Page 44 - MIN TTC 20 FEB 2016
P. 44
PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Saturday 20 February 2016
Harper Lee, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ author, has died at 89
KENDAL WEAVER Scout growing up in a signed in schools all over In this Aug. 20, 2007, file photo, author Harper Lee smiles during
HILLEL ITALIE Depression-era Southern the country. a ceremony honoring the four new members of the Alabama
Associated Press town. A black man has By 2015, its sales were re- Academy of Honor at the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala. Lee,
NEW YORK (AP) — Harper been wrongly accused of ported by HarperCollins elusive author of best-seller “To Kill a Mockingbird,” died Friday,
Lee, the elusive novelist raping a white woman, to be more than 40 million Feb. 19, 2016, according to her publisher, Harper Collins. She
whose child’s-eye view of and Scout’s father, the worldwide, making it one was 89.
racial injustice in a small lawyer Atticus Finch, de- of the most widely read
Southern town, “To Kill a fends him despite threats American novels of the Associated Press
Mockingbird,” became and the scorn of many. 20th century.
standard reading for mil- The book quickly became When the Library of Con-
lions of young people and a best-seller, won the Pu- gress did a survey in 1991
an Oscar-winning film, has litzer Prize and was made on books that have affect-
died. She was 89. into a movie in 1962, with ed people’s lives, “To Kill a
Lee died Friday, publish- Gregory Peck winning an Mockingbird” was second
er HarperCollins said in a Oscar for his portrayal of only to the Bible.
statement. It did not give Atticus. As the civil rights Lee herself became more
any details about how she movement grew, the novel mysterious as her book be-
died. inspired a generation of came more famous. She
“The world knows Harper young lawyers and was as- began declining interviews
Lee was a brilliant writer,
but what many don’t know
is that she was an extraor-
dinary woman of great joy-
fulness, humility and kind-
ness.
She lived her life the way This book cover released by Harper shows “Go Set A Watchman, or her career. Other than an Atticus who seemed
she wanted to — in private shown on the left, a follow-up to Harper Lee’s “To Kill A a few magazine pieces nothing like the hero of the
— surrounded by books Mockingbird seen on the right.” for Vogue and McCall’s in earlier book.
and the people who loved the 1960s and a review of The man who defied the
her,” Michael Morrison, Associated Press a 19th-century Alabama status quo in “Mocking-
head of HarperCollins U.S. history book in 1983, she bird” was now part of the
general books group, said in the late 1960s and, until ed making any public published no other book mob in “Watchman,” de-
in the statement. late in her life, firmly avoid- comment about her novel until stunning the world in nouncing blacks as unfit to
For most of her life, Lee di- 2015 by permitting “Go Set enjoy full equality.
vided her time between a Watchman” to be re- But despite unenthusias-
New York City, where she leased. tic reviews and questions
wrote the novel in the “Watchman” was written whether Lee was well
1950s, and her Alabama before “Mockingbird” but enough to approve the
hometown, which inspired was set 20 years later, us- publication, “Watchman”
the book’s fictional May- ing the same location and jumped to the top of best-
comb. many of the same charac- seller lists within a day of
“To Kill a Mockingbird,” ters. Readers and reviewers its announcement and re-
published in 1960, is the were disheartened to find mained there for months.q
story of a girl nicknamed
Review: Peter Straub collects creepy short stories in 1 book
ROB MERRILL lished short stories and couple who explore their cruel child who hypnotizes
Associated Press adds three new ones. fantasies over the years his brother to a spurned fi-
“ If the only mass-market The collection’s title is apt. while living among canni- nancier who plots to punish
horror writer you’ve ever Straub has created some bals on the Amazon River. his wife.
read is Stephen King, you truly creepy characters This being a collection, it The horror here is both real
owe it to yourself to check here, all haunted by de- does sometimes feel un- and supernatural. For every
out Peter Straub. mons of some sort. even. The stories span 25 boy serially molested in a
His latest book, “Interior The best of the new works is years in Straub’s career. movie theater (“The Juni-
Darkness,” compiles the “The Ballad of Ballard and He likes to experiment with per Tree”) there’s a man
best of his previously pub- Sandrine,” a tale of a kinky writing styles and readers who makes a blanket out
may have to pause and of baby bottles and loses
think more than they do his soul inside of books This book cover image re-
with pulpier fare. “Little (“Going Home”). leased by Doubleday shows
Red’s Tango,” for example, All in all, it’s not a collection “Interior Darkness,” selected
is written like a faux gospel, anyone is going to read stories by Peter Straub.
with lists of “Beatitudes” at- in one sitting. These stories
tributed to the title charac- take a while to work on you. Associated Press
ter.But the more straightfor- Reflection and rereading is
ward narratives in the col- sometimes necessary. But
lection — like “Blue Rose” nobody said art is always
and “Mr. Clubb and Mr. easy and readers who in-
Cuff” — reveal Straub’s gift vest in this collection will
for illuminating the dark- feel more rewarded than
ness in everyone — from a not.q
