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10/29/2007 Phony Baloney “Literature”To Kill A Mockingbird was written 47 years ago. It was the only book published by Nelle Harper Lee (who evidently didn’t like her first name?).It is an overblown drama about children in 1930s Alabama. It would have languished in obscurity if it had not been co-authored by Lippencot editor Tay Hohoff and subsequently made into a 1962 movie with Gregory Peck as leading role of the children’s father. In 1957 Miss Lee submitted the manuscript of her novel to the J. B. Lippincott Company. She was told that her novel consisted of a series of short stories strung together, and she was urged to rewrite it. For the next 2-1/2 years Hohoff reworked the manuscript and in 1960 the book was published, her only published book. To put it plainly, had the publishing community not taken care of one of their own the book would never have made it past the first draft. An influential father and the publishers made her a one time author. Not only am I not ecstatic about this being the work of “Literature” chosen to bore my children with, I am totally not thrilled with the Tremont School District spending tax money on postage to brag about this antique education they are providing my children. We received a glowing letter bragging about how this teacher plans to teach our children about this overblown drama and an invitation to join them. I think I will pass. Let us know when you decide to teach something a bit more modern. When are modern schools going to start teaching something more modern than what Alabama was like viewed through the eyes of a failed author almost a fifty years ago? Do you suppose they will also teach her relationship to Truman Capote and other avant guarde of the time? Will the teacher explain or does she even know about Harper Lee’s association with the publishing community at the time and why it was really published? I doubt it. To call this lame woman an author is in the same league as calling Picasso an artist. Stuff-N-Nonsense! |