in a flock of crows." Born one year apart, they bonded over active imaginations and distant
mothers. "Nelle was too rough for the girls, and Truman was scared of the boys, so he just
tagged on to her and she was his protector" according to family friend Charles Ray Skinner,
author of "Mockingbird A Portrait of Harper Lee."
Nelle Harper Lee & Truman Capote.
They loved detective novels, Sherlock Holmes, the Rover Boys.
Summers were spent reading mysteries in their tree house haven.
They wrote their own stories on Mr. Lee's Underwood typewriter, taking turns as narrator
and typist.
Harper Lee once described her bond to Truman Capote as "a common anguish,"
of not fitting in with their peers. "We lived in our imagination most of the time."
They grew up to be two of the South's greatest writers.
Harper Lee produced a single, perfect novel in her life; her second published book
"Go Set a Watchman" was published 55 years later, when she was confined to a wheelchair,
blind and deaf. They enjoyed a close friendship into adulthood, living in New York,
supporting each other's writing ambitions, and even appearing, thinly disguised, in each
others writings. In To Kill a Mockingbird, you see Harper Lee in Scout, and her attorney father
in the character Atticus Finch; you also see Capote as the inspiration of Scout's next door
neighbor Dill Harris. Harper Lee also served as inspiration for a character in Capote's 1984
book about his Alabama boyhood, "Other Voices, Other Rooms."
Was Truman Capote jealous of Lee's success? Of her Pulitzer Prize? Did later bitterness
and rivalry strain their friendship?
There were claims that Truman wrote or drastically edited To Kill a Mockingbird.
Why didn't Harper Lee continue writing?
Was it Capote's pursuit of celebrity, his problems with drug and alcohol abuse that made
fame unappealing to Harper Lee?
Was Capote driven by a strong ego; whereas, Harper Lee was content to live life in Monroeville?
May 4th will find us discussing To Kill a Mockingbird. Come join the discussion....