Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On The Mockingbird Next Door 20140831

Question i have regards accountability. You were saying before someone in the private sector has a certain job description. They are hired to do a job. They dont do the job come under fire. If youre in the government and you dont do the job you move to another division. Plus i learned in college there are games played with the budget. So youve got a certain amount of budget and youve only used 70 of that, you better figure out how to spend 30 next week. Exact way. Youre voting on a bill that will cost 200 million. You need to see the feasibility of the money youre spending and how it will affect your constituents. That people need to see the exact same thing. Pure accountability. Let it be posted for a month before you can vote, online for every citizen. Thats one example of accountability or let me give you second one i think hold people accountable. They are not accountable because there in washington and you were here. I wouldnt care about gfi 3000 miles away. Its human nature. I dont see why i do all my business from vegas. I dont travel that much. Unless im on tour. Generally every business idea sitting in my home in las vegas and i do it on conference, on tv, skype, conferences, Conference Calls and skype if you dont need it in washington. I think all congressmen and senators should conduct business phone office in the district instead of spending all their time meeting with lobbyists in washington they would spend time meeting with constituents are knocking on their door who live right there with them. Then when congress meets it meets on the tv and theyre all on closedcircuit television. I want to bring everybody closer to the people. Thats the way the Founding Fathers wanted to. We are not doing it that way and thats why this country is getting away from us, out of hand. Scary stuff there i want to bring up, it ties in kind of, want to bring government employs one more time because thats a huge issue that nobody is dealing with. Can you imagine if every Small Businessman or woman retired with a five to 10 million golden parachute. I dont know any Small Business person who owns one restaurant or one pet store or one bar every time with 10 million. But i know a lot of governor bush to retire with 10 million. Wayne, youre crazy, government employs to retire with 10 million. Yesterday. Every single day. They dont get 10 million up front. They get 200,000 per year for the next 50 years if you live to 100 to retire at the age of 50. Thats pure insanity and bankruptcy for america and the taxpayers and its got to stop. They shouldnt get that. Who gives pensions of 200,000 a year for not working. If you apply that philosophy to the private sector, can you imagine every time he walked to the pizzeria the guy with the area go, that will be 800. You have to pay for everyone who ever worked a third in 40 years ago. How suicidal is that . In las vegas the average fireman, and i love firemen, but the average fireman makes 199,000 a year. Is that amazing . 199,000 a year. Keep in mind these are not the captains, the chief, the average fireman on the rig coming to knock your window down when theres smoke is getting 199,000 a year. There are fire captains because its accountability in nevada, they print the source of every government employee. There are fire captains and please captains who make four, five, 600,000 a year. Insanity. So folks, it wont work longterm. One more question. Im catherine you win the prize, last question. It better be a good one. Im putting pressure on. Question one, what in your view is an ideal Health Care Policy . And question two, what is the take on quantitative easing . To easy questions. Two great questions. Im glad you asked me. Its almost as if i asked you asked me. Quantitative easing, thats simple, its the fans program that allows wall street to get rich while the rest of us go in debt. Thats a problem with quantitative easing. Let me stress the point her i love austria. Those of you are part of wall street from your great. I love you. As long as you are not asking me to pay for your getting rich. As long as youre not asking me to pay for your kids to go to harvard to of had enough trouble paying for my own daughter to go to harvard. How can you ask a government and the fed to print money so you can get rich and fix the stock market and turn it into a rigged craps game . Thats what it is but you all know that. It is a rigged craps game come rig to make it go up and up and up, and the worst the Economic Statistics are, the more it goes out because that means the fed has to spend more money. Quantitative easing is a ripoff of the middle class and the murder of the middle class. Health care, i am for health freedom. I dont want government involved. Did you know before obamacare the two most expensive states for Health Insurance were in new york and new jersey. Why . They lead the country in government regulation of Health Insurance. Whatever government touches turns to crap. Its no good. So i dont want government in health care. I want to make it 100 taxdeductible, every time you spend on what you been up to by policies over state lines so if id find a better, cheaper policy manager i confide in arizona. I want