WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 Usually when we talk about the creation of a 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:04.759 legendary piece of literature, we picture this 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:07.700 moment of just, you know, pure uninterrupted 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:09.820 inspiration. Right, like a lone genius sitting 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:11.980 at a typewriter. Exactly. Just the words flowing 00:00:11.980 --> 00:00:16.280 perfectly onto the page. But what if I told you 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:19.039 that one of the most beloved, seemingly perfectly 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:22.500 crafted novels of the 20th century was at one 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:24.920 point literally thrown out of a New York City 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:27.519 window? Into the freezing snow, right? Just in 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:30.269 a fit of absolute despair. Yeah. driven by an 00:00:30.269 --> 00:00:32.509 author who was utterly convinced the entire project 00:00:32.509 --> 00:00:35.289 was a catastrophic failure. It really shatters 00:00:35.289 --> 00:00:37.810 that romanticized image we have. It really does 00:00:38.549 --> 00:00:41.250 So welcome to today's deep dive. If you are joining 00:00:41.250 --> 00:00:43.909 us today, we are taking the standard, you know, 00:00:44.070 --> 00:00:46.469 middle school English class understanding of 00:00:46.469 --> 00:00:48.670 To Kill a Mockingbird, and we are completely 00:00:48.670 --> 00:00:50.590 dismantling it. We really are. We're looking 00:00:50.590 --> 00:00:53.450 at a comprehensive biographical overview of the 00:00:53.450 --> 00:00:56.030 American novelist, Nell Harper Lee. And our mission 00:00:56.030 --> 00:00:58.630 today is to deconstruct that persistent myth 00:00:58.630 --> 00:01:01.770 of the solitary genius. Yeah, because we are 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:04.409 going to look at the grueling reality of her 00:01:04.409 --> 00:01:08.829 collaborative creative process and the psychological 00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:12.430 weight that led to her decades -long, very mysterious 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:15.310 silence. Which is just a wild story on its own. 00:01:15.370 --> 00:01:18.629 Oh, absolutely. Plus the incredibly complex legal 00:01:18.629 --> 00:01:21.650 and literary drama that defined her final years. 00:01:22.170 --> 00:01:24.890 It is a story with a lot of shadows, a lot of 00:01:24.890 --> 00:01:27.689 intense pressure, and quite a few surprises that, 00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:30.370 frankly, reframe everything you thought you knew 00:01:30.370 --> 00:01:32.390 about her. OK, let's unpack this from the beginning. 00:01:32.469 --> 00:01:34.170 Because to understand Harper Lee, you really 00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:36.269 have to understand the raw material she was drawing 00:01:36.269 --> 00:01:39.750 from, right? She was born in 1926 in Monroeville, 00:01:39.750 --> 00:01:42.760 Alabama. And just a quick side note that I love 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:45.099 from the sources, Nell is actually her grandmother's 00:01:45.099 --> 00:01:47.519 name spelled backwards. I love that detail. But 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:49.180 you know, looking at her childhood, the most 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:51.420 profound influence on her worldview was clearly 00:01:51.420 --> 00:01:54.799 her father, Amasa Coleman Lee or A .C. Lee. He 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:56.599 was such a fascinating figure. He was a former 00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:59.439 newspaper editor, a businessman and a lawyer. 00:01:59.859 --> 00:02:02.739 And before he became primarily a title lawyer, 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:06.359 he took on a criminal case that ended up basically 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:09.240 shaping the rest of his daughter's life. He defended 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:12.080 two black men, a father and son, who were accused 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:14.840 of murdering a white storekeeper. And he lost. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.639 He did. Both of his clients were hanged. And 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:19.900 I just, I cannot even imagine what that does 00:02:19.900 --> 00:02:23.120 to a young girl. Seeing your father, who you 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:25.800 probably view as this pillar of justice and authority, 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:29.379 completely failed to save two lives against the 00:02:29.379 --> 00:02:31.620 machinery of the 1930s Southern legal system. 