Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Discussion for Part 3 The Writer-- for chapters 15-19 (midpoint of the part) for Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee.
Spoilers welcome on this topic.
If the first to post, please briefly summarize to guide the discussion.

Furious Hours Part 3(a) Chapters 15-19

Chapter 15
To Kill a Mockingbird made Harper Lee “extravagantly wealthy” though she kept her life low-key and avoided press and fans. In Alexander City with the world not knowing where she is, Lee is “nearly as free” from the scrutiny of the world as she had been in New York writing TKAM.

Chapter 16
Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1926, youngest of four children. The Lee children were widely spaced and Nelle was 15 years younger than her oldest sister. Nelle’s mother suffered mental illness and Nelle’s sisters did much of raising her. Her father is a self-educated lawyer. The family is prosperous with A.C. Lee a partner in his law firm, owner of the town newspaper, and a state legislator. Nelle is closest to her brother, Edwin, who’s six years older, and they play with Truman, a neighbor fostered by cousins. Nelle is a bright misfit at school and Truman is bullied. They stick together and away from others, reading and writing. Truman moves away when Nelle is 6, but returns in the summers. Nelle attends college planning to become a lawyer to please her father. At college she remains a misfit but finds a niche writing prodigiously for campus publications. She makes a trip to England, as does Truman on a much different social scale, rubbing elbows with celebrities and being paid for his writing. Six weeks from graduation Nelle drops out and moves to New York.

Chapter 17
When Nelle arrives in New York, Truman is abroad. He asks a friend, Michael Brown to look after her. Nelle works as an airline ticket agent and writes when she has time. Truman has become a celebrated author. Two years later, Nelle’s mother dies, and six weeks after that her brother dies as well. Nelle wants to write about her childhood but Truman beats her to publication with The Grass Harp. Her father’s health worsens and Nelle is back and forth between New York and Alabama which interferes with her writing.

Michael Brown insists Nelle talk to an agent and she goes to Maurice Crain who works with his wife, Annie Laurie Williams. Crain suggests she try writing a novel instead of short stories. At Christmas Michael Brown and his wife give Nelle a large check to support her for one year of writing. She begins a novel that becomes Go Set a Watchman with an adult Scout as the narrator. She finishes it in two months and begins another about Scout’s childhood. Watchman is rejected by publishers but Lippincott is interested in her second novel. A Lippincott editor, Tay Hohoff, doesn’t immediately accept the book but works with Nelle on edits. After rewrites Hohoff buys the book and they work together for two more years to polish the novel. Nelle still spends lots of time in Monroeville caring for her sick father, but in the year since the Browns gave her the check she’s written two novels and some short stories.

Chapter 18
Truman Capote heads to Kansas to research the Clutter murders and takes Nelle with him as an assistant. They stumble at first because Capote is such a strange bird to the Kansans and because they don’t have press credentials. They’re limited to collecting information available through public access. Kansans are attracted to Nelle’s warmth and empathy and she is able to initiate relationships and act as a buffer for Truman. As they gain more access, Nelle is also able to understand the Clutter family who resemble the Lees in several respects. When suspects are arrested Nelle and Truman realize they’ll have to stay in Kansas and tell the murderers’ stories as well. As they interview the suspects the thrust of Truman's reporting changes. The victims’ share of the story decreases to accommodate his interest in the killers. At length they return to New York where Truman gets a book deal and Nelle proofs her novel's galleys. The writers return to Kansas for the trials. Nelle keeps copious notes meticulously organized, a precursor of how she will keep her material for the Alex City murders. Cep characterizes Nelle’s Kansas notes as “a book waiting to be written.” But Capote struggles and doesn’t finish In Cold Blood until after the two killers are put to death. By that time Nelle has published her novel.

Death and Taxes
After publication of To Kill a Mockingbird Nelle says she's stopped freelance writing because she’s earning lots of money with the book and further income increases her tax burden. TKAM is wildly successful and Nelle becomes uncomfortably famous. She feels compelled to answer her fan mail and spends a lot of time doing so. She has too little time and too many interruptions to write though her agents are asking for another book. She rushes back to Alabama when her father has another heart attack and after another he dies. She's deeply grieved and flits from place to place trying to find somewhere comfortable to write. Esquire magazine turns down a story they had requested because its depiction of Southern racism is complicated. In 1964 Nelle goes silent with the press and stays silent for fifty years. She writes but not productively. Her sisters and agents worry about her mental health.

