A Marvelous Companion Piece to a Beloved American Novel

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	• Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee Charles J. Shields Holt Paperbacks, 2007 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 47 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Lovingly Objective Portrait of an Important Author

Charles J. Shields has written a biographical portrait worthy of his subject, which is high praise indeed. I went through this book very quickly because I loved spending time with Nelle Harper Lee the way that Shields presents her. The book reads somewhat like a novel with rising action toward the dual climax of publication of her book while also serving as "assistant researchist" on Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. After Mockingbird is published and the movie is made, the action is "falling" as Lee tries a couple of further literary adventures and drops them, settling into a quieter life.

In the introduction to the book, Shields writes that when he was working on the book, he was asked three or four questions repeatedly: "Is Harper Lee still alive?", "Is she married?" (followed by "Is she gay?") and "Why didn't she write another novel?" Aside from the first two questions, which can be answered with difinitive facts (yes and no), Shields doesn't try to answer the others directly. He investigates, researches and writes about Lee from a very objective point of view and allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about these topics, and I felt that made the book even richer and more engaging.

The picture Shields draws of Nelle Harper Lee (known always as Nelle to her friends and family--she went by Harper as a writer to avoid the mistaken "Nellie" she often heard) as a child is definitely a Scout Finch! Lee was clearly not a girly-girl and was tough and boisterous, knowing her own mind and leading her own way. But Lee differed from Scout in an important way: Her mother had not died, but instead suffered from some kind of mental illness that rendered her distant and cold to her four children (Nelle was the youngest). Nelle befriended a young Truman Capote, who was the victim of worse family turmoil when his parents often left him with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama, (Lee's hometown) when they didn't want to deal with him themselves. Truman was not a typical tough boy and Nelle was not a refined little lady, and they became fast friends, writing stories together with an old typewriter they lugged around. The boys in Nelle's school knew better than to challenge her when she saved Truman from their taunting and abuse: "Though she was only seven years old, Nelle Harper Lee was a fearsome stomach-puncher, foot-stomper and hair-puller, who could 'talk mean like a boy' (p. 32). Shields illustrates much of her early life in a way that demonstrates well her inspirations for characters in her novel.

This includes Atticus Finch. Amasa Coleman Lee ("A.C.") was an attorney, state legislator, Methodist church leader and newspaperman, and well respected statewide. As Shields writes about him and his relationship with his youngest daughter, one can see how Lee was inspired to write such a loving portrait of him in the character of Atticus Finch (Finch was her mother's maiden name. She took "Atticus" from the Roman orator Titus Pomponius Atticus). When the movie was made, Gregory Peck came to Monroeville, and spent time with A.C. Lee, building some of his character's traits on what he observed in the "original." A.C. had wanted Nelle to become a lawyer, like her older sister Alice, and work in his firm in Monroeville, but Nelle dropped out of law school before her exams and moved to New York City to write, but she stayed very attached to her family all through her life.

The chapters are organized around distinct periods of Nelle's life: "The Making of Me"" about the formation of her writing career and success as an overview; "Ellen Spelled Backward" about her girlhood in Monroeville, Alabama; "Without Finishing Touches" about her high school years; "Rammer Jammer" about her college years; "Atticus becomes To Kill a Mockingbird" about the years she spent writing her novel; "See NL's Notes" about her time with Truman Capote researching what eventually became In Cold Blood; "Mockingbird Takes Off," about the years after her novel was published and its success; "Oh, Mr. Peck" about the making of the movie; "The Second Novel" about her subsequent efforts to write; and "Quiet Time" about her later years.

I thought one of the most interesting chapters was "See NL's Notes," which was about Truman Capote's and Lee's time together in Holcomb, Kansas, gathering material for what was to be a New Yorker article on the murders of the Clutter family (which later turned into Capote's book In Cold Blood). I learned a lot I didn't know about the creation of that book from this chapter and subsequent mentions of it. The name of the chapter comes from Capote's writings while there, and he would remind himself to see Nelle Lee's notes on the same conversations they had with residents of the town during the course of the investigation. While Lee was with Capote as his "assistant researchist" in Kansas for nearly two months, the suspects were apprehended, brought back to Kansas and arraigned, and Lee and Capote were interviewing Kansans during this time. Shields makes a strong case for Lee's contributions to Capote's book, as well as writing of how Lee saw the Clutter family as imperfect, emotional and carrying their own secrets (but Capote polished them up a lot to be clearer victims of the crime for the sake of readers).

I could write all day about this book. Every page was interesting, and Lee's life is quite a story. Still living in Monroeville and New York City, she no longer gives interviews, but is quite friendly to respectful fans, it seems. This book was just a wonderful way to spend time, return to the things I loved about Lee's work and to get to know an author who has made such a difference to many, many people around the world.

I highly recommend it.

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Superb.

I've been so curious about Harper Lee ever since I saw Capote... the woman behind To Kill a Mockingbird is quite an interesting figure indeed. Great biography with tremendous insight.

