Here we go again. Did Marlowe write for Shakespeare, or did Shakespeare steal from Marlowe? Who was Christopher Marlowe anyway?
I always found TKAM sort of predictable, full of cartoonish characters, and frankly dull.
the reason it’s this all-time best seller is because it is assigned in various English classes/lit classes at high school, college and university level. The students HAVE to buy it. Every fall it comes back up on the best seller list when classes start again.
I found it just not very good. Not well written. Dull.
Henry Cabot Lodge.
The “second book” .. is really the first book.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” - was really the 2nd book.
Um. No. No-one is going to buy a $20 and spend hours reading it in the notion that they can determine if the prose matches a decades-old writing style. People will buy the book if and only if they expect to love it as literature.
There is excellent software to determine authorship available now.
I would expect Capote’s works have all ready been compared to Lee’s.
This is nasty. The two had a common theme: the deep south. But beyond that they are very different writers. I feel for Lee who is having to go through this in her extreme old age. Who convinced this nice lady to do this? This wouldn’t have happened if her sister was still alive. I’ve visited Monroeville many times and she’s revered in that town.
Could a little drama queen like Capote have kept silent while someone else won awards to his ghostwriting? Not for a single day, much less decades.
I doubt it, but if the movies were any indication, she was a lot more up on the details of the murders and better suited to be a crime writer than he was.
In the movies Philip Seymour Hoffman or Toby Jones seemed more concerned with freaking out the Kansas locals than with getting the facts straight.
Harper Lee probably left some kind of mark on Blood and it wouldn't be surprising if Capote influenced Mockingbird and given Lee notes.
The better question is... Did Harper Lee write In Cold Blood?
"This is not great literature, and I avoid teaching it at all costs. It's not even good reading. The characters are black and white two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. The rednecks are evil, the blacks are victims, and the self-righteous Atticus is too good to be true. There is nothing here to examine or explore. Critical thinking skills can be checked at the door. Moreover, if the lack of complexity and verisimilitude doesn't stick in your craw, then the insipid narration of the androgynous Scout will. This novel is popular due, in part, to the fact that the reader can feel morally superior to white trailer trash as he identifies with the demigod, Atticus. Shakespeare, the consummate craftsman of characterization, understood that even the evil (save Iago) have some redeeming qualities, and the good flaws. To Kill a Mockingbird is about as deep as a rain puddle."
The same person wrote both books. That person was not Truman Capote. The styles are not the same at all.
Since Harper Lee’s editor worked with her, it is safe to say that she wrote both books.
It is clear from the books and from the editor that the books were written in the order and manner reported.
Mockingbird is a much more polished book. Watchman drags on in parts.
The most fascinating thing is that for 55 years, Harper Lee and a few others have known that Mr. Finch was not the person that Scout tries to make him.
Why would the Soviets publish translations of Harper Lee and "The Grapes of Wrath", for that matter, and have their school children read them?
Read about socrealist art and how these works fit into the Party's template, and fit, I might add, perfectly!