Maurice Crain develops lung cancer and Nelle tends him until he dies. His wife closes their agency and dies a few years later. Tay Hohoff dies and all of Nelle’s literary support is gone. She rarely sees Truman although it’s a sweet reunion when she meets with him for a magazine interview. Nelle drinks too much and sometimes behaves badly when drunk. Once she told a friend she’d thrown 300 pages of a manuscript into the incinerator. She meets Tom Radney at a gathering in New York and he tells her the story of Willie Maxwell. She decides to go to Alabama to write it.

This section is such a sad picture of Harper Lee. Deaths of her loved ones seem to arrive in clusters. First her mother and brother die within weeks of each other. Later, in a short span, her father, then members of her literary support system die in rapid succession. Nelle was already fragile and the grief must have been overwhelming.

Cep pounds home mostly through implication, but insistently, that many of Nelle's problems with writing and completion were due to self-comparison/envy/competition with Truman. I'm not sure I buy this. I mean, those feelings are bound to have been there but I don't place as much emphasis on her relationship with Truman being a major source of her writer's block.

I think it has much more to do with depression, self-doubt, and perfectionism. Not to mention the alcoholism that was probably a result of her mental health issues but which became a problem in itself. After all the accolades for TKAM Nelle had sophomore slump with a vengeance and must have doubted she'd ever write anything as good. And no doubt she was afraid of publishing anything not quite as good and facing the comparisons and criticism. And how could anything be as good? She was paralyzed by a no-win situation.

It would have been better to have talked about Tom Radney in the last section but I didn't so I'm doing it here. I didn't like Tom much. For all his do-gooderism he was a craven man in some respects and seems to have practiced law mostly as game that he wanted to win at all costs rather than a chance to do good. I bring this up now because the section ends with Nelle meeting Tom and I wonder what she thought of him. I don't think we really know much about how Nelle's father practiced law but we know from TKAM what she thought a good lawyer does. I wonder if she found Tom slick or self-important?

And Truman. What an odd coincidence to have two such unique and anguished people grow up together and become writers. The rumor has always been that TKAM was as good as it was because Truman Capote had a large hand in writing it. In the last few years the scale has tipped and now Harper Lee is given large credit for the success of In Cold Blood. I wonder if we'll ever know the truth. I'm not sure about Truman, but Nelle seems to have kept copious and well organized records of everything. I wonder if there are any answers in her papers?

OMalleycat wrote: "The rumor has always been that TKAM was as good as it was because Truman Capote had a large hand in writing it. In the last few years the scale has tipped and now Harper Lee is given large credit for the success of In Cold Blood. "

I felt Cep made a strong argument for the case that Lee's editor (not Capote) played a major role in the transformation of her starting material into what was ultimately TKAM. It seems telling that when the time came for Lee to turn all her information regarding the Willie Maxwell case into a book, Tay Hohoff had passed away. This suggests that Lee's obvious gifts as a writer may not have extended to successfully converting her words into a full length book without editorial assistance. She certainly wouldn't be the first or last author whose work was vastly improved by editorial input!

Barbara wrote: ".I felt Cep made a strong argument for the case that Lee's editor (not Capote) played a major role in the transformation of her starting material into what was ultimately TKAM. It seems telling that when the time came for Lee to turn all her information regarding the Willie Maxwell case into a book, Tay Hohoff had passed away.

I think you’re right, Barbara, and I’m glad Cep told us of Hohoff’s contribution. I’ve been an avid TKAM and Harper Lee fan for decades but never knew of Hohoff’s contribution. By giving detail of Truman’s travels and relationships, Cep also makes the point that by this time Truman had drawn away from Nelle and was hardly likely to sit down and rewrite her book.

Barbara also wrote: “This suggests that Lee's obvious gifts as a writer may not have extended to successfully converting her words into a full length book without editorial assistance.”

