Transcript
Andrew Limbaugh (0:02)
Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Putting aside the ethics of posthumously publishing a writer's unpublished work for a second, it's interesting what you can learn from what a writer ultimately shelved. There's a new collection out now of Harper Lee's previously unpublished early short stories titled the Land of Sweet Forever. It was edited by Casey Sepp, who told Here and Now's Peter o' Dowd that you can really see Lee's growth as a writer through these stories. But it was also important for Sepp to include Lee's later essays in this collection to show the full breadth of Lee as a writer and a person. That's after the break.
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NPR Host / Interviewer (1:10)
New short stories from one of America's most beloved authors were published this week. The Land of Sweet Forever by Harper Lee includes eight stories written by the Pulitzer Prize winning author after she moved to New York City in 1949 and a decade before she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. With these stories, Harper Lee introduces readers to early versions of her two most famous characters from the best selling novel Scout and her father Atticus. Here they are in a scene from the 1962 film adaptation Scout.
Casey Sepp (1:45)
You know what a compromise is.
NPR Host / Interviewer (1:49)
Ben and Law?
Casey Sepp (1:55)
No, it's an agreement reached by mutual consent.
NPR Host / Interviewer (1:59)
Casey Sepp is staff writer at the New Yorker and editor of the new collection. Casey, it's so good to speak with you because what a thrill it must have been to come across these unpublished stories from Harper Lee. Where were they found and in what condition were they in?
Casey Sepp (2:14)
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. And since I count myself among Harper Lee's biggest fans, it truly was thrilling. I know there are a lot of folks who read Ghosts at a Watchman and have been wondering how she became a writer and what her early work was like. So these were found in her New York City apartment after she died and the effort now to publish them I think is quite sweet because we've married these eight stories from before to Kill a Mockingbird with eight essays she wrote later in her life. So it's actually a sweet little book with some work from the beginning of her career when she first moved to New York and like so many struggling artists, was trying to figure out how to write, trying to find an agent, submitting to magazines, but getting rejected. So these stories, to my mind, were just lucky they survived. You know, there were all these rumors that she was a destroyer of drafts and manuscripts. So quite special to know they're still around.