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Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird author, dies aged 89
Writer whose 1961 novel became a defining text of 20th-century
literature and of racial troubles in the American south has died in
Monroeville, Alabama
Harper Lee,
whose 1961 novel To Kill a Mockingbird became a national institution
and the defining text on the racial troubles of the American deep south,
has died at the age of 89.
Lee, or Nelle as she was known to those close to her, had lived for
several years in a nursing home less than a mile from the house in which
she had grown up in Monroeville, Alabama – the setting for the
fictional Maycomb of her famous book. The town’s mayor, Mike Kennedy,
confirmed the author’s death.
Until last year, Lee had been something of a one-book literary
wonder. To Kill a Mockingbird, her 1961 epic narrative about small-town
lawyer Atticus Finch’s battle to save the life of a black resident
threatened by a racist mob, sold more than 40m copies around the world
and earned her a Pulitzer prize. George W Bush awarded her the
presidential medal of freedom in 2007.But from the moment Mockingbird was published to almost instant
success the author consistently avoided public attention and insisted
that she had no intention of releasing further works. That self-imposed
purdah ended abruptly when, amid considerable controversy, it was revealed a year ago that a second novel had been discovered, which was published as Go Set a Watchman in July 2015. The house where Lee lived for years with her sister Alice sat quiet
and empty on Friday. The inside of the house appeared unchanged from
when she lived there – antique furniture was stacked with books, audio
cassettes and gift baskets. Her neighbor for 40 years, Sue Sellers, said Lee would have
appreciated the quiet. “She was such a private person,” she said. “All
she wanted was privacy, but she didn’t get much. There always somebody
following her around.” In recent years Lee’s health had declined. Seller said the last time
she spent any real time with Lee they went to breakfast together. “The
whole way home she drove her big car in the turn lane,” she said. “She
couldn’t see. I was scared to death.” The last time she saw Lee was a few months ago at the Meadows nursing
home. Sellers brought flowers. “She just hollered out: ‘I can’t see and
I can’t hear!’” Sellers said. “So I just told her goodbye.” Lee was born in Monroeville in 1926 and grew up under the stresses of
segregation. As a child she shared summers with another aspiring
writer, Truman Capote, who annually came to stay in the house next door
to hers and who later invited her to accompany him to Holcomb, Kansas,
to help him research his groundbreaking 1966 crime book In Cold Blood.
Capote
informed the figure of the young boy Dill in Mockingbird, with his
friend the first-person narrator Scout clearly modelled on the childhood
Lee herself. Lee was the youngest child of lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances
Finch Lee. Her father acted as the template for Atticus Finch whose
resolute courtroom dignity as he struggles to represent a black man, Tom
Robinson, accused of raping a white woman provides the novel’s ethical
backbone. Last year’s publication of Go Set a Watchman obliged bewildered fans
of the novel to reappraise the character of Finch. In that novel, which
was in fact the first draft of Mockingbird that had been rejected by her
publisher, Finch was portrayed as having been a supporter of the
South’s Jim Crow laws, saying at one point: “Do you want Negroes by the
carload in our schools and churches and theaters?” Within minutes of the announcement of the novelist’s death, encomiums
began to flow. Her literary agent Andrew Nurnberg said in a statement:
“We have lost a great writer, a great friend and a beacon of integrity.” He added: “Knowing Nelle these past few years has been not just an
utter delight but an extraordinary privilege. When I saw her just six
weeks ago, she was full of life, her mind and mischievous wit as sharp
as ever. She was quoting Thomas More and setting me straight on Tudor
history.”
Michael Morrison, her publisher at HarperCollins US, said: “The world
knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer but what many don’t know is
that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and
kindness. She lived her life the way she wanted to – in private –
surrounded by books and the people who loved her.” In Lee’s home state of Alabama, a center of the violent upheavals
over civil rights that immediately preceded the publication of
Mockingbird, literary experts reflected on the power of the novel to
shift the ingrained assumptions of white Alabamans. Jacqueline Trimble,
president of the Alabama Writers’ Forum that bequeaths the annual Harper
Lee award for literary excellence, said that the book had a profound
effect on white residents of the state. “She was able to take the politics of the civil rights era and make
them human. She showed people that this was about their neighbors, their
friends, someone they knew, not just about the issues,” Trimble said. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, tweeted a quote from Mockingbird: “The
one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
Italian writer Umberto Eco dies at 84
The Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose, has died aged 84.
His family says he passed away late on Friday at his home. No further details were given. The Name of the Rose was made into a film in 1989 starring Scottish actor Sean Connery. Eco, who also wrote the novel Foucault's Pendulum, continued to publish new works, with Numero Zero released last year. He also wrote children's books and literary criticism. Eco once wrote that "books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told". "I am a philosopher," he was quoted as saying. "I write novels only on the weekends." Eco founded the communications department at the University of San Marino in the 1980s. He was later professor emeritus and chairman of the Higher School of Humanities of the University of Bologna. Eco was born in Alessandria, northern Italy, in 1932.
Betty MacDonald Fan Club, founded by Wolfgang Hampel, has members in 40 countries.
Wolfgang Hampel, author of Betty MacDonald biography interviewed Betty MacDonald's family and friends. His Interviews have been published on CD and DVD by Betty MacDonald Fan Club. If you are interested in the Betty MacDonald Biography or the Betty MacDonald Interviews send us a mail, please.
Several original Interviews with Betty MacDonald are available.
We are also organizing international Betty MacDonald Fan Club Events for example, Betty MacDonald Fan Club Eurovision Song Contest Meetings in Oslo and Düsseldorf, Royal Wedding Betty MacDonald Fan Club Event in Stockholm and Betty MacDonald Fan Club Fifa Worldcup Conferences in South Africa and Germany.
Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honour Members are Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter and described as Kimi in Betty MacDonald's The Plague and I, Betty MacDonald's nephew, artist and writer Darsie Beck, Betty MacDonald fans and beloved authors and artists Gwen Grant, Letizia Mancino, Perry Woodfin, Traci Tyne Hilton, Tatjana Geßler, music producer Bernd Kunze, musician Thomas Bödigheimer, translater Mary Holmes and Mr. Tigerli.
