R.I.P. Harper Lee

[mr3urious]

Famed author of To Kill a Mockingbird, and more recently Go Set a Watchman, passed away in her sleep this morning at age 89.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/02/harper_lee_dead_at_age_of_89_t.html

It's unfortunate that up until last year, Mockingbird was Lee's only book she published, but it is nice to know she was able to get Watchman out while she still could even though it was essentially a first draft of it.

 

[D'Snowth]

I haven't read GO SET A WATCHMAN, but I have heard that it's not as well-written as TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was, but as you say, it's essentially a first draft, and not only that, I believe she actually started working on it before she wrote and published Mockingbird.

Either way, it's a shame we've lost one of the greatest literary minds in history.

 

[mr3urious]

I haven't read GO SET A WATCHMAN, but I have heard that it's not as well-written as TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was, but as you say, it's essentially a first draft, and not only that, I believe she actually started working on it before she wrote and published Mockingbird.

You're right about it being worked on first. And the book sounds interesting as a "what could have been" deal.

 

[The Count]

So it seems we'll never get that Mockingbird sequel with the Finch kids grown-up and all. Glad I was finally able to read and finish the original book some years ago for a class I was taking.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I've been meaning to read To Kill a Mockingbird,I wish I had done it sooner.

 

[D'Snowth]

So it seems we'll never get that Mockingbird sequel with the Finch kids grown-up and all. Glad I was finally able to read and finish the original book some years ago for a class I was taking.

I don't know about Puerto Rico, but in the U.S., TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is (or maybe was) required reading in high school, as are other classics like THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER.

 

[fuzzygobo]

In our school, depending on what level of English you were in, determined what you got to read.
Honors level- we got Shakespeare up the wazoo.
"A" level got "Mockingbird".
" B" level got "Lord of the Flies".
So my only exposure to " Mockingbird " was seeing the movie years later.

 

[Mynameisdean]

I don't know about Puerto Rico, but in the U.S., TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is (or maybe was) required reading in high school, as are other classics like THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER.

I read it in 8th grade.

 

[D'Snowth]

When I was in Grade 8, our Reading teacher had this unnatural obsession with the Holocaust . . . then once we finally stopped reading about the concentration camps and the genocide of the Jews and such, we moved on to Shakespearean comedy.