Subject: Re: Something Neat
From: Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Date: Fri Apr 28 2000 - 10:56:20 EDT
At 6:35 AM -0700 on 4/28/2000, Cecilia wrote:
> 74 years ago (1926),
>
> (Nelle) Harper Lee is born in Monroeville, Alabama. She will
> model the boy Dill in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel _To Kill
> a Mockingbird_ after her childhood next-door neighbor, Truman
> Capote.
>
> It's one of my favorite books, and I never knew this about Dill.
>How great is that?
That's one of those little-known facts I love to toss out in a
conversation, since so many American kids are made to read the Harper
Lee book, and, in adulthood, have either read Capote or know who he
was. Me, when I watch the masterpiece they made of it in movie form,
I always imagine the boy named Dill as a later-in-life talk-show
lounge lizard. It's a long way from dusty shorts to the Panama hat
"Truman Capote" wore. (I put his name in quotes because he is, after
all, his own most memorable character.)
My other favorite tidbit about To Kill a Mockingbird is that when the
publisher was releasing an anniversary edition a few years ago,
someone there asked Harper Lee to write a preface for it, not unlike
what Philip Roth did for the anniversary re-issue of Portnoy's
Complaint (or Goodbye, Columbus; I can never remember these things
and, as usual, have copies of neither with me).
However, Ms. Lee, in the best Salinger tradition, replied with a
cool, brief note that said she declined, because she doesn't think
prefatory remarks belong at the start of a novel. The publishers
took that brief note and had the gall to run it as the one-page
"preface"! If anyone is near a bookstore that has the new hardcover
on the shelf, you'll be able to see it for yourself.
By the way, like Salinger, Harper Lee published only the one novel
and nothing else in her life. She lives in Manhattan in the Greta
Garbo district. I once bought a battered first edition of her book
from a guy on the street. He offered to point out to me a particular
intersection where I would be guaranteed to bump into the author,
giving me the opportunity to ask her to inscribe my book. But being
the sort of fellow who couldn't think to bother Salinger for a
pen-stroke, I declined.
Oddly enough, as much as I like Salinger's work -- and I like it a
lot -- I think I'd be more inclined to sidle up to Harper Lee and
tell her how much her book affected me. It's one of the few books I
can read repeatedly and still find myself crying as I read. Atticus
Finch, I think, is the father most every plain, ordinary, generic,
thinking American kid wants to have. You can't help but admire him.
And the movie is one of the best adaptations I've ever seen. For all
the talk here about adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye and whether
it would spoil the novel, see the filmed version of To Kill a
Mockingbird and you will know that with the right people under the
right circumstances, a book can be done well on film.
Thanks for the launching-off point, Cecilia! This all kind of
spilled out unexpectedly, which is the best way to start an e-mail
day....
--tim o'connor
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