Catcher in the Rye and TKMockingbird out of American Schools

[Twoflower]

I love Roll of Thunder.

[Drewish]

I love Roll of Thunder.

Holy crap, there's a whole series? How did I not know about this?

[Twoflower]

I must read them all.

[Coito ergo sum]

I just realised Coito thought I meant Catcher in the Rye when I said 'never read it' (a direct response to the last line of his OP) the first time

Oh, sorry. I thought everyone read TKaM. If you haven't, read it today. You won't be sorry.

I've had a sneaking suspicion that Harper Lee never wrote that book, though. I thought that after I first read it, mainly because I learned she never published any other novels or anything of consequence since then. it just doesn't stand to reason that she would write NOTHING else. Someone who could write a novel like that, I mean....she doesn't even want to write something else for fun? Not a single other story came to mind in the last 50 odd years? I suspected the reason she didn't is that whatever she would try to write would expose her for not having written TKaM.

There are others who have theorized that Truman Capote actually wrote it. I think he denied it strenuously.

What, you don't think it's possible to recognize you have one good story in you, and leave it at that? one and done?

Possible? Sure. Probable? I doubt it. I don't see why she wouldn't write more. Writing is a "craft" and as such it is generally something that isn't a one-off, but is more of a "whole bunch-off."

There are plenty of writers I wish had that sort of self-awareness.

Other possibility-- having a crazy huge hit first time out can be the kiss of death to anything published subsequently.

I understand she worked as an editor.

As for TC writing it-- it is not neaaaaarly bleak enough to be his work. Even his light work was dark, if you looked close.

It's just a sneaking suspicion. Based on nothing. Just strikes me as odd, the "one off" thing.

[Animavore]

To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional book. Everyone should read it to their dog.

What's your take on it hades?

I found the device of telling the story not only from the girl's perspective, but mindset too, to be really interesting. It's not something I've seen done well before or since. Plus, I liked how completely I picture the scenes in the book... so well I can still see them now, probably 8 years or more since the last time I read it.

Rolling Thunder Hear My Cry

Plus that book had the advantage of being written from a black character's perspective and having relatable black characters, not just treating them like infantile 'others' as TKMB did.

You've just put me right off TKMB. You make it sound like it was written by a clueless, but well-meaning whitey portraying black-folk as the poor, simple and innocent noble savage. You sound sincere and I've no doubt you're probably right

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Anyone read The Invisible Man (not the scifi)?

[Coito ergo sum]

While we are at it, who wrote Gone with the Wind for Margaret Mitchell? Seeing as no author capable of writing a Pulitzer prize winning novel can posibly only have one book in them!

Who said anything about "possible?" Of course it's possible. I just had a sneaking suspicion. And, I'm not the one who came up with the idea that Capote really wrote it. That was bandied about quite seriously for many years.

And while we are at it, when is Oscar's sequel to Dorian Grey coming out?

Wilde was a prolific writer. He just didn't write other novels. He also wrote Picture of Dorian Grey in 1890, and died only 10 years later. He did, however, publish other works, like the Importance of Being Earnest, after Dorian Grey. It's not like he stopped writing. He was mostly a playwright, not a novelist.

Or the follow-up to Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago?

Pasternak has a ton of poetry and a bunch of prose publications. He didn't just publish Dr. Zhivago and then call it a lifetime. In fact, he published Dr. Zhivago in the late 1950s, and he died like 2 years later.

And which of the other Brontë sisters wrote Wuthering Heights for Emily?

She wrote piles of poetry, and then wrote Wuthering Heights when she was like 29. She died within a year after finishing Wuthering Heights. And, Anna did write what was originally intended by Emily to be the the third volume --- 'cuz Emily was dead.

Invisible Man, mentioned above, was Ralph Ellison's only published work,

It was his only published novel, but it was not the only novel he worked on (he had a second novel which he himself said was in the works at the time Invisible Man was published, and had a lot of published "works," just not novels. He was famous for essays.

Black Beauty was Anna Sewell's,

Died of hepatitis a few months after it was published. Next!

A Confederacy of Dunces (another Pulitzer winner) was Toole's

Published posthumously. I think he offed himself.

and Sylvia Plath's only excursion into lengthy prose was the Bell Jar.

Published months before her suicide.

Who did the ghost writing for these? Was Capote really that prolific?

I never made the allegation it was Capote. Other people did. And, surely you see the difference between an author writing a book that was published either months before his or her death, or published posthumously. If it doesn't occur to you, let me spell it out: They can't go on to publish more works, because the died.

I am afraid that you are guilty of repeating a long-disproven urban myth, CES. Harper Lee wrote TKAM. Capote's only involvement was in urging her to pulish it despite her protestations that it wasn't anywhere near good enough!

Christ on a bicycle. I merely pointed out that when I first read the damn book the suspicion occurred to me. It occurred to me independent of the myth. I read about the myth later and said to myself, "holy crap, that is what I thought...." (not that Capote did, specifically, but that Lee did not).

[Drewish]

To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional book. Everyone should read it to their dog.

What's your take on it hades?

I found the device of telling the story not only from the girl's perspective, but mindset too, to be really interesting. It's not something I've seen done well before or since. Plus, I liked how completely I picture the scenes in the book... so well I can still see them now, probably 8 years or more since the last time I read it.

