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Fan Favorite: Great American Authors | Harper Lee: Mockingbird

4/1/202641 min

In 1949, aspiring writer Nelle Harper Lee moved from her home in small-town Alabama to New York City. She was following in the footsteps of her childhood friend, author Truman Capote. Within a few years she had penned a novel of her own, and called it To Kill a Mockingbird.

To Kill a Mockingbird catapulted Harper Lee to the heights of literary fame. But just as she found success, she withdrew, overwhelmed by being in the public eye, and the pressure to produce another book as good as her first. Decades would pass before anyone mentioned the possibility...

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First 90 seconds

  1. Lindsay Graham· Host0:01

    [music] Imagine it's the spring of nineteen fifty-seven. You're an editor at a distinguished literary publishing house in New York and one of the few senior women in the office. [door opening] You walk into a towering Art Deco building in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. Your shoulder strains under a heavy bag. You're carrying a two-hundred-and-fifty-page manuscript, and it's a story that you can't get off your mind. After two decades in the business, you've established yourself as a trusted leader with a strong instinct for story and a talent for working with young writers. [door opening] As you enter the office, you're greeted by a more junior employee named Marguerite.

  2. Speaker 10:48

    [door closing] Good morning.

  3. Lindsay Graham· Host0:49

    Good morning.

  4. Speaker 10:50

    I was hoping I would run into you. I want to talk over that manuscript you passed over, the one by that young author from Alabama.

  5. Lindsay Graham· Host0:59

    Right. Go Set a Watchman.

  6. Speaker 11:01

    I didn't think it was worth your time to read.

  7. Lindsay Graham· Host1:04

    You're surprised. Marguerite has been working in publishing a few years, and you've come to rely on her to vet new writers before they get to your desk. But when you saw this manuscript in the rejection pile, something made you decide to give it a look. You decide to press her on her reasoning. Well, what made you think that?

  8. Speaker 11:22

    Well, for starters, it's far too long for a first novel.

  9. Lindsay Graham· Host1:26

    I agree. It's a bit long, but that's what good editors

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