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May 28, 2008

Harper Lee Before Atticus Finch: Witty Chain Smoking Red?

Harper_lee_in_college_2Jessica Lacher-Feldman, from the Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama, recently unearthed some fun old clippings from the collection.  It seems that Nellie Harper Lee,  author of To Kill A Mockingbird and an Alabama icon, was once the editor of Bama's student humor magazine, Rammer Jammer.  In an October 8, 1946 article in the Crimson White, Alabama's student paper, Lee is described as "a law student, a Chi Omega, a writer, a Triangle member, a chain smoker, and a witty conversationalist."  We learn that "her Utopia is a land with the culture of England and the government of Russia; her idea of heaven is place where diligent law students and writers ascend after death and can stay up forever without benzedrine."  It's hard to know which parts were serious Nellie and which witty Harper.

The article concludes: "As for literary aspirations she says, 'I shall probably write a book some day.  They all do.'"  Surely an understatement for the ages.

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» Author of the Greatest Lawyer-In-Fiction of All Time Speaks Out (Well, Spoke) from Legal Profession Blog
Posted by Alan Childress That writer would be Nelle Harper Lee -- we southerners tend to go by our middle names, or by two names [President Clinton should have been Billy Jeff]. And the lawyer would be Atticus Finch. If [Read More]

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Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!

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