A new book, but an old conspiracy theory: Who really wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird"

CNBC ^ | 02/03/2015

[SeekAndFind]

A second Harper Lee book is coming out and is likely to be a wild commercial success. But let's be honest

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

By every account, Lee's editors were very hands-on. She may have written it, but she was getting a lot of notes on shaping the material.

As for the notion that Capote wrote TKAM, it's absurd. The man's ego wouldn't have allowed him to sit back while Lee was credited with writing a book far more successful than anything he ever did.

[ifinnegan]

“Keep in mind that TKAM was also severely edited in it’s transition from
Watchman.”

My impression is that is a mistaken impression many have and the two are separate works.

” So how much of the editors writing style got embedded?”

Editing would be an issue in the software analysis.

[ifinnegan]

Good example.

I agree with you about editors not writing.

[Mollypitcher1]

I agree. Mein Kamph was a best seller too.

[miss marmelstein]

Yes, of course, editors can be hands on. They must have known as soon as they got the manuscript that they had gold in their hands. That doesn’t diminish her as a writer. F. Scott Fitzgerald was an example of someone who needed very little editing - same with Shirley Jackson As a Thomas Wolfe fan, I know how on top of it Max Perkins was. His editing made Wolfe’s work sing. But he did not write it!

[Southack]

Truman Capote wrote “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” which is far, far away from the Deep South...and entirely different prose from “To Kill A Mockingbird” which was written by Harper Lee.

Harper Lee *did* help Capote write “In Cold Blood” as well as many of his movie scripts, though.

Just not the other way around. Capote didn’t help her with “Go Set A Watchman” or “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

[x]

Henry Cabot Lodge.

??????

Is that some kind of Operation Mockingbird/CIA/Kennedy Assassination reference?

I see your HCL II reference and raise you Get Smart's "Tequila Mockingbird" episode.

[WayneS]

The Harper Lee who wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the same person as the Harper Lee who wrote its sequel, but that person has changed much over the years.

Both books were written within a short time of each other.

The recently released book was actually written first.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The original manuscript Lee submitted was "Watchman." But with the editor's guidance, it was turned into TKAM.

Like many unpublished authors, Ms. Lee was unsure of her talents. “I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told,” Ms. Lee said in a statement this year about the evolution from “Watchman” to “Mockingbird.”

Ms. Hohoff offers a more detailed characterization of the process in the Lippincott corporate history: “After a couple of false starts, the story-line, interplay of characters, and fall of emphasis grew clearer, and with each revision — there were many minor changes as the story grew in strength and in her own vision of it — the true stature of the novel became evident.” (In 1978, Lippincott was acquired by Harper & Row, which became HarperCollins, publisher of “Watchman.”)

There appeared to be a natural give and take between author and editor. “When she disagreed with a suggestion, we talked it out, sometimes for hours,” Ms. Hohoff wrote. “And sometimes she came around to my way of thinking, sometimes I to hers, sometimes the discussion would open up an entirely new line of country.”

The Invisible Hand Behind Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

[x]

One theory was that Truman Capote wrote To Kill a Mockingbird and Harper Lee wrote In Cold Blood.

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.

[WayneS]

I agree 100%.

That little faggot did NOT write To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Mollypitcher1]

Don’t remember the details now, but Shakespeare did plagiarize Marlowe. I wrote a term paper on it over fifty years ago and at the time it took some digging, but the proof was there. Don’t get me wrong, I love Shakespeare and Marlowe as well. Who knows how great he could have been.

[WayneS]

I agree 100%.

I was also about 12 the first time I read it.

[miss marmelstein]

I agree. But Truman’s early claim to fame was his southern writing - A Christmas Memory, The Grass Harp, etc.

Does anyone remember he wrote the beautiful lyric to the gorgeous song “A Sleepin’ Bee”? And for those who love “true crime” like In Cold Blood, please, please buy “Handcarved Coffins.”

[Mad Dawgg]

"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."

Yeah too true. Now did he kibitz and/or maybe help with suggestions/edits like any good "first reader" does? I would be surprised to find out he didn't.

[miss marmelstein]

What a wonderful read for a young person! It perfectly reflects the idealism of youth followed by the awful disillusionment. Poor Jem who thinks Tom will be acquitted!

[ifinnegan]

Thanks.

I still think they were separate works. In other words a new book was written based on parts, the flashbacks, while working with the editor and suggestions.

If TKAM were an edited version of the Watchman book, the latter couldn’t be published because it would contain large chunks of TKAM.

[Sacajaweau]

In other words, she published the politically correct book rather than the honest book.

And walked away from the truth.

[JoeProBono]

J. D. Salinger

[SeekAndFind]

How is he relevant to this debate?