahh, but that underestimates his loyalty

particularly towards the end of his life, when he was deserted by all those "friends" ...

eileen from OH

[Dookus]

19. This was in 1961...

LONG before the end of his life. And he showed NO loyalty, ever.
Even late in life, when he was writing Answered Prayers, it was a betrayal of the entire social set he lived among.

I love Truman Capote - he's my favorite writer. I have first editions of almost all his work, some autographed. I've read a number of biographies of him. ALL of them present him as a raging egomaniac, a liar and an inveterate boaster.

He also always felt slighted that his work hadn't won major awards. To Kill a Mockingbird won a Pulitzer. He could NEVER have gone 20 years without claiming authorship of TKAM if he had actually had a part in it.

[eileen from OH]

27. Ah, I disagree

I think he was extremely blinded by the supposed friendships he had with Babs Paley, Lee Radziwall (sp?) etc. (Although Lee was one of the few that stuck with him.) He had been doing this kind of "nudge-nudge" roman a clef thing for years in articles and interviews and I think he was truly shocked that they should be actually insulted about it. Plimpton seems to think that there was a huge naive/innocent streak to Capote and I tend to agree. There was all this "dish-dish" stuff, but that's not about "us". And I DO think there was a kernel of loyalty to Capote, particularly when it came to childhood friends, like Lee. He was a skinny, short, effemionate li'l Southern gay boy, when that was the Kiss Of Death, and Lee was always there for him.

Yeah, I know he really, really was upset that he never won a major award, but I also think that what REALLY upset him was knowing that TKAM was at least as much his at it was Lee's. There was a promise made, I think, somewhere along the line. Maybe he knew he couldn't claim it, after it was published, maybe he did it as a favor (my theory) and there's a certain Southern etiquette that even he could not violate, but yeah, I think TKAM is as much his at it is hers.

BTW, Dookus, did you ever see Bobby Morse do "Tru"? Fucking brilliant.


eileen from OH

[Dookus]

28. Yes, I did see Tru on Broadway

it was great.

I just disagree with your other points. As I said, Capote's my favorite author, and TKAM is my favorite book. I see certain similarities in style, but I also see plenty of differences.

As to loyalty, I think Capote was immensely disloyal to almost anybody he ever knew. He broke confidences, turned on people, and, in Answered Prayers, did it all in one fell swoop.

He was also an extremely confessional author, in the great Southern tradition. Combine his vanity, his ego, his feelings of being underappreciated, and his personal character, I just don't see him keeping such a major secret about himself for over 20 years.

[eileen from OH]

32. I'm interested - what differences do you see?

Especially with Grass Harp? I also find it interesting that the biggest argument against Capote as (at least) the co-author of TKAM is not the writing/style (since it's tough to compare it to anything else Lee wrote, since there ain't much) but his personality/reputation. I don't think he was the sole author - it was her story after all. But I also reject that the extremely complicated human that was Capote could not have also been capable of things we did not expect from him. Just as you say that he was incapable of keeping that kind of secret, I say that there were things even he kept sacred, in the whole Southern/honor tradition. Again, I think that a deal was made between him and Lee - maybe in return for her labor on ICB, and both stuck with it and only her death will reveal the truth. God knows he had few enough true friends, but if he knew he could count on her in a weird symbiotic relationship, that may have been enough to keep him quiet. What would it have gained him to claim it after she won the Pulitzer? No one would have believed him anyway and he wasn't so dumb that he didn't realize that.

Ultimately, I do wanna stick in here that I don't give a damn who wrote TKAM. It's enough for me that it WAS written.

eileen from OH

[Dookus]

33. I guess the big difference

is that I don't recall Capote ever writing so fawningly over an adult male figure, as Lee does with Atticus. In Capote's children/adult relationships, it was always older women he admired so much - not men, maybe because of his relationship with his own father and aunts.

Also, I don't know of Capote ever writing from a girl's perspective. And finally, I just find TKAM to be a more magical tale than Capote normally told. Hard to put my finger on it, but Capote's children were very very grown up - again, probably due to Capote's own circumstances. Scout was a real girl, and the beauty of the writing is its authenticity.

[eileen from OH]

34. But see. .. I think his genius

was his versatility and empathy. I mean, compare some of the more sentimental pieces with IN COLD BLOOD. That was SO journalistic - he invented "true fiction" (I love that term) with that book. It was 180 degrees from anything else he had written. So I don't have any prob thinking he could write anything he damn well wanted, from any perspective. Maybe the REAL question isn't if he wrote TKAM, but did Lee write ICB? When you think about it, that was the book that was so not Capote, much more than TKAM.

As far as the girl's perspective, well, geesh, gosh, hell I don't wanna get into this BUT. . . Scout wasn't 'zactly a "girl". I mean, great pains are taken to pump up her tomboy tendencies, the reluctance to wear a dress, all that. Was her perspective really a "girl's"? (Yeah, I know I'm heading into real pschobabble territory here, but think about it.)

BTW, Dookus, really enjoying the conversation - there ain't a whole lot of Capote-philes out there.

eileen from OH

[Dookus]

35. Thanks

I'm enjoying it too...

I think the "girlishness" comes from being daddy's little girl. She obviously adored her father. As for being feminine, well yeah, I agree, Scout was more masculine than Capote or his boy characters. But again, being a sissy is very very different from being a tomboy.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

3. Harper Lee

she grew up with Truman Capote in Alabama. The character Dill was based on him.

[Gildor Inglorion]

4. Harper Lee

Truman Capote was her childhood friend. The little boy, Dill, was based on Truman as a child.

