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[CCBC-Net] Primary Sources: Harper Lee Up Close
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From: Kerry Madden <kiffnkerry>
Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 00:44:56 -0700 (PDT)
I want to thank the CCBC librarians for inviting me to be a guest to discuss my primary research and Harper Lee. I thought I'd begin by talking about the first trip to Alabama.
>From the beginning, I knew I could not sit in a room a "google" Harper Lee, and I thought that by going to Monroeville, Alabama one thing might lead to another. So in the spring of 2007, I first told Jay Lamar, one of the directors of the Alabama Book Festival, that I was writing a biography about Harper Lee. I told her because she had invited me to read and speak about my new children's novel LOUISIANA'S SONG at the Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery. http://www.alabamabookcenter.org/
She was a great help and told me that I needed to talk to Wayne Greenhaw, Angela Roberts, and Dr. Wayne Flynt. She set up the interviews for me at the Alabama Book Festival. Wayne Greenhaw is a poet who won the Harper Lee Award, and Angela Roberts was a librarian at Alabama Southern in Monroeville at the time. I later spoke to Dr. Flynt by phone after the festival.
I first spoke at length with poet, novelist, and journalist, Wayne Greenhaw.
http://www.waynegreenhaw.com/index.php?page_id=236
He and Harper Lee shared the same publisher and editor, so that was how they came to know each other. His very first novel was called:
THE GOLFER, a novel, J.B. Lippincott, New York, 1968
Tay Hohoff was Greenhaw's and Harper Lee's agent, and Tay wanted Greenhaw to write
"another sports novel." Greenhaw said, "I told Nelle 'The Golfer' wasn't a sports novel."
The best advice Wayne Greenhaw gave me was about taking the time to explore Lower Alabama, what people refer to as "The other LA." He said, "Take the back roads, go through Burnt Corn. Visit Pine Apple, Alabama. The old Federal Road goes to Milledgeville, Georgia." (Home of another southern writer, Flannery O'Connor.) Because of his advice, I took the backroads every chance I could to explore the little towns and places around Monroeville. I also read his essays ALABAMA ON MY MIND, a collection of non-fiction, where he wrote about Truman Capote and Harper Lee.
Greenhaw also talked about drinking martinis with Harper Lee at the Russian Tea Room, and how she waited for him to arrive with her friend, "Eudora." (a book of Eudora Welty's short stories.) He wrote a poem about that evening, which is included in his book, GHOSTS ON THE ROAD: Poems of Alabama and Mexico, River City Publishing, 2007.?
I met Angela Roberts, too, and she told me to contact her once I arrived in Monroeville, and then she would tell me who to talk to in town.?
After the Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery, I drove back up to Birmingham to pick up sister, Keely, at the airport, and then we drove to Monroeville early the next morning to the United Methodist Church. We met the pastor's wife, a lovely lady, who of course wanted to know if we were new in town and if we were "Methodists." I told her I was a children's author and writing a biography for children about Harper Lee. She said that I needed to meet her husband, and I later met with Reverend Thomas Lane Butts the following Wednesday.
It was spring but summer was already thick in the air. Monroeville reminded us of Leavenworth, Kansas where we spent many summers visiting our grandparents. But I have to say that Sunday was really the day to catch our breath before the interviews began in earnest. We walked around the town square and drove the back roads.
"The Mockingbird Cafe" is packed after Sunday services. The Baptist and Methodist Churches are right across the street from each other. The Courthouse in the Town Square rings every hour on the hour. We also noticed little things like the fact that fruit salad is more ambrosia - a fruit cocktail mixed with Cool Whip, and the way people drink more sweet tea than coffee, and coffee is just that - coffee - nothing fancy like lattes or espressos. (As coffee is vital to both of us, we bought Peets at the Winn Dixie and made drip cups with one-cup filters in at our hotel near Alabama Southern.)
It was also important to me for the people in Alabama to see my Maggie Valley children's novels set in Appalachia, so they would know I wasn't coming in to write a sensational story. Miss Lee has had strangers knock on her door trying to get an interview. I brought copies of GENTLE'S HOLLER and LOUISIANA'S SONG (Viking), and I donated them to the library in Monroeville, and I also gave them to Miss Alice Lee, Harper Lee's sister, just in case Harper Lee might change her mind and speak to me. (She didn't.)
We met Harper Lee's sister, Miss Alice Lee, the following Monday morning in Monroeville. Miss Alice is a lawyer, 97, who still works three days a week at the law office.
That's enough for now. I'm very happy to answer any questions.
All best Kerry? www.kerrymadden.com
P.S. Just one more thing about Miss Alice: Reverend Thomas Lane Butts wrote a speech to honor Miss Alice Lee as "RECIPIENT OF THE 2003 MAUD MCCLURE KELLY AWARD PRESENTED BY THE ALABAMA BAR ASSOCIATION, JULY 18, 2003."
Here is PDF link to the talk. (Miss Alice Lee would make an amazing biography.)
[PDF] 510061 Ala Jnl of Legal Prof 28.psFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML Thomas Lane Butts. *. Madam Chairperson, members of the Bar, honored guests and ... Alabama back then?a woman lawyer, Miss Alice Finch Lee, the person ... law.ua.edu/pubs/jlp/files/issues_files/vol28/v28a3.pdf - Similar pages
?