Rolling Thunder Hear My Cry

Plus that book had the advantage of being written from a black character's perspective and having relatable black characters, not just treating them like infantile 'others' as TKMB did.

You've just put me right off TKMB. You make it sound like it was written by a clueless, but well-meaning whitey portraying black-folk as the poor, simple and innocent noble savage. You sound sincere and I've no doubt you're probably right

Oh it's not quite that bad. If you've seen the movie "The Help" then imagine something like that, except that instead of being narrated by a Viola Davis' character, it was instead narrated by Jessica Chastain's character.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Oh, and Harper Lee worked for years on a second novel whch was eventually abandoned due to her personal dissatisfaction with it.

Self-confidence really isn't her strong point - which is a great shame because she is a completely natural and enormously talented writer!

[hadespussercats]

While we are at it, who wrote Gone with the Wind for Margaret Mitchell? Seeing as no author capable of writing a Pulitzer prize winning novel can posibly only have one book in them!

And while we are at it, when is Oscar's sequel to Dorian Grey coming out? Or the follow-up to Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago? And which of the other Brontë sisters wrote Wuthering Heights for Emily?

Invisible Man, mentioned above, was Ralph Ellison's only published work, Black Beauty was Anna Sewell's, A Confederacy of Dunces (another Pulitzer winner) was Toole's and Sylvia Plath's only excursion into lengthy prose was the Bell Jar. Who did the ghost writing for these? Was Capote really that prolific?

I am afraid that you are guilty of repeating a long-disproven urban myth, CES. Harper Lee wrote TKAM. Capote's only involvement was in urging her to pulish it despite her protestations that it wasn't anywhere near good enough!

Thank you, Xamonas-- I was going to come back with some of this, but you beat me to the punch. It's good, though-- a point worth punching.

Another is this-- Truman Capote was one of the most devoted self-promoting authors of his time. Chances of him not putting his name on a work of his were just about zero-- particularly if that work went on to become a giant, best-selling, prize-winning hit.

A couple other points-- Harper Lee did indeed publish other works-- just not another novel. She wrote articles and anthologized short stories. And she started two other books-- a novel, when she was younger, that she decided not to finish, and a non-fiction book, in the 80s, that she set aside because she was unsatisfied with it.

I found this quote of hers telling:

I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected. ”
—Harper Lee, quoted in Newquist, 1964

Although, I have to say, given the choice between being prolific, or having one wildly successful and well-loved work, boy, I'd go with the latter. Unfortunately, no one's giving me the choice!

[hadespussercats]

To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional book. Everyone should read it to their dog.

What's your take on it hades?

I found the device of telling the story not only from the girl's perspective, but mindset too, to be really interesting. It's not something I've seen done well before or since. Plus, I liked how completely I picture the scenes in the book... so well I can still see them now, probably 8 years or more since the last time I read it.

Rolling Thunder Hear My Cry

Plus that book had the advantage of being written from a black character's perspective and having relatable black characters, not just treating them like infantile 'others' as TKMB did.

The othering was a critical aspect of the culture the book described.

It's good to pursue different perspectives on an issue, though.

[hadespussercats]

I just realised Coito thought I meant Catcher in the Rye when I said 'never read it' (a direct response to the last line of his OP) the first time

Oh, sorry. I thought everyone read TKaM. If you haven't, read it today. You won't be sorry.

I've had a sneaking suspicion that Harper Lee never wrote that book, though. I thought that after I first read it, mainly because I learned she never published any other novels or anything of consequence since then. it just doesn't stand to reason that she would write NOTHING else. Someone who could write a novel like that, I mean....she doesn't even want to write something else for fun? Not a single other story came to mind in the last 50 odd years? I suspected the reason she didn't is that whatever she would try to write would expose her for not having written TKaM.

There are others who have theorized that Truman Capote actually wrote it. I think he denied it strenuously.

What, you don't think it's possible to recognize you have one good story in you, and leave it at that? one and done?

Possible? Sure. Probable? I doubt it. I don't see why she wouldn't write more. Writing is a "craft" and as such it is generally something that isn't a one-off, but is more of a "whole bunch-off."

There are plenty of writers I wish had that sort of self-awareness.

Other possibility-- having a crazy huge hit first time out can be the kiss of death to anything published subsequently.

I understand she worked as an editor.

As for TC writing it-- it is not neaaaaarly bleak enough to be his work. Even his light work was dark, if you looked close.

It's just a sneaking suspicion. Based on nothing. Just strikes me as odd, the "one off" thing.

One published work is not the same as one written work, Coito. See my previous entry on same. And XC's.

[hadespussercats]

Anyone read The Invisible Man (not the scifi)?

Hey, there's no way Ralph Ellison wrote that. It's his only published work. That's not how writers pursue their craft, Zilla. Don't you know anything?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Although, I have to say, given the choice between being prolific, or having one wildly successful and well-loved work, boy, I'd go with the latter. Unfortunately, no one's giving me the choice!

I am sure they will once you publish...

[hadespussercats]

Although, I have to say, given the choice between being prolific, or having one wildly successful and well-loved work, boy, I'd go with the latter. Unfortunately, no one's giving me the choice!

I am sure they will once you publish...

Hmph.

Working on it.