MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Harper Lee's heirs kill mass market paperback of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

fjtorres · 03-13-2016, 07:38 AM

There is this (undocumented) narrative going around of Lee bring exploited after her stroke that blames Lee's recent odd choices on her support system (now heirs) instead of considering that Lee herself might have made those decisions of her own free will and clear mind.

All available evidence is Lee chose to put WATCHMAN out as a companion to MOCKINGBIRD. And she just might have asked that the mass market edition be removed for a variety of (purely speculative) reasons. Maybe she wants the book out of schools. Maybe the money the book is generating isn't enough: massmarket royalties are notoriously low, in the single digits. (And we don't know where it is going. A foundation? Charity? Her designated heirs?)

But people just love to jump to conclusions.

In this case, since Lee has a history of... odd... behavior with respect to the book and her writing "career" it is not impossible that she herself made the request in her will and the will was sealed to protect her image. (Her community has long been protective of her, that much is true. When the media comes calling, nobody talks.)

This is a perfect case to take note--it happened--and move on.

03-13-2016, 07:38 AM	#5
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	There is this (undocumented) narrative going around of Lee bring exploited after her stroke that blames Lee's recent odd choices on her support system (now heirs) instead of considering that Lee herself might have made those decisions of her own free will and clear mind. All available evidence is Lee chose to put WATCHMAN out as a companion to MOCKINGBIRD. And she just might have asked that the mass market edition be removed for a variety of (purely speculative) reasons. Maybe she wants the book out of schools. Maybe the money the book is generating isn't enough: massmarket royalties are notoriously low, in the single digits. (And we don't know where it is going. A foundation? Charity? Her designated heirs?) But people just love to jump to conclusions. In this case, since Lee has a history of... odd... behavior with respect to the book and her writing "career" it is not impossible that she herself made the request in her will and the will was sealed to protect her image. (Her community has long been protective of her, that much is true. When the media comes calling, nobody talks.) This is a perfect case to take note--it happened--and move on.