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Wonderful Biography - Top Notch Reading

I love a good biography and this one is right up there with the best. It's clearly written, does not waste your time with a lot of hypothetical stuff, and the author keeps his assumptions and analyses to himself - while reporting in an interesting and involving what he has heard from those who know Harper Lee. Some biographers seem to think they are junior Freuds, and this author avoids this pitfall. Thank you! I came away feeling I would like Harper Lee, I got an understanding of her and how she came to write this book - and I also get why she hasn't written another. Nothing big, or life changing - just life went along and somehow the time and attention required to write a novel just never got put together again. Makes sense to me. I liked that the people interviewed were quoted extensively and not interpreted - I realize I'm being redundant - but biographers who analyze instead of reporting give me hives. Truman Capote was not a nice man, and I'm glad that we finally got the true scoop on his involvement with "To Kill A Mockingbird" - darned little - and her input into "In Cold Blood" - a whole lot. The rumors that he actually wrote "To Kill A Mockingbird" are shown to be absurd, and really, does anyone think that self involved little twerp wouldn't have been all over the media if actually had? He never won the Pulitzer himself, and certainly would have made sure to get credit for such an important book had he actually had anything to do with it. Don't miss out on this book. It's a good read and absolutely fascinating.

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Mockingbird a Portrait of Harper Lee

The author traces parts of Nelle Harper Lee's life from her childhood to the recent present with sensitivity and understanding of her individualism and penchant for privacy. I found insights into her writing of "To Kill a Mockinbird", her long term friendship with Truman Capote, and her contribution to his novel: "In Cold Blood" facinating.

A Marvelous Companion Piece to a Beloved American Novel

According to Charles Shields in his revealing biography MOCKINGBIRD, Nelle Harper Lee should properly be regarded as a "one and a half hit wonder." Lee is of course renowned for her authorship of the perennial ninth grade classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, a coming of age story of social injustice that still stands up exceedingly well to rereading more than four decades beyond my first high school year. Far less well known, even after two Hollywood movies on the subject, is Ms. Lee's integral and formative role in the research and editing of Truman Capote's equally classic documentary fiction, IN COLD BLOOD.

Well known as a media recluse, Ms. Lee has quietly divided her post-MOCKINGBIRD days between her hometown of Monroeville (AL) and her adopted New York City. Shields makes clear that his biographical subject resolutely refused to participate in the effort, but Shields has compensated through extensive research and interviews with seemingly anyone and everyone who has known Harper Lee. The results are about as insightful as one could accomplish without the Ms. Lee's own involvement, and the author wisely elects not to psychoanalyze his subject or speculate too intensely on her failure to produce a second novel of her own.

Mr. Shields's work is replete with information about Ms. Lee's family background, her student years in law school, and her efforts to compete with an accomplished older sister for her father's approval. Most interesting are the biographical details that spill over into Ms. Lee's writing of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Her stern, lawyerly father A.C., who undoubtedly served as the model for Atticus Finch, her emotionally absent mother who became Jem and Scout's deceased mother in the book, her strange neighbor two houses away who became Boo Radley, her childhood association with pre-adolescent Truman Capote who became Dill, her Monroeville neighbors whose quirkly characteristics or behaviors became citizens of Maycomb, and on and on (including her use of the Kansas state motto, "Ad Astra Per Aspera," in Scout's Halloween pageant, the phrase discovered while she was working with Capote on IN COLD BLOOD).

Of equal interest to Ms. Lee's childhood and collegiate background are the struggles Shields documents concerning her writing, particularly the creation of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Ms. Lee comes across in this rendition as far less polished and naturally capable a writer than most readers might have expected. By Shields's account, the novel might never have emerged without substantial direct coaching and guidance from editors who gave the book extraordinary attention from its earliest days. These early struggles, including the editorial rejection of a post-MOCKINGBIRD magazine article, inevitably prefigure the mystery of Ms. Lee's apparent failure to complete or publish another work. Paradoxically, Shields presents Ms. Lee as being almost more integral to the success of Capote's IN COLD BLOOD than to her own novel.

Mr. Shields also devotes significant attention to the story of this classic novel's translation into a classic movie. Particularly fascinating is his account of Gregory Peck's recruitment for the lead role (Rock Hudson was the director's first choice) and Peck's subsequent heavy influence in how the story was rendered cinematically. Despite his Oscar-winning performance and the general success of the movie, it appears nevertheless that Mr. Peck single-handedly altered the movie's perspective from being coming-of-age, child-centered to being standing-brave-against-social-injustice, Atticus-centered.

At times, the author's exhaustive research nearly overwhelms his subject matter in trivial and distracting details. However, that tendency stands as a minor critique relative to his success in telling the background story of an American literary and cinematic classic as well as that of its fiercely independent, iconoclastic, semi-reclusive author. For readers, viewers, and/or appreciators of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Charles Shields's MOCKINGBIRD is a must read in its own right.

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