“We kind of inherited her as a customer”, said Upchurch, whose store closed in January after 65 years in business.
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Curious circumstances, however, surround “Watchman’s” release, with some evidence suggesting Lee may never have wanted the book published at all.
After Katrina, Leonard evacuated to Monroeville, Alabama where Harper Lee lived.
Wayne Flynt, her friend and professor emeritus at Auburn University, says her absence had little to do with preconceived notions of her personality.
“She was an extremely private person, and my policy is that I don’t tell anybody what anybody buys at the bookstore”, he said.
This file photo taken on November 05, 2007 shows former US President George W. Bush with “To Kill A Mockingbird” novelist HarperLee before presenting her with the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 5, 2007 in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC.
“The world has lost a brilliant mind and a great writer”, wrote Spencer Madrie, owner of Ol ‘Curiosities and Book Shoppe, the small independent bookstore Monroeville (6000 inhabitants).
“America and the world knew Harper Lee as one of the last century’s most beloved authors”, Hank Conner, Lee’s nephew, announced in a statement. “People from all over the world, in other countries, heard about (Lee’s death) before I did”. In many ways, it struck a chord for the very reasons Lee’s editor was feeling cautious, says Mary Murphy, director of the documentary Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird. Despite enormous interest in another novel, she insisted that she had no interest in writing further. That all changed in the 1960s. “Go Set a Watchman” topped bestseller lists within a day of its announcement in February 2015 and remained there for months. But she remains an extraordinary figure. She remembers reading “To Kill A Mockingbird” as a child.
“Few writers are privileged to create characters which truly seem to leap off the page and live: Lee will always be remembered as one of those”. May she rest in peace. But in “Watchman”, an older Atticus had racial views that left the grown-up Scout greatly disillusioned.
The publication proved controversial as early reviewers noted that Atticus expresses racist views in the story.
Or watch the movie version, starring Gregory Peck. 1960 was also the year in which John F Kennedy became president and white southerners feared that the new president’s liberal agenda would introduce policies that would disturb a way of life that had placed whites at the top and blacks at the bottom of the social order. Her father was a lawyer and a direct descendant of Civil War general Robert E. Lee.
“Every year, she was listed as the best seller at the bookstore”, Upchurch said.
The book explores issues of race, class and the loss of innocence.
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“I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird”, Lee told The New York Times.
