Harper Lee is an American novelist best known for the book To Kill a Mockingbird, which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Harper Lee was born and raised in a small town called Monroeville, which served as the inspiration for her renowned novel. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was an attorney who was incredibly respected in Alabama, serving in the Alabama state legislature for 12 years. Harper respected and loved her father dearly; in fact, her novel’s famous character, Atticus Finch, was based on her father who defended two black men accused of killing a white storekeeper. As an adult, Harper moved to New York to pursue writing where she would eventually publish To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960, which instantly became a bestseller. Later after publishing To Kill a Mockingbird and despising the limelight, she would move back to her hometown of Monroeville, living a quiet life before her death.
Harper would go 55 years of producing no new material after the publication of her first novel. Her last publication would be the sequel to her first novel called Go set a Watchman, which was released in 2015. The sequel was met with much controversy as Harper’s role in its publication was put into question.
This artifact is a letter from November 21st, 1961 written from Monroeville, Alabama – Harper’s hometown – and after the success of her first novel. Harper writes this letter to Harold Caulfield, a close friend of hers who was a New York City architect.
The letter starts out with words “Dear Aitch”; potentially a term of endearment towards Harold. She starts off with an apology as she has not been able to pay Harold back – it does not specify for what exactly. She later states that she’s been more on the run “down here than up there”. This letter was written in Alabama but she lived in New York for a substantial amount of time, so Harper could possibly be comparing her life in Alabama to New York. She later talks about her current life in Alabama, commenting on an ear operation she did not go through with. She then talks about how she has been meeting with lots of family recently and how she met a set designer from “H’wood”. They later travel all around Monroe and Wilcox Counties in Alabama – for reasons unspecified. She celebrates not being shot at by telling people she is the daughter of A.C Lee, a respected man in Alabama.
While information about Monroe and Wilcox counties is limited, some articles suggest that Wilcox County faced significant challenges related to racial injustice and violence. In 1965, a Wilcox County sheriff padlocked the doors of a Black church to prevent a meeting regarding civil rights. In another article, Maria Gitin, a summer canvasser and activist for voters in 1965, described the town as being known to resort to “Extreme violence rather than jailing civil rights workers” when dealing with activists. The letter itself does not provide context for Harper Lee’s relationship with the town, however, it can be said that Wilcox County at times was violent.
Harper continues on, writing about how Esquire-an American men’s magazine- turned down a piece she had been working on for what seems like a while. She explains the reason was because it did not conform to the image Esquire wanted to portray about the South. She does not seem disappointed, commenting on how little they would have paid her. This is particularly interesting because there are little to no sources about Harper’s relationship to Esquire magazine. Additionally, after the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper did not publish anything for decades, so the fact that she was in touch with a magazine article for publication during this time is quite shocking. She later describes the difficulty in expressing her stories through these magazines, writing, “it’s getting increasingly difficult for magazine articles to be written in any other way than an editor standing over your shoulder telling you what to write”. Her piece was about white segregationists who despised the Ku Klux Klan. Esquire rejected her piece because they believed this to be an “axiomatic impossibility”; in the letter she snaps back at them, describing the entire South as an “axiomatic impossibility”. Towards the end of the letter, she implores Harold to write when he can. She finally signs the letter off with the letters NH or Nelle Harper, which was the name she used for her close friends and family.
This letter gives scholars a small glimpse into what Harper Lee was doing and thinking after the success of her first novel. Most shockingly, it’s apparent that Harper was still struggling for creative freedom even after her success. Whether this contributed to her long term decision to step away from publishing is uncertain, yet this aspect of writing seemed to bother Harper in her letter. This instance of intervention is not too far off from her most recent controversy of her second novel Go Set a Watchman, where some argue of its authenticity. Charles J. Shields, Harper Lee’s biographer, argues the book was only published because her sister Alice, who handled her affairs, died in 2014 and others took advantage of Harper – being in her old age and suffering the effects of a stroke – to publish. Regardless of what really happened, it seems Harper unfortunately struggled with expressive autonomy until her death. Harper also criticizes the South in this letter, essentially calling it a contradiction. Harper’s relationship with the South is incredibly intriguing because it seems she deeply values the South, as she decided to live in her hometown for almost her entire life, yet is very critical of the South’s civil and political rights as seen in her first novel.
This letter not only gives insight into her complicated relationship with her hometown but also gives nuance to her character and shows the care she had for her friends, complementing her legacy in American literature.
Bibliography
Cornett, Judy M. “Four Reasons Why Readers Hate Go Set a Watchman (And One Reason Why I Don’t).” Heinonline. Accessed October 27, 2023. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals%2Fcumlr47&id=33&men_tab=srchresults.
Esquire – Men’s fashion, cocktails, politics, interviews, and women. Accessed October 28, 2023. https://www.esquire.com/.
Fincham, Derek. “Is Go Set A Watchman Authentic.” Heinonline. Accessed October 27, 2023. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals%2Fcumlr47&id=54&men_tab=srchresults.
Lee, Harper. Correspondence – Lee to Harold Caulfield, circa 1956-196. Box 1, Folder 1. MSS 1433 Paul Kennerson collection of Harper Lee material. Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. 16 October 2023.
Madeo. “Jul. 1, 1965: Alabama Sheriff Padlocks Black Church to Prevent Discussion of Civil Rights.” calendar.eji.org. Accessed October 27, 2023. https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jul/01.
Robert Sullivan. “Harper Lee Before To Kill a Mockingbird.” Time.Com, February 23, 2016, 45. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.emory.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a2h&AN=113557763&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
THOMAS, JAMES G., and CHARLES REAGAN WILSON. “Lee, Harper: (B. 1926) NOVELIST.” In The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 9: Literature, edited by M. THOMAS INGE, 347–48. University of North Carolina Press, 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616643_inge.168.
Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement — story from Wilcox County, AL. Accessed October 27, 2023. https://www.crmvet.org/nars/stor/s_maria.htm.
“Who Was Atticus Finch?” News. Accessed October 27, 2023. https://news.emory.edu/features/2018/04/harper-lee/article.html#:~:text=Addressed%20to%20her%20friend%20Harold,father%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s%20mortality.