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:34.159 Right. It completely shatters the illusion of 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:36.120 adult rationality. And if you look at the mechanics 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:37.979 of her later writing, you can immediately see 00:02:37.979 --> 00:02:40.159 the seeds being planted there. For sure. Her 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:42.360 father's devastating courtroom defeat provided 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:45.099 the literal historical foundation for the fictional 00:02:45.099 --> 00:02:48.039 defense of Tom Robinson by Atticus Finch. It 00:02:48.039 --> 00:02:50.319 wasn't just a spontaneous burst of imagination. 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:53.620 You know, it was sharp, painful observation. 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:56.659 And the sources also note that the landmark 1931 00:02:56.659 --> 00:02:58.800 Scottsboro Boys Trial was happening right around 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.460 this time, too. Right. That highly publicized 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:04.259 interracial rape case in Alabama where nine black 00:03:04.259 --> 00:03:07.099 teenagers were falsely accused. Exactly. Which 00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:09.580 means her entire childhood was just saturated 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:12.659 with these glaring examples of systemic injustice. 00:03:12.939 --> 00:03:15.460 Yeah, she was observing the deeply entrenched 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:18.340 racist attitudes and the absolute irrationality 00:03:18.340 --> 00:03:21.349 of adult perspectives on race and class, she 00:03:21.349 --> 00:03:23.789 was learning very early on that the law does 00:03:23.789 --> 00:03:25.969 not always equal justice. But she wasn't just 00:03:25.969 --> 00:03:27.830 observing the adults, right? She was also observing 00:03:27.830 --> 00:03:31.330 her peers, specifically her childhood neighbor 00:03:31.330 --> 00:03:34.310 and close friend, Truman Capote. Oh, yeah. He 00:03:34.310 --> 00:03:36.629 would visit family in Monroeville during the 00:03:36.629 --> 00:03:39.759 summers. And it's just wild to think about two 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:43.000 future literary titans just playing in the same 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.360 dusty Alabama neighborhood. It really is. And 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:47.479 he actually inspired the character of Dill in 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:50.479 Mockingbird. Plus, Capote based a character named 00:03:50.479 --> 00:03:54.259 Ida Belle Tompkins on Lee in his 1948 novel Other 00:03:54.259 --> 00:03:56.659 Voices, Other Rooms. The dynamic is like one 00:03:56.659 --> 00:03:58.740 of those studied friendships in American literature. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.080 They were constantly feeding off each other's 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:03.889 creative energy, even as kids. Oh, totally. I 00:04:03.889 --> 00:04:05.689 keep thinking about their trajectory, like imagine 00:04:05.689 --> 00:04:07.629 two very different plants grown in the exact 00:04:07.629 --> 00:04:10.229 same southern soil. Okay, I like that. They both 00:04:10.229 --> 00:04:12.430 absorb the same nutrients, the same environment, 00:04:12.810 --> 00:04:15.210 but they react to it in completely opposite ways. 00:04:15.969 --> 00:04:19.189 One of them, Capote, grows out stretching desperately 00:04:19.189 --> 00:04:21.490 toward the brightest, hottest lights of celebrity 00:04:21.490 --> 00:04:25.089 in high society. And the other, Lee, actively 00:04:25.089 --> 00:04:28.069 retreats into the shade. That is a highly accurate 00:04:28.069 --> 00:04:30.889 way to frame it. Their paths diverged drastically 00:04:30.889 --> 00:04:33.089 in terms of how they handled the public, even 00:04:33.089 --> 00:04:34.970 though they continued to collaborate professionally 00:04:34.970 --> 00:04:37.329 for a time. Right, like later on. Yeah, later 00:04:37.329 --> 00:04:40.529 in life in 1959, Lee actually traveled with Capote 00:04:40.529 --> 00:04:43.389 to Holcomb, Kansas to help him research the murder 00:04:43.389 --> 00:04:45.449 of a farming family. And that research, of course, 00:04:45.649 --> 00:04:47.930 becomes his groundbreaking true crime book, In 00:04:47.930 --> 00:04:51.329 Cold Blood. published in 1966. The sources say 00:04:51.329 --> 00:04:53.350 she was instrumental in getting the locals to 00:04:53.350 --> 00:04:55.930 actually open up to him. She was, but the sources 00:04:55.930 --> 00:04:59.329 also indicate that her subsequent massive literary 00:04:59.329 --> 00:05:01.930 success with Mockingbird essentially broke their 00:05:01.930 --> 00:05:04.389 relationship. Really? Yeah. Capote apparently 00:05:04.389 --> 00:05:06.449 had a very hard time coming to terms with the 00:05:06.449 --> 00:05:09.410 worldwide phenomenon of her novel. He was fiercely 00:05:09.410 --> 00:05:12.069 competitive and the friendship eventually just, 00:05:12.069 --> 00:05:14.449 well, it petered out under the weight of professional 00:05:14.449 --> 00:05:17.170 jealousy. Which brings us to the actual creation 00:05:17.170 --> 00:05:19.360 of that phenomenon. because having that trauma, 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:21.860 that setting, and those complex relationships 00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:24.569 in your head is one thing. Right. Actually shaping 00:05:24.569 --> 00:05:26.889 it into a masterpiece is a totally different 00:05:26.889 --> 00:05:29.930 beast. And her path was, I mean, anything go 00:05:29.930 --> 00:05:33.350 to straight line. Far from it. In 1949, Lee actually 00:05:33.350 --> 00:05:35.110 dropped out of law school at the University of 00:05:35.110 --> 00:05:37.850 Alabama. She was just one semester short of a 00:05:37.850 --> 00:05:40.449 degree. Wow, just one semester. Yeah, much to 00:05:40.449 --> 00:05:42.589 her father's disappointment. She moved to New 00:05:42.589 --> 00:05:44.569 York City and worked as an airline reservation 00:05:44.569 --> 00:05:47.110 agent, just writing in her spare time. If you've 00:05:47.110 --> 00:05:50.050 ever tried to juggle a demanding day job while 00:05:50.050 --> 00:05:52.230 pursuing a creative passion on the side, you 00:05:52.230 --> 00:05:54.069 know exactly exactly how exhausting that is. 00:05:54.850 --> 00:05:57.009 Absolutely. But then comes this incredible intervention. 00:05:57.370 --> 00:06:01.389 Christmas, 1956. Her friends give her an extraordinary 00:06:01.389 --> 00:06:04.689 gift, a year's wages. They essentially bought 00:06:04.689 --> 00:06:07.990 her a year off from her job to do nothing but 00:06:07.990 --> 00:06:10.930 write. It is the dream scenario for any struggling 00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:14.930 artist, and it paid off. By the spring of 1957, 00:06:15.089 --> 00:06:17.410 she delivers a manuscript to her agent who sends 00:06:17.410 --> 00:06:19.750 it out to publishers. It gets bought by J .B. 00:06:19.829 --> 00:06:21.910 Lippincott Company. But here's the crucial detail. 00:06:21.980 --> 00:06:25.680 Right. This manuscript was titled Go Set a Watchman. 00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:28.600 And what's fascinating here is when it ends up 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:32.079 in the hands of an editor named Tay Hohoff, her 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:35.019 reaction fundamentally challenges that myth of 00:06:35.019 --> 00:06:37.100 the solitary genius we talked about earlier. 00:06:37.259 --> 00:06:39.160 Yeah. Hohoff read it and basically said, you 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:41.399 know, you have a spark, but this is not a novel. 00:06:42.060 --> 00:06:44.939 She called it. more a series of anecdotes than 00:06:44.939 --> 00:06:47.180 a fully conceived book. Harper Lee didn't just 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:49.160 hand over a perfect manuscript that went straight 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:51.360 to the printing press. For the next couple of 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:54.420 years, Holhoff guided Lee through draft after 00:06:54.420 --> 00:06:57.459 grueling draft. Just fundamentally restructuring 00:06:57.459 --> 00:06:59.480 the narrative from the ground up. Exactly. It's 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:02.600 almost like think of a sculptor who drags a massive 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:05.879 chaotic boulder into a studio. Harper Lee provided 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:07.980 the boulder. She had the raw material, the characters, 00:07:08.139 --> 00:07:10.220 the Southern Gothic atmosphere. Right. The pieces 00:07:10.220 --> 00:07:12.220 were there. But Kay Holhoff was the one pointing 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.839 at exactly where to strike the chisel to find 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:17.420 the statue hiding inside. And that chiseling 00:07:17.420 --> 00:07:20.800 process was intense. Ho Hoff described their 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:23.519 interactions as a constant, sometimes exhausting, 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:26.420 give and take. They would talk for hours in Ho 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:28.980 Hoff's apartment. I can imagine. Sometimes Lee 