Received on Tue 19 May 2009 02:44:56 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 00:44:56 -0700 (PDT)
I want to thank the CCBC librarians for inviting me to be a guest to discuss my primary research and Harper Lee. I thought I'd begin by talking about the first trip to Alabama.
>From the beginning, I knew I could not sit in a room a "google" Harper Lee, and I thought that by going to Monroeville, Alabama one thing might lead to another. So in the spring of 2007, I first told Jay Lamar, one of the directors of the Alabama Book Festival, that I was writing a biography about Harper Lee. I told her because she had invited me to read and speak about my new children's novel LOUISIANA'S SONG at the Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery. http://www.alabamabookcenter.org/
She was a great help and told me that I needed to talk to Wayne Greenhaw, Angela Roberts, and Dr. Wayne Flynt. She set up the interviews for me at the Alabama Book Festival. Wayne Greenhaw is a poet who won the Harper Lee Award, and Angela Roberts was a librarian at Alabama Southern in Monroeville at the time. I later spoke to Dr. Flynt by phone after the festival.
I first spoke at length with poet, novelist, and journalist, Wayne Greenhaw.
http://www.waynegreenhaw.com/index.php?page_id=236
He and Harper Lee shared the same publisher and editor, so that was how they came to know each other. His very first novel was called:
THE GOLFER, a novel, J.B. Lippincott, New York, 1968
Tay Hohoff was Greenhaw's and Harper Lee's agent, and Tay wanted Greenhaw to write
"another sports novel." Greenhaw said, "I told Nelle 'The Golfer' wasn't a sports novel."
The best advice Wayne Greenhaw gave me was about taking the time to explore Lower Alabama, what people refer to as "The other LA." He said, "Take the back roads, go through Burnt Corn. Visit Pine Apple, Alabama. The old Federal Road goes to Milledgeville, Georgia." (Home of another southern writer, Flannery O'Connor.) Because of his advice, I took the backroads every chance I could to explore the little towns and places around Monroeville. I also read his essays ALABAMA ON MY MIND, a collection of non-fiction, where he wrote about Truman Capote and Harper Lee.
Greenhaw also talked about drinking martinis with Harper Lee at the Russian Tea Room, and how she waited for him to arrive with her friend, "Eudora." (a book of Eudora Welty's short stories.) He wrote a poem about that evening, which is included in his book, GHOSTS ON THE ROAD: Poems of Alabama and Mexico, River City Publishing, 2007.?
I met Angela Roberts, too, and she told me to contact her once I arrived in Monroeville, and then she would tell me who to talk to in town.?
After the Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery, I drove back up to Birmingham to pick up sister, Keely, at the airport, and then we drove to Monroeville early the next morning to the United Methodist Church. We met the pastor's wife, a lovely lady, who of course wanted to know if we were new in town and if we were "Methodists." I told her I was a children's author and writing a biography for children about Harper Lee. She said that I needed to meet her husband, and I later met with Reverend Thomas Lane Butts the following Wednesday.
It was spring but summer was already thick in the air. Monroeville reminded us of Leavenworth, Kansas where we spent many summers visiting our grandparents. But I have to say that Sunday was really the day to catch our breath before the interviews began in earnest. We walked around the town square and drove the back roads.
"The Mockingbird Cafe" is packed after Sunday services. The Baptist and Methodist Churches are right across the street from each other. The Courthouse in the Town Square rings every hour on the hour. We also noticed little things like the fact that fruit salad is more ambrosia - a fruit cocktail mixed with Cool Whip, and the way people drink more sweet tea than coffee, and coffee is just that - coffee - nothing fancy like lattes or espressos. (As coffee is vital to both of us, we bought Peets at the Winn Dixie and made drip cups with one-cup filters in at our hotel near Alabama Southern.)
It was also important to me for the people in Alabama to see my Maggie Valley children's novels set in Appalachia, so they would know I wasn't coming in to write a sensational story. Miss Lee has had strangers knock on her door trying to get an interview. I brought copies of GENTLE'S HOLLER and LOUISIANA'S SONG (Viking), and I donated them to the library in Monroeville, and I also gave them to Miss Alice Lee, Harper Lee's sister, just in case Harper Lee might change her mind and speak to me. (She didn't.)
We met Harper Lee's sister, Miss Alice Lee, the following Monday morning in Monroeville. Miss Alice is a lawyer, 97, who still works three days a week at the law office.
That's enough for now. I'm very happy to answer any questions.
All best Kerry? www.kerrymadden.com
P.S. Just one more thing about Miss Alice: Reverend Thomas Lane Butts wrote a speech to honor Miss Alice Lee as "RECIPIENT OF THE 2003 MAUD MCCLURE KELLY AWARD PRESENTED BY THE ALABAMA BAR ASSOCIATION, JULY 18, 2003."
Here is PDF link to the talk. (Miss Alice Lee would make an amazing biography.)
[PDF] 510061 Ala Jnl of Legal Prof 28.psFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML Thomas Lane Butts. *. Madam Chairperson, members of the Bar, honored guests and ... Alabama back then?a woman lawyer, Miss Alice Finch Lee, the person ... law.ua.edu/pubs/jlp/files/issues_files/vol28/v28a3.pdf - Similar pages
?
Received on Tue 19 May 2009 02:44:56 AM CDT
