My current neighbor was Harper Lee's "suite-mate" at UofA back in the day. My neighbor lady is a bit eccentric but she has some great stories from the University back in those days. We closed the sale of our house today and will be moving a few miles away. I need to come back by and record some of her stories in her Tidewater Virginia accent.
Wow. That is a must. Might make you rich and famous. Like Fannie Flag. Seriously, pick your neighbor up and take her to the award ceremony in Monroeville on April 27th 2012 for the Harper Lee Award for Fannie Flag.
Maybe write a book about it. The saying goes: everyone has at least one book in them.
Harper Lee lives in sheltered housing with her sister in Monroeville. Her age is 85. She recieves many requests for interviews. She denies them all. She sends back hand written notes declining them. Rumor is, people that request interviews just want her signature and save the notes.
'To Kill a Mockinbird' still sells 2-4 million copies a year. I read last week where California High schools were starting to require it to be read again. It was required before, then they stopped and now picked it back up.
I always loved 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. The book and movie. My mother was a third grade teacher and I had no choice but read what she wanted me to. First time I read the book I remember the word 'cooties'. I heard 'cooties' through out my elementary grades and high school, "Girls have cooties, girls have cooties". I still laugh about that to this day. I tell my high school aged son, who has already read the book, don't mess with girls they have 'cooties'.
Here is the latest article about Harper Lee in Al.com. I posted it a couple of months ago on CRS.
Friend finds why Harper Lee didn't write again:
Click here for link• The subject of "To Kill A Mockingbird" is off-limits for most who talk to its author Harper Lee, but not to her close friend, the Rev. Thomas Lane Butts of the Monroeville Methodist Church. "We talk about it once in a while,'' he tells Paul Toohey of Australia's Sunday Telegraph. "She once said to me when we were up late one night, sharing a bottle of scotch: 'You ever wonder why I never wrote anything else?' And I said, 'Well, along with a million other people, yes'. "I espoused two or three ideas. I said maybe you didn't want to compete with yourself.
She said, 'Bull ... Two reasons: one, I wouldn't go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill A Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again'. ''
Then last week Fannie Flag wins The Harper Lee Award:
Click here for linkMONTGOMERY — Author and Birmingham native Fannie Flagg has been named the 2012 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year.
Fannie Flagg will receive the award April 27, 2012, at the annual luncheon of the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville. The conference will meet April 26-28. Flagg will read selections from her work in the courthouse on April 28.
“I am absolutely thrilled and honored to receive this award, particularly this award named in honor of my idol Harper Lee,” the author said.
A New York Times bestseller, Flagg is the author of the novels “I Still Dream About You” (Random House, 2010); “Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven” (Ballentine Books, 2007); “A Redbird Christmas” (Random House, 2005); “Standing in the Rainbow” (Ballentine Books, 2002); “Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!” (Ballentine Books, 1998);
“Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Café” (Random House, 1987); and “Coming Attractions: A Wonderful Novel” (1981; reprinted as “Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man,” Ballentine Books, 1992).
When nominating Flagg, Tina F. Turley, executive producer of Theatre Tuscaloosa, wrote:
“While most people know that Ms. Flagg is a New York Times bestselling author, her credentials as a scriptwriter for television and an award-winning screenwriter demonstrate that she has worked successfully in two genres.
"To have visualized her material first in fiction and then adapted it to a screenplay demonstrates the versatility of her talent as a writer. Fannie Flagg is truly one of Alabama’s finest treasures.”
Just look at the awards that Fannie Flag and Fried Green Tomatoes won: 2 Oscars.
Click here for linkI have worked in Irondale and have eaten at the 'Whistle Stop Cafe' for many, many years.
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