Harper Lee’s Lost Stories, Making Of A Classic | Book Review

Most people reading the title, Harper Lee’s forgotten stories will expect To Kill a Mockingbird cloes in short form, which is actually the problem with posthumous publications. However the stories and other pieces in this book were discovered among the piles of paper in Harper Lee’s flt – as the writer of the foreword comments, “she was a pack rat” nothing was ever thrown away. The difference lies of course in the fact that these stories were written when Harper Lee had moved to New York was just setting out to be a writer.

There are flashes of what made her the writer we know to be discovered but, for the most part, the stories are young and untried. She would hammer them out on her typewriter – a gift from her father – before sending them to various magazines in the hope of getting them published., and keep a clutch of rejection notices too.

The stories explore themes that Lee was to develop more fully later, centring on social approval, including parental approval and homecomings. What holds the attention are the flashes of language “a tall young man whose face belonged to the Wade family, but whose body showed extensive Talbert influence. He was Talbert Wade, of course.” Sections of the stories were later repurposed in to Kill a Mockingbird so quite obviously Lee knew that they had potential and stored them away for future reference. The hymn from the title story in fact also occurs in a church service in To Kill a Mockingbird so she was aware of its resonance.

The deep south flavour of the stories are very characteristically Lee – it was something that she continued to develop and can be found in the strongest of the stories in this book The Cat’s Meow, which focuses on the character of an Yankee Negro gardener who works for a character based on Lee’s elder sister and Lee. The issues of segregation are raised and the gardener will find his pace later.

The essays are pieces based on expected subjects like “Love is the most important thing,” “Reading matters,” “My happiest Christmas “ again they are the things that a young writer exploring her craft would possibly toy with or perhaps write to meet a commission. Pieces like the one on Truman Capote who was very much a friend and was written for the Book of the Month Club newsletter is a slick exercise in admiration for a noted writer and has no reflection of her own personal relationship with Capote – but then, if she was writing the piece as an assignment she would be very unlikely to court any kind of controversy. In any case her Kansas and Kansan approach hooks the reader. What is interesting is a much later piece where she recounts her experience of watching Gregory Peck play Atticus during the filming of her book – a no frills straight talking observation that expresses her feelings about the film and the actor written in the style we know.

It is best to remember that these were written at a time when Lee was finding her literary voice so the fact that she was not open in her thoughts was part and parcel of the way her life was then. She was unclear about segregation and had not taken a stand on any issue so through the stories she did what she could – hone her dialogue skills which were arresting and throw in pieces of wit or introduce characters – the name Jean Louise pops up significantly – but then again one would have to be a fan of To Kill a Mockingbird to realise that Jean Louise would later become Scout.

What makes the book valuable is in what it reveals about the cultural constraints of Lee’s time. The mid-century magazine-style tone that she adopts might feel like repression to some but may have well been the only way that she could get into print at the time. Where she could indulge she did – in her dialogues, descriptions and the names she gave her characters. Also in her interest in the legal profession. Lee had not yet found a voice so hesitancy in many cases is hardly surprising – she was uncertain how her work would be received by the general publishing public. In this way, The Land of Sweet Forever thros light not only on its author’s development but also on the silences imposed on many women writers of her generation.

Ultimately, this is a book for those interested in how Harper Lee shaped her craft from her early days, her hesitations and the competing forces affecting her work. Looked at in that light, The Land of Sweet Forever is an important addition to her legacy: imperfect, incomplete, yet undeniably illuminating.