• CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000
  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    December 13/14
    Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Fleming (Ian). Dr. No, 1958; You Only Live Twice, 1964, 1st editions, presentation copies. £20,000-30,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Doyle (Arthur Conan). The Sign of Four, 1st edition, 1890. £5,000-8,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Huxley (Aldous). Brave New World, 1st edition, London: Chatto & Windus, 1932. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    December 13/14
    Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Stenbock (Eric Stanislaus). The Shadow of Death, 1st edition, 1893. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Tolkien (J. R. R.). The Lord of the Rings, 1st one volume edition, signed, 1968. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Orwell (George). Animal Farm, 1st edition, London: Secker & Warburg, 1945. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    December 13/14
    Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Cunard (Nancy, editor). Negro, Anthology made by Nancy Cunard, 1st edition, 1934. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Table Game. [The Little Artist Magic Painter, Austria], circa 1775. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Kirnig (Paul, 1891-1955). Austria, Vienna: Christophe Reisser's Söhne, c. 1930. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    December 13/14
    Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: A collection of letters including from T. S. Eliot, Siegfried Sassoon, Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley et al, from the Lady Ottoline Morrell collection. £700-1,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: The Gentleman's Magazine, or Monthly Intelligencer. 175 volumes, 1731-1844. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Mont Blanc peepshow. Mr Albert Smith's Ascent of Mont Blanc in Miniature, 1854. £1,500-2,000
  • Bonhams: FREDERICK DOUGLASS RETURNS TO AMERICA A FREE MAN. Sold for $353,175.
    Bonhams: TORTILLA FLAT INSCRIBED TO STEINBECK'S LITTLE SISTER, MARY. Sold for $57,600.
    Bonhams: A FRAGMENT OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF OF MICE AND MEN, EATEN BY THE DOG. Sold for $12,800.
    Bonhams: KEPLER INVESTIGATES PLANETARY MOTION. Sold for $1,008,375.
    Bonhams: AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT DRAFT LEAF FROM DARWIN'S DESCENT OF MAN, SIGNED BY DARWIN AT THE FOOT. Sold for $239,775.
    Bonhams: AUDOBON, JOHN JAMES. 1785-1851. THE BIRDS OF AMERICA. Sold for $32,000.
    Bonhams: FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN (1706-1790). AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED. Sold for $38,175.
    Bonhams: MILNE, A.A. (1882-1956). BOXED SET OF 4 CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Sold for $20,480.

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2015 Issue

To Kill A Legacy – No Third Novel Yet for Harper Lee

No comparables have been found.

There will not be a third Harper Lee novel published, at least not yet. So was the news from an expert called in to examine some old typescripts found with Ms. Lee's second novel, Go Set A Watchman, in a safe deposit box. It is hard to know whether to feel sad or relief about this turn of events. The circumstances behind the "discovery" and publishing of Watchman, 55 years after the release of Lee's first novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, arouses too much unease already.

 

This doesn't mean there won't be another. Documents in the paperwork of Ms. Lee's once agents, now held by Columbia University, refer to an early novel called The Long Goodbye, and she worked for a long time on a nonfiction piece, tentatively called The Reverend, about a preacher suspected of killing four relatives and collecting the insurance. Finally, when a fifth relative, a step-daughter, was found dead, her uncle shot and killed the "Reverend."

 

The safe deposit box which contained the long buried typescript for Go Set A Watchman contained two other documents. One was obviously an early typescript for To Kill A Mockingbird. The other was a jumble of pages not clear as to what they were. Lee's attorney, Tonja Carter, called in an expert, James S. Jaffe, to evaluate the remaining item and tell us what it is. He has now revealed the answer. It is a much earlier draft of To Kill A Mockingbird. Much was changed, starting with the opening. Rather than the first sentence being about Jem's broken elbow, it began, "Where did it begin for us? It began with Andrew Jackson." This early try was so different it's no wonder it took an expert to decipher what it was. It may never be published, but it will fascinate scholars seeking to unravel the mysteries of Harper Lee and her one great book.

 

Still, none of this makes us feel comfortable, and to understand, we need to go back to where it began for us. Harper Lee burst onto the scene with Mockingbird in 1960. The book was an immediate success, both with the public and the critics (how often does that happen?). Soon after, it became an even more successful movie, with Gregory Peck playing the part of Atticus Finch. The movie is still considered a classic. The book has never been out of print.

 

Harper Lee, on the other hand, disappeared from view. Not entirely, not like Howard Hughes. She could be seen around her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. She didn't have bodyguards to protect her from the public. She was not unfriendly. Ms. Lee just didn't give interviews, didn't talk about her writing. At what point she determined not to write any more, or why, is unclear. She withdrew from public life and lived like any other woman from small-town Alabama. There is nothing all that astonishing about her choice, but so many people who vicariously live the lives of celebrities have a hard time understanding how someone who could be a star would choose to live a normal life. Ms. Lee understood.