[mn9driver]

5. I always thought Harper Lee. nt

[DemoTex]

7. Good answers. I agree.

I once dated Harper's niece, M___. In fact, we were in love (before Vietnam). M___'s dad was "Jem," in To Kill a Mockingbird, and he had been killed in a sports car accident in the early 60s. The whole sad thing reminds me of a Christine Lavin song.

[mitchum]

10. Man, that is fascinating about "Jem" dying in an auto accident...

I always tell my wife that Jem died in the Pacific during WWII (because I can be a real prick sometimes)

[DemoTex]

11. Austin-Healy 3000 if I remember correctly.

M___'s dad Jem (actually he went by "Jim") did not serve in WW-2.

[TahitiNut]

12. Awesome car. British Racing Green and a top end around 120-130.

My best friend from high school had one and I coveted it. A true sports car.

[DemoTex]

14. The BRG Healy's were the killers. IMHO!

Something about BRG. Silver, on the other hand, is a perfect color for a A-H 3000. Or a Porsche 356.

[4morewars]

8. Harper Lee, but read this...

<edit>
2- As a child Harper Lee spent most of her free time together with her friends Truman Capote and Jennings Faulk Carter.
<edit>

.... 'And why is it a sin to kill a dumb mockingbird?'
In his sincerest, deepest professor's voice Truman said, 'Because they eat little colored babies' eyes out.'
Boss quit splashing. Quiet settled over the pool. Boss glared at Truman with a dumbstruck look on his face. 'So?' he said.
Without cracking so much as a hint of a smile, Truman continued. 'With their eyes gone they can't find their mother's nongies, they'll starve to death. So mockingbirds keep down the colored population.'"
---From: Marianne M. Moates: Truman Capote's Southern Years, New York,1989
-----------------------------------------------------
Now read this:
1- Harper Lee gives the following information about a mockingbird:
Attacus says to Jem,"'..., but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'"
Were upon Miss Maudie explains,"'Your father's right,' she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill mockingbirds.'"
----Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird, Mandarin, London, 1997, p.99
--------------------------------------------------
More here:
http://www.educeth.ch/english/readinglist/leeh/meaning.html
http://www.educeth.ch/english/readinglist/leeh/mockingbird.html

[TahitiNut]

9. Yes, and it's both the first and the last novel she wrote.

Rather amazing to win the Pulitzer Prize on the only novel one wrote -- I'd say that's pretty damned unbeatable. It's also my favorite 20th century novel of all.

[DemoTex]

13. Harper Lee is a reclusive old lady in Monroeville, Alabama, now.

God bless her heart!

[corporatewhore]

15. Harper Lee

[DemoTex]

18. Sorry, wrong Harper

Try again. You won't find a current picture. Take my word on that.

[TahitiNut]

30. How're these (ca. 2000-2001)?

[VOX]

36. Here's another photo from 2001...

"The intensely private Harper Lee made a rare public appearance when she was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in Montgomery. (Newhouse News Service. Mobile Register file photo)"

[eileen from OH]

17. A little bit of both, mostly Capote

Harper Lee never wrote another thing, except for an essay or two. She shuns interviews, about TKAM, and anything, and is reclusive.

Read Capote, especially The Grass Harp, and the styles smack you in the face.

Capote was a childhood friend of Lee's, and she helped him with research on IN COLD BLOOD, and he was extremely fond of her. I have no doubt that the story line (Atticus was her father) began with Lee, but there is no evidence that she had the talent to develop the story. Capote DID have the talent, as well as an incredible loyalty to Lee.

I'm guessing that after her death there will be a confession that, while she may have had the story, and may have written the draft, it was Capote that actually wrote it.

Oh course I AM prejudiced in that I think Capote is one the finest writers that our country has ever produced. Flawed as a human being, perhaps, but an incredible genius nonetheless.


eileen from OH

[DemoTex]

20. I'm open! Maybe!

Capote might have helped Harper with "To Kill a Mockingbird." Harper Lee certainly helped Capote with "In Cold Blood."

[mitchum]

21. I also think that Capote was one of the finest writers this country...

has ever produced, but I still think that Lee wrote "Mockingbird" In Capote's work dealing with children (esp. "The Grass Harp" and "Other Voices, Other Rooms"), there is a somewhat forced "preciousness" and sentimentality which is not found in Lee's book. The only Capote exception which comes to mind is "Children on Their Birthdays"
I agree with you about Capote's genius. He should be judged by the quality of his work, not talk show spectacles and an acid tongue.

[DemoTex]

22. Interesting that Harper was /is so reclusive.

Capote was such a clown. Such a news-hound!

[mitchum]

23. He was the most well-known writer in America

I was 8 years old and knew who Truman Capote was, due to his numerous talk show appearances. Imagine that! A time in this country when a REAL writer (not some sitcom star with ghost-written tripe), was a regular guest on The Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, etc

[DemoTex]

24. Good point

Completly opposite of Harper Lee. Ever see Harper on a talk show?

[eileen from OH]

25. But also an extremely sensitive, and fragile person

the reaction to ANSWERED PRAYERS and the way he was viciously turned on by his supposed "friends" had a profound effect on him. He truly could not understand why people could be that NASTY - despite being equally nasty in his own life.

I DO think that Harper Lee made significant contributions to TKAM. But the actual writing is all-Capote.

eileen from OH

[Dookus]

26. I just can't see that....

Capote LOVED to take credit for nearly everything. How could he possibly have kept secret that he wrote the greatest novel of the 20th Century?

[eileen from OH]

29. I think there was a deal - a promise

and he stuck with it - hard as it was for him. There is that ol' Southern gentleman thing which may well indeed have trumped Capote's natural tendency to self aggrandizement.

[Dookus]

31. Well...

that theory requires we believe that an honorable woman (Lee) and dishonorable man (Capote) both lied and kept it secret.

Two honorable people - maybe. Two dishonorable people - perhaps. But one of each?