00:07:28.980 --> 00:07:31.459 would agree, sometimes Ho Hoff would yield, and 00:07:31.459 --> 00:07:33.699 sometimes their debates would open up entirely 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:36.600 new avenues for the story. They were dismantling 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:39.240 the timeline, changing perspectives, shifting 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:41.819 the entire focus to Scout's childhood. And it 00:07:41.819 --> 00:07:44.579 was incredibly frustrating for Lee. Yeah. Which 00:07:44.579 --> 00:07:46.860 brings us back to that snowy winter night I mentioned 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:49.139 at the very beginning of the deep dive. Oh, yes. 00:07:49.300 --> 00:07:52.160 According to biographer Charles J. Shields, Lee 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:54.540 was so overwhelmed and frustrated with the endless 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:57.980 revisions that she opened her window and literally 00:07:57.980 --> 00:08:00.529 threw the manuscript out into the snow. A moment 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:04.569 of pure, unfiltered, creative despair. She was 00:08:04.569 --> 00:08:07.410 ready to abandon the entire project right then 00:08:07.410 --> 00:08:10.589 and there. She called Taye Hohoff in tears. And 00:08:10.589 --> 00:08:13.149 Hohoff, acting as the ultimate tough love editor, 00:08:13.529 --> 00:08:15.990 didn't coddle her. She commanded Lee to march 00:08:15.990 --> 00:08:18.509 right back outside into the freezing cold and 00:08:18.509 --> 00:08:21.269 pick up the pages. It highlights how much of 00:08:21.269 --> 00:08:23.490 a collaborative survival effort this book really 00:08:23.490 --> 00:08:26.410 was. Lee herself stated in 2015, looking back 00:08:26.410 --> 00:08:29.029 at that period, I was a first -time writer, so 00:08:29.029 --> 00:08:31.290 I did as I was told. Yeah, she was incredibly 00:08:31.290 --> 00:08:33.730 willing to take direction, which is a vulnerability 00:08:33.730 --> 00:08:36.250 we rarely associate with legendary authors. Oh, 00:08:36.330 --> 00:08:38.389 and right before it was finally ready, she made 00:08:38.389 --> 00:08:41.409 one more practical, almost self -effacing choice. 00:08:42.110 --> 00:08:44.919 She opted to use her middle name, Harper. as 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:47.320 her pen name, specifically because she didn't 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:49.960 want the risk of Nell being misidentified or 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:52.440 mispronounced as Nelly. So the result of that 00:08:52.440 --> 00:08:55.500 tearful, snowy, grueling editing process is finally 00:08:55.500 --> 00:08:59.539 published on July 11, 1960 under the title To 00:08:59.539 --> 00:09:02.440 Kill a Mockingbird. And the cultural explosion 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:05.350 is immediate. Massive. It wins the Pulitzer Prize 00:09:05.350 --> 00:09:08.309 for fiction in 1961, and it goes on to sell more 00:09:08.309 --> 00:09:11.289 than 40 million copies. But with that massive 00:09:11.289 --> 00:09:14.070 cultural explosion came an equally massive heavy 00:09:14.070 --> 00:09:16.110 burden, because the book didn't just land in 00:09:16.110 --> 00:09:18.769 a vacuum. It landed right in the middle of incredibly 00:09:18.769 --> 00:09:21.909 tense, volatile times in the United States. The 00:09:21.909 --> 00:09:24.269 source material explicitly notes how the book's 00:09:24.269 --> 00:09:26.649 release intersected with rising racial tensions 00:09:26.649 --> 00:09:29.070 in the South. Just months before publication, 00:09:29.429 --> 00:09:32.250 students staged the first sit -ins, and as the 00:09:32.250 --> 00:09:34.740 book was Climbing the bestseller lists, freedom 00:09:34.740 --> 00:09:37.779 riders were arriving in Alabama and facing violent 00:09:37.779 --> 00:09:40.580 coordinated beatings. The book naturally became 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:43.340 a massive flashpoint. It was heavily attacked 00:09:43.340 --> 00:09:45.539 by opponents of the civil rights movement and 00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:49.000 by segregationists. The Thorses mentioned a specific 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:51.620 incident where an area school board in Richmond, 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:54.360 Virginia actually attempted to ban the book. 00:09:54.570 --> 00:09:57.009 calling it immoral literature. And this is one 00:09:57.009 --> 00:09:58.929 of the rare moments where Lee stepped into the 00:09:58.929 --> 00:10:01.590 public fray. She did not stay quiet about the 00:10:01.590 --> 00:10:03.830 ban. No, she didn't. She wrote a sharp letter 00:10:03.830 --> 00:10:06.389 to the editor in response, stating that to call 00:10:06.389 --> 00:10:09.049 