I think she was a wonderful writer who may have lacked the self-discipline to serve as her own editor—especially when she was in the clutches of depression and alcoholism. On the other side she was so insecure and perfectionistic that on her own she may not have been capable of recognizing what was good in what she wrote. She had so many qualities that actively countered her ability to write through to publication it’s a wonder we got TKAM. And a crime that we got Go Set a Watchman which hadn’t been through the same rigorous editorial oversight. (And which I don’t believe Nelle could have knowingly given permission to publish, in case you can’t tell. 🤨)

I remember Cep writing that Hohoff’s discussions with Nelle could go on for hours (and two years). It makes me wonder if Hohoff was having to convince Nelle to keep the good or throw out the bad. The story she submitted to Esquire after TKAM’s publication was rejected for being too didactic. Watchman, in my opinion, suffered the same fault. I’m guessing that Hohoff reeled Nelle in from preaching and encouraged her to include more of the personalities and feelings. Without that sound advice, Lee’s writing was less attractive and accessible.

I found this section interesting. Some things I did know like Lee’s editor was the one that told her to refocus her book to follow Scout as a young girl. But I didn’t know about her depression or alcoholism. Both usually go hand and hand. I agree, Jan, that self doubt and not wanting to put something less great out there was at the root of Harper not publishing another book. Really does make the case for having to work at something instead of immediate success for a writer’s first book.

I hadn’t heard that Capote was given credit for writing TKAM. And now Harper is said to be the more organized one for In Cold Blood. They definitely were an odd, interesting pair!

While I did find this section interesting, I am not sure why Cep went so in depth about all this. It seemed extraneous to the book, which is about the Maxwell case. Maybe I’m being picky. But it felt like more research dump.

Jan O'Cat: i agree, Nelle's grief must have been immense. My thoughts about the impact on her work or a rivalry with Capote are similar to yours. I doubt he helped with TKAM, and doubt he gave her credit for her co-writing of what turned into In Cold Blood.

More likely in my opinion, due to their friendship, in her mind, he may have "had dibs" on writing some things that may have boxed her in or out of freely expressing herself to avoid treading on his prior territory. (Writing about their childhood, or a sensational murder)

OMalleycat wrote: "This section is such a sad picture of Harper Lee. Deaths of her loved ones seem to arrive in clusters. First her mother and brother die within weeks of each other. Later, in a short span, her father, then members of her literary support system die in rapid succession. Nelle was already fragile and the grief must have been overwhelming.

Cep pounds home mostly through implication, but insistently, that many of Nelle's problems with writing and completion were due to self-comparison/envy/competition with Truman. I'm not sure I buy this. I mean, those feelings are bound to have been there but I don't place as much emphasis on her relationship with Truman being a major source of her writer's block. .."

Barbara: excellent point on the timing and sad loss of Lee's longtime editor just when her research on the Maxwell murders might have been ready to pull into a book. Especially if there was a long potentially contentious edit ahead, losing her right hand person would be a tough blow. Editing is extremely important and sometimes under appreciated.

Barbara wrote: "I felt Cep made a strong argument for the case that Lee's editor (not Capote) played a major role in the transformation of her starting material into what was ultimately TKAM. It seems telling that when the time came for Lee to turn all her information regarding the Willie Maxwell case into a book, Tay Hohoff had passed away. This suggests that Lee's obvious gifts as a writer may not have extended to successfully converting her words into a full length book without editorial assistance. She certainly wouldn't be the first or last author whose work was vastly improved by editorial input!

OMalleycat wrote: "The rumor has always been that TKAM was as good as it was beca"

Jan O'Curious Cat: what an excellent question; what did Nelle Harper think of Tom Radley? He has focused on winning in court no matter the situation after his aborted political attempts. My initial reaction to him as a bottom feeder is still in the picture.

OMalleycat wrote: "It would have been better to have talked about Tom Radney in the last section but I didn't so I'm doing it here. I didn't like Tom much. For all his do-gooderism he was a craven man in some respects and seems to have practiced law mostly as game that he wanted to win at all costs rather than a chance to do good. I bring this up now because the section ends with Nelle meeting Tom and I wonder what she thought of him. I don't think we really know much about how Nelle's father practiced law but we know from TKAM what she thought a good lawyer does. I wonder if she found Tom slick or self-important?."

I felt like this section was a gift. I thoroughly enjoyed getting into details of Harper Lee's life before during and after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. The contrast of her slow, but eventually easy acceptance into the Kansas community, talking to the family, friends, law enforcement and even the accused murderers while researching with Truman - against her eventual retreat after experiencing overwhelming pressure from publicity was telling.