 

However, her choice to live a private life doesn't answer the question why she chose to never write another novel. Did she not have another story in her? In a rare interview, she once indicated she had said all she had to say. Some speculated that she had help from her childhood friend, Truman Capote, and could not write another without him (though no evidence of assistance on his part has ever been produced). This last theory reared its head up again when To Set A Watchman was published. I have not read it, but the reviews were miserable. It evidently doesn't come close to matching Mockingbird, and many wish it had never been published. So far, it has not enhanced Ms. Lee's legacy. Then again, it was written before, not after Mockingbird, even if it is a sequel, so Ms. Lee would not have had a chance to fine-tune her craft at that time.

 

Having produced no more novels for 55 years, and steadfastly avoiding publicity, the natural question is why now? Ms. Lee is now 89 years old and living in a nursing home, her hearing and eyesight said not to be good. And yet, her attorney, Ms. Carter, said Lee was excited about the publication of her second novel. After 55 years of burying it, now she is? It seems so unlike her. For years, Harper Lee's older sister, Alice, protected her from prying eyes. Watchman would have brought in a bundle of money years ago, as it did this summer, but Alice and Harper kept it buried. Alice protected her sister as long as she could, but last November, at the age of 103, she died. Within a few months, this very old novel was "discovered," publisher HarperCollins announced it would be published this summer, and Attorney Carter declared that Harper Lee had done a 180-degree about face in suddenly being so pleased about the release of this long buried novel and the attendant publicity.

 

Naturally, it led many to wonder if Harper Lee is being taken advantage of. HarperCollins' representatives said no, but also admitted they hadn't met with Ms. Lee themselves. The state sent someone to visit her in the nursing home, but did not take any further action. In 2013, she initiated a lawsuit over her signing away rights to Mockingbird in 2007, saying she was living in an assisted living center after suffering a stroke. She filed a lawsuit against a local museum last year for using her name and book title. It seems odd that a lady in her late 80's would be so litigious. An interviewer in 2011 said that Ms. Lee's memory was not so sharp, and friends have expressed similar concerns. A lot of money will be made from Watchman, but it is unclear if this will be of much benefit to the elderly and ailing author.

 

This latest episode leads me to another question. Why did they need an expert to evaluate what this writing was? Couldn't they have just asked Harper Lee? One would think that having written so few novels, that she would be able to save them the trouble of hiring an expert and just tell everyone what it was. At least that would seem logical if her memory is fully intact.

 

We wish good friends Truman Capote or Gregory Peck were still here to go talk with Ms. Lee and tell us whether she truly understands what is happening and is approving, even ecstatic, about it. After guarding her reputation so long, did she really want to put out a follow-up that has been regarded universally as far inferior? Maybe she does want to make one last splash, but maybe not. Certainly, Watchman and anything else she wrote should be preserved. It should be available for scholars studying her work, but should it should it have been published as a second novel, rather than a rough draft that eventually morphed into Mockingbird? Someone with no personal interest of their own should ask Ms. Lee.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Online Sale
    Books and Works on Paper
    Ending 13th December 2023
    Forum, Dec. 13: Ackermann (Rudolph) [Views of Country Seats...], 146 hand-coloured aquatints from 'Repository of Arts’. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum, Dec. 13: Campbell (Colen) & others. Vitruvius Britannicus, or The British Architect..., 5 vol., [1751-1819]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum, Dec. 13: Austen (Jane). The Novels, 12 vol., Edinburgh, John Grant, 1911. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum, Dec. 13: Murder broadside.- Horrid and barbarous murder of a female by cutting off her head, arms, and legs,… £200 to £300.
  • Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 2:
    John Ford Clymer, U.S. Troops' Triumphant Return to New York Harbor, oil on canvas, circa 1944.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 44:
    Edward Gorey, Illustration of cover and spine for Fonthill, a Comedy by Aubrey Menen, pen and ink, 1973.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 50:
    Harrison Cady, frontispiece for Buster Bear's Twins by Thornton W. Burgess, watercolor and ink, 1921.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 54:
    Ludwig Bemelmans, Pepito, portrait of Pepito from the Madeline book series, mixed media.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 79:
    Gluyas Williams, Fellow Citizens Observation Platform, pen and ink, cartoon published in The New Yorker, March 11, 1933.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 86:
    Thomas Nast, Victory, – for the moment, political cartoon, pen and ink, 1884.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 91:
    Mischa Richter, Lot of 10 cartoons for Field Publications, ink and pencil, circa 1940.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 111:
    Arthur Getz, Sledding In Central Park, casein tempera on canvas, cover of The New Yorker, February 26, 1955.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 124:
    Richard Erdoes, Map of Boston, illustration for unknown children's magazine, gouache on board, circa 1960.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 155:
    Robert Fawcett, The old man looked him over carefully, gouache on board, published in The Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1945.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 170:
    Violet Oakley, Portrait of Woodrow Wilson, charcoal and pastel, circa 1918.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 188:
    Robert J. Wildhack, Scribner's for March, 1907, mixed media.
  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD

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