the novel immoral was the best example of double 00:10:09.049 --> 00:10:11.429 things she'd ever seen. I just love her phrasing 00:10:11.429 --> 00:10:14.809 here. She wrote that the book spells out in words 00:10:14.809 --> 00:10:17.429 of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor 00:10:17.429 --> 00:10:20.190 and conduct. She basically called out the school 00:10:20.190 --> 00:10:22.669 board's reading comprehension. It's a great line. 00:10:22.789 --> 00:10:25.580 And it worked to rally support. A local editor, 00:10:25.779 --> 00:10:28.139 James J. Kilpatrick, actually set him a fund, 00:10:28.379 --> 00:10:30.700 the Beatle Bumble Fund, to pay for free copies 00:10:30.700 --> 00:10:32.500 of the book for children who wrote in asking 00:10:32.500 --> 00:10:35.159 for it. So she proved she could defend her work 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:38.320 brilliantly. But the sheer volume of the attention, 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:41.419 the whirlwind of publicity tours, the endless 00:10:41.419 --> 00:10:45.240 questions, it deeply unsettled her. Yeah. She 00:10:45.240 --> 00:10:47.559 was a private person who suddenly found herself 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:49.919 at the center of the American cultural conversation. 00:10:50.100 --> 00:10:52.820 So what does this all mean? Her response to that 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:56.059 was unprecedented. Yes. She just stopped. She 00:10:56.059 --> 00:10:58.700 stopped publishing. For 50 years. Just walked 00:10:58.700 --> 00:11:01.399 away. I have to admit, I've always found her 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:04.169 silence kind of awe -inspiring. We live in a 00:11:04.169 --> 00:11:06.629 culture today where if you make something great, 00:11:06.789 --> 00:11:08.809 the immediate expectation is, okay, what's next? 00:11:08.870 --> 00:11:11.669 Right, exactly. Demand constant output. You have 00:11:11.669 --> 00:11:14.509 to wonder, is stopping after one perfect book 00:11:14.509 --> 00:11:17.070 actually the ultimate power move? Yeah. Just 00:11:17.070 --> 00:11:18.850 dropping the mic and walking away. It certainly 00:11:18.850 --> 00:11:21.429 preserves the legacy of the single work, but 00:11:21.429 --> 00:11:23.549 the sources give us a more nuanced look at the 00:11:23.549 --> 00:11:25.769 psychology behind that silence. First, there 00:11:25.769 --> 00:11:28.570 were practical family obligations. Her father's 00:11:28.570 --> 00:11:31.840 health was worsening. He passed away in 1962 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:35.379 and she had taken on significant caregiving responsibilities 00:11:35.379 --> 00:11:38.659 for him. And as an endearing side note from the 00:11:38.659 --> 00:11:41.639 sources, he loved her success so much he actually 00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:44.220 started signing autographs as Atticus Finch before 00:11:44.220 --> 00:11:47.480 he died. That is incredibly sweet. But beyond 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:49.740 the caregiving, it sounds like the psychological 00:11:49.740 --> 00:11:52.519 weight of following up a 40 million copy success 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:56.149 was just paralyzing. It was. She told Reverend 00:11:56.149 --> 00:11:58.769 Dr. Thomas Lane Butts that she had two primary 00:11:58.769 --> 00:12:01.309 reasons for never writing again. First, she said 00:12:01.309 --> 00:12:03.029 she wouldn't go through the pressure and publicity 00:12:03.029 --> 00:12:05.610 again for any amount of money. The scrutiny was 00:12:05.610 --> 00:12:08.250 just suffocating. And second, she simply said, 00:12:08.649 --> 00:12:11.009 I have said what I wanted to say and I will not 00:12:11.009 --> 00:12:13.629 say it again. Think about how you'd react to 00:12:13.629 --> 00:12:16.149 that level of pressure. If you've ever felt paralyzed 00:12:16.149 --> 00:12:18.950 trying to follow up a major win at work or in 00:12:18.950 --> 00:12:21.710 your personal life, Imagine doing it when the 00:12:21.710 --> 00:12:23.929 whole world is watching and expecting a second 00:12:23.929 --> 00:12:26.590 Pulitzer. It's unimaginable. It makes her retreat 00:12:26.590 --> 00:12:29.909 feel less like a mystery and more like a very 00:12:29.909 --> 00:12:32.549 rational self -protective choice. Especially 00:12:32.549 --> 00:12:34.450 when you contrast it again with Truman Capote, 00:12:34.730 --> 00:12:37.690 who spent those same decades spiraling into a 00:12:37.690 --> 00:12:41.009 highly visible, decadent, and ultimately destructive 00:12:41.009 --> 00:12:43.610 lifestyle. She chose anonymity. And for half 00:12:43.610 --> 00:12:46.610 a century, that silence held firm. But as we 00:12:46.610 --> 00:12:48.509 move into the twilight years of Harper Lee's 00:12:48.509 --> 00:12:51.320 life, That silence is broken in a way that