Hot! Harper Lee

Harper Lee s career was as prestigious as it was short. The enigmatic author whose award-winning first novel To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize before she decided to eschew fame, never following the novel with a second one.

Now 85, Lee resides quietly in her hometown of Monroeville, Ala., and hasn t granted an interview in 50 years not even to Oprah. If she were to give one, the question that any reporter would certainly ask: Is there a second book? Author of To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee , in a local courthouse while visiting her home town. (Donald Uhrbrock - TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGE)

It was a question Washington Post columnist Winzola McLendon asked Lee 52 years ago. Shortly after the publication of Mockingbird, Lee answered: The second book was on its way.

Nobody Mocks Mockingbird Author: Sales are Proof of Pudding

By Winzola McLendon

Nov. 17, 1960

When Harper Lee wrote her first novel the bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird she chose what was for her the most natural subject in the world.

That is what we live with every day of our lives, the 34-year-old Southerner said yesterday while discussing Mockingbird the fictional account of a small South Alabama town s racial problems.

Miss Lee, who is in town to attend a 3 p.m. autographing party today at the Francis Scott Key Book Shop in Georgetown, is actually named Nelle Harper Lee. But she dropped the Nelle because it is spelled with an e and she says, They d call me Nellie.

Born and raised in Monroeville, Ala. (a small town near Mobile), Miss Lee has written short stories, essays and sketches since she was a child. But she never tried to publish any of them.

Mockingbird was written and submitted because some friends dared her to. Do the friends like the results of the dare? They bought it and that s proof of the pudding, claims the author.

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Now, she s back in Monroeville writing another book. The subject of the new novel is a well guarded secret between the author and her publisher. But we ll go out on a limb and predict that it will involve a thrilling murder and a suspense-filled trial.

When interviewed in her Mayflower Hotel suite yesterday, Miss Lee admitted that she likes to read about murders (both in case histories and in literature) and that she s been reading dozens of books on English law.Author Harper Lee smoking cigarette on porch. (Donald Uhrbrock)

As all Lee fans know, that second book remained a secret. TV critic Hank Stuever, in his review of the PBS documentary documentary which aired Monday, has a theory why:

Why didn t she write more? Assuming there are no finished manuscripts neatly arranged on a credenza awaiting posthumous publication, Hey, Boo offers some solace . as its interviewees muse on the courage it takes to know when to quit.

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