Subject: Re: Something Neat
From: Paul Miller (phm@midsouth.rr.com)
Date: Fri Apr 28 2000 - 19:04:19 EDT
Tim wrote:
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.-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
TKM is one of my favorites also. I have copied her non-intro that Tim
mentioned and a url to a great Harper Lee web page. At egroups there is a
Harper Lee discussion list I'm on called ,suprisingly, harperlee. Theres
about 80 of us TKM fans and it is usually low volume, but we are true
die-hards.
"Please spare Mockingbird an Introduction. As a reader I loathe
Introductions to novels. I associate Introductions with long-gone authors
and works that are being brought back into print after decades of
internment. Although Mockingbird will be 33 this year, it has never been out
of print and I am still alive, although very quiet. Introductions inhibit
pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The
only good thing about Introductions is that in some cases they delay the
dose to come. Mockingbird still says what it has to say; it has managed to
survive without preamble."
Harper Lee 12 February 1993
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Culture/HarperLee/index.html
Paul
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