flips 00:12:51.320 --> 00:12:54.159 the literary world upside down and raises some 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:56.559 deeply uncomfortable questions. Yeah, let's fast 00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:59.320 forward to the 2010s. Lee is living in an assisted 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:02.139 living facility in Monroeville. She's using a 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:05.320 wheelchair. She's deaf, partially blind and suffering 00:13:05.320 --> 00:13:07.549 from memory loss. Right. And throughout her adult 00:13:07.549 --> 00:13:10.110 life, she had a fierce protector, her older sister, 00:13:10.330 --> 00:13:12.529 Alice Lee. Alice was a lawyer, and she acted 00:13:12.529 --> 00:13:14.950 as Harper's date keeper, managing her affairs 00:13:14.950 --> 00:13:17.370 and fiercely guarding her privacy. But Alice 00:13:17.370 --> 00:13:19.870 passed away in 2014 at the remarkable age of 00:13:19.870 --> 00:13:23.090 103. And this is where the timeline gets incredibly 00:13:23.090 --> 00:13:26.289 murky and highly contested. After Alice's death, 00:13:26.850 --> 00:13:29.529 another lawyer named Tonja Carter took over Harper 00:13:29.529 --> 00:13:33.019 Lee's affairs. And suddenly in 2014, Carter claims 00:13:33.019 --> 00:13:35.519 to have found the manuscript for Go Set a Watchman 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:38.879 in the safe deposit box. The very same manuscript 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:41.259 that Lee had submitted to Tay Ho Hoff back in 00:13:41.259 --> 00:13:44.960 1957, the chaotic boulder before the sculpting 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:48.779 process. Right. But in February 2015, HarperCollins 00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:51.039 announces they're publishing Go Set a Watchman 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:53.539 and they market it to the public as a newly discovered 00:13:53.539 --> 00:13:55.299 sequel. Which fundamentally and structurally 00:13:55.299 --> 00:13:58.259 it was not. It was the early unedited draft of 00:13:58.259 --> 00:14:00.299 Mockingbird. When it hit the shelves in July 00:14:00.299 --> 00:14:04.059 2015, the Literary shockwaves were massive. The 00:14:04.059 --> 00:14:06.399 book is set 20 years after Mockingbird with an 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:08.659 adult scout returning to Mako. But because it 00:14:08.659 --> 00:14:10.860 was an unedited first draft, there were massive 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:13.600 narrative incongruities. Reviewers were deeply 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.820 disturbed. Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times 00:14:16.820 --> 00:14:19.379 wrote a review noting how jarring it was to read, 00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:21.600 primarily because this early version portrayed 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:24.440 the heroic Atticus Finch as a racist who had 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:26.659 attended a Klan meeting. For readers who have 00:14:26.659 --> 00:14:29.279 held Atticus up as the ultimate moral compass 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:32.059 for decades, that is a devastating revelation. 00:14:32.570 --> 00:14:35.629 But beyond the literary shock, this raises an 00:14:35.629 --> 00:14:37.750 important question about the mechanics of how 00:14:37.750 --> 00:14:39.830 this book even made it to the printer. Right, 00:14:39.909 --> 00:14:43.070 like why now? Exactly. Why would a woman who 00:14:43.070 --> 00:14:45.990 fiercely maintained for 55 years that she would 00:14:45.990 --> 00:14:48.570 never publish another word suddenly change her 00:14:48.570 --> 00:14:51.230 mind while living with severe sensory and memory 00:14:51.230 --> 00:14:53.470 impairments? I have a really hard time believing 00:14:53.470 --> 00:14:56.549 that she just happily changed her mind. She protected 00:14:56.549 --> 00:14:59.409 her privacy like a fortress and suddenly, right 00:14:59.409 --> 00:15:02.210 after her sister... her lifelong protector dies, 00:15:02.669 --> 00:15:05.090 she wants to publish a messy, unedited draft 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:07.649 that unravels her greatest character. You are 00:15:07.649 --> 00:15:10.450 not alone in that skepticism. The situation prompted 00:15:10.450 --> 00:15:12.690 the state of Alabama, through its human resources 00:15:12.690 --> 00:15:14.850 department, to actually launch an investigation 00:15:14.850 --> 00:15:17.029 into whether Lee was competent enough to consent 00:15:17.029 --> 00:15:19.009 to the publication, or if she was the victim 00:15:19.009 --> 00:15:21.529 of elder abuse and coercion. How do you even 00:15:21.529 --> 00:15:23.750 determine competency in a situation like that 00:15:23.750 --> 00:15:26.590 where the person is deaf, legally blind, and 00:15:26.590 --> 00:15:29.879 experiencing memory loss? It is incredibly difficult. 