NationStates Jolt Archive

So there's a long standing rumor that Truman Capote (most famous for "Breakfast at Tiffanys") either wrote, or co-wrote, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

We know that Harper Lee was a long time friend of Capote's.

We also know that Capote was a huge egomaniac who would have never been a part of something as huge as "Mockingbird" without admitting to it.

We further know that Harper Lee never produced anything else as far as writing goes.

So I ask you ... the literary crowd of NS ... did Capote write Harper's book or did she simply have the one great novel in her (as promised by Fitzgerald) and stop?

Yes or No!

Discuss!

Harper Lee wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird.” There is no question in my mind of that.

Also, I don’t think it was so much that Harper Lee only had “one novel in her” as much as it was she really only had one story she wanted to tell. She probably could have written more, but why bother? She made plenty of money from Mockingbird and more importantly got across the message she wanted.

Harper Lee wrote it. Capote wouldn't have shut up about it otherwise. Some people only write one great thing once, and that's it.

Look at me, probably this will be my only great post.

Capote was too thrown into both his personal relationship with Dunphy (sp?) at the time, but he actually did throw out implications that he had a hand in writing the novel. However, apparently a letter turned up to his aunt some years back that shows that his implications were inherent bullshit that one can expect from a brilliant, egotistical little man like Capote.

Personally, even before I knew more about this (a few years back when I helped a friend gather information for a report on Capote), I never believed he had written any, let alone all, of Mockingbird. The literary styles are similar, but not quite similar enough to be the same person, even if that same person was putting effort into a change of pace.

Besides, one would think that had he assisted in writing it, knowing that he was the inspiration for the character of Dill, he would've added a bit more grace, intellect, and heroism to the character :p