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:32.399 The state investigators ultimately closed the 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:35.379 case, finding the claims of coercion to be unfounded 00:15:35.379 --> 00:15:37.559 based on their interviews with her. Following 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:40.620 that, Lee's lawyer, Tonja Carter, released a 00:15:40.620 --> 00:15:43.639 statement saying Lee was happy as hell with the 00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:46.539 publication. But the sources highlight that this 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:48.960 characterization was strongly contested by many 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:52.629 people who actually knew Lee. Marge Mills, a 00:15:52.629 --> 00:15:54.649 friend and former neighbor who wrote a book about 00:15:54.649 --> 00:15:57.190 Lee, painted a totally different picture. She 00:15:57.190 --> 00:15:59.769 really did. She quoted the late sister Alice 00:15:59.769 --> 00:16:02.970 as once saying, Poor Nell Harper can't see and 00:16:02.970 --> 00:16:05.070 can't hear and will sign anything put before 00:16:05.070 --> 00:16:07.870 her by anyone in whom she has confidence. Furthermore, 00:16:08.049 --> 00:16:10.190 the New York Times columnist Joan Nosara pointed 00:16:10.190 --> 00:16:12.610 out the highly suspicious timing of the discovery. 00:16:13.169 --> 00:16:15.269 The announcement happened just months after Alice 00:16:15.269 --> 00:16:17.690 passed away. Yeah, that's what gets me. And Nosara 00:16:17.690 --> 00:16:20.029 also noted claims that Carter had actually known 00:16:20.029 --> 00:16:22.730 about the manuscript since a 2011 appraisal meeting, 00:16:23.169 --> 00:16:25.450 but sat on the discovery and until she and not 00:16:25.450 --> 00:16:28.250 Alice was in charge of the estate. It makes you 00:16:28.250 --> 00:16:31.080 incredibly uncomfortable as a reader. You feel 00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:33.100 almost complicit in reading something she may 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:35.960 never have wanted the world to see but from an 00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:38.970 analytical standpoint Here's where it gets really 00:16:38.970 --> 00:16:40.950 interesting. Oh, definitely. Because there was 00:16:40.950 --> 00:16:43.169 so much debate about whether this was a sequel 00:16:43.169 --> 00:16:46.350 written later or an early draft, researchers 00:16:46.350 --> 00:16:49.429 got involved to settle the score using forensic 00:16:49.429 --> 00:16:52.090 stylometry. Which is a fascinating methodology. 00:16:52.450 --> 00:16:54.929 Stylometry is essentially the statistical analysis 00:16:54.929 --> 00:16:58.529 of literary style. It sounds like a CSI spinoff 00:16:58.529 --> 00:17:00.990 for English majors. How does it actually work 00:17:00.990 --> 00:17:03.559 in practice? They don't just read the text and 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:05.759 look for themes. They track the subconscious 00:17:05.759 --> 00:17:08.619 digital fingerprints of the author. They analyze 00:17:08.619 --> 00:17:10.960 the frequency of specific function words, like 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:13.240 conjunctions and prepositions, the rhythm of 00:17:13.240 --> 00:17:15.740 the syntax, the average sentence length. Things 00:17:15.740 --> 00:17:18.220 you can't fake. Right. These are microscopic 00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:20.799 habits that an author cannot easily fake or hide. 00:17:21.380 --> 00:17:24.960 Three Polish academics, Mikersieszki, Masyeder, 00:17:25.180 --> 00:17:28.000 and Jan Rubicki, used this method to investigate 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:31.079 the authorial fingerprints of Lee, Tehohoff, 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:34.019 and Truman Capote across the texts. And what 00:17:34.019 --> 00:17:36.960 they found was definitive. Their study proves 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:40.000 statistically that Mockingbird and Watchman were 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.480 absolutely written by the exact same person. 00:17:42.740 --> 00:17:44.799 It wasn't a ghostwriter, and it wasn't a later 00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:46.880 invention. Though it is worth noting, their study 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:49.460 did detect slight stylistic anomalies in the 00:17:49.460 --> 00:17:51.599 opening chapters of Mockingbird. suggesting that 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:53.799 Capote might have actually helped Lee polish 00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:56.279 those early pages. Which just adds another layer 00:17:56.279 --> 00:17:59.119 to that complex competitive friendship. But, 00:17:59.339 --> 00:18:01.819 you know, returning to Watchmen... The overarching 00:18:01.819 --> 00:18:04.880 debate is so tricky, some historians and fans 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:07.720 view the publication as a profound betrayal of 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:10.420 her legacy. But from a purely academic standpoint, 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:12.640 others argue that we shouldn't view Watchmen 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:16.180 as a betrayal, but rather as a fascinating literary 00:18:16.180 --> 00:18:18.519 fossil. A fossil, I like that. Yeah, it shows 00:18:18.519 --> 00:18:21.059 us exactly where Harper Lee started before Tejo 00:18:21.059 --> 00:18:23.700 Hoff intervened. It reveals the raw, unpolished, 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:25.740 perhaps more cynical attitudes of the author 00:18:25.740 --> 00:18:28.440 before the editorial process smoothed the edges 00:18:28.440 --> 00:18:31.240 and idealized the narrative. And it seems the 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:33.319 publishing of her unseen work hasn't stopped, 00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:36.900 even long after her passing. Harper Lee passed 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:39.940 away in her sleep on February 19, 2016, at the 00:18:39.940 --> 00:18:43.819 age of 89. Even in death, she remained an enigma. 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:46.140 She really did. New York Times actually had to 00:18:46.140 --> 00:18:48.359 file a lawsuit just to get her will unsealed 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:51.119 in 2018, which revealed most of her assets went 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:54.869 to a trust she formed in 2011. And the source 00:18:54.869 --> 00:18:57.109 material notes a very recent development. On 00:18:57.109 --> 00:19:01.029 October 21st, 2025, a massive posthumous collection 00:19:01.029 --> 00:19:03.190 called The Land of Sweet Forever was published. 00:19:03.349 --> 00:19:05.970 With a million copy first printing. It contains 00:19:05.970 --> 00:19:08.869 eight newly discovered early short stories and 00:19:08.869 --> 00:19:11.009 eight previously published essays introduced 00:19:11.009 --> 00:19:13.750 by biographer Casey Sepp. So her literary footprint 00:19:13.750 --> 00:19:16.269 continues to be expanded by others long after 00:19:16.269 --> 00:19:18.369 she lost the ability to control it herself. What 00:19:18.369 --> 00:19:21.599 an unbelievable journey. From a tomboy in Alabama 00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:24.220 soaking up the deeply flawed tragic world around 00:19:24.220 --> 00:19:26.880 her, to a struggling writer so frustrated she 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:28.980 literally threw her pages into the freezing New 00:19:28.980 --> 00:19:31.480 York snow. It's incredibly dramatic. From a silent 00:19:31.480 --> 00:19:34.000 icon who simply said, I have said what I wanted 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:36.799 to say, to the center of a massive controversy 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:40.000 involving elder abuse investigations and forensic 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:43.059 linguistics. It forces you, the listener, to 00:19:43.059 --> 00:19:46.210 really consider How we treat the creators of 00:19:46.210 --> 00:19:48.650 the art we love. Think about your own expectations 00:19:48.650 --> 00:19:51.690 of artists. Do we allow them their humanity, 00:19:51.970 --> 00:19:54.750 their struggles, their messy first drafts, their 00:19:54.750 --> 00:19:57.609 desire to simply be left alone? Yeah. Or do we 00:19:57.609 --> 00:19:59.990 demand that they live up to the impossible pristine 00:19:59.990 --> 00:20:02.349 myths we build around them, even if it means 00:20:02.349 --> 00:20:04.569 picking the locks on their safe deposit boxes? 00:20:04.829 --> 00:20:07.190 A heavy question. But I have one more for you 00:20:07.190 --> 00:20:09.589 to chew on as you go about your day. Think about 00:20:09.589 --> 00:20:12.980 that raw, unedited manuscript. If Go Set a Watchman 00:20:12.980 --> 00:20:15.319 represents Harper Lee's initial, unpolished, 00:20:15.500 --> 00:20:17.660 perhaps darker thoughts about her father in the 00:20:17.660 --> 00:20:20.279 deep south, and To Kill a Mockingbird represents 00:20:20.279 --> 00:20:22.480 the idealized editor -sheen version that the 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:25.279 whole world fell in love with, which book is 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:27.259 the truer reflection of the woman who threw her 00:20:27.259 --> 00:20:28.119 pages into the snow?