to make sure most people have just a simple cheaper policy the exact opposite of obama. Hazard when seen the seinfeld episode where Jason Alexander goes from being the biggest loser to being George Steinbrenner shrunken man and he gets people women companies eating at fancy restaurants . Psychosocial the biggest loser in the world. How did you turn a life around . Simple, i do the opposite everybody thing i thought. The only way to save america is whatever is being done by the government now, do the opposite. They want more government in health care, i want no government in health care. I want john mackey in charge, the founder of whole foods. I want tax deductible for healthy food and vitamins and gym. And i will most important for the left out of obamacare that would health care, toward reform. The problem is lawyers. Get them out. Toward reform. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for inviting me. Its been a pleasure. Thanks. [applause] booktv continues on this threeday Holiday Weekend with more nonfiction authors and books. To do interviews from booktvs recent visit to ucla where john cummins starting now our booktv, marjah mills talks about the life, career and opinions of harper lee, author of to kill a mockingbird. Ms. Mills moved next door to harper lee and her sister in monrovia of them of breaking months and spent time with the two women on a regular basis. This is about an hour and 20 minutes. Well, lets see if this my mic is hot. It is. Good evening. Right on cue. Im jake reiss with the alabama booksmith, and on the health of our dedicated staff of awesome booksellers, it is entire crew, the magnificent alabama theater, and the geniuses of Penguin Press who published the book the literary world has anticipated for half a century, it is my privilege and pleasure to welcome you to a mockingbird tribute. We also say a big hi yall to the viewers on cspan. Our theater audience has enjoyed watching and hearing personal harper lee stories before the start of the main event. Each attendee has received a signed First Edition of the mockingbird next door with their ticket. Many of you wanted extra copies for a friend and for deaths. They are available at alabama bookstore. Com. The folks sitting here will also soak up the ambience of this article in a Century Movie palace that has been lovingly restored to its original charm. The final perk of being present is that one lucky patron will walk away tonight with this 50th Anniversary Edition of to kill a mockingbird with a bookplate signed by harper lee. The rest of the evening format will be opening remarks our distinguished visitor, a conversation with replies to our inquiries, questions from the audience that you have written down as you enter the theater, and then the drawing for the prize. This podium will soon belong to the author of the hottest book in america. We just found out about two hours ago, and youre the first to know, that it will debut this sunday on the New York Times bestseller list at number four. Its only been out a few days. [applause] and you own a signed First Edition. It has been praised and damned by the New York Times, the washington post, and almost every other newspaper, radio talk show, and Television News programs out there. Not to mention blogs, tweets, Facebook Comments covering the planet. Many of you, like quite a few of these reviews we have seen, have an opinion before youve read the book. We ask that you reserve judgment until youve heard the presentation, and the answers to the questions posed. We hesitate to take anymore of the speakers time for much of an introduction, as the media has done that job for us. We will share that the georgetown graduate owns a Pulitzer Prize, a marvelous sense of humor, and a respectful, gentle manner that will be apparent as soon as you meet her. Even though she spent quite a bit of time in our state and watched many College Football games, she will not tell us the if she tells roll tide, or roll the goal. There is one controversy, she does not avoid. When it comes to the coke and pepsi wars. Since her grandfather ran a twoman cocacola bottling plant back in her hometown of Black River Falls wisconsin she maintains a small preference to diet coke. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back to sweet home alabama, marja mills. [applause] thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Just thrilled to be here and see this gorgeous theater ive been hearing about and reading about for quite some time. Thank you, jake, for what you said and for putting together just a magical evening. It was for me such a privilege to get to know harper lee and her older sister, and to have them share these stories with me, those that chose to share and im privileged to share them with you. So my favorite ones were, around the Kitchen Table in the house that are rented next door to theres in monroeville. I hope you just pull up a chair to this Kitchen Table with us, lets share some stories, celebrate with them and their friends and family in that town who so generously helped me to understand the context of their lives and of that down. And please pull up a chair to i would love to have a good chat around the Kitchen Table. Short and sweet. Lets just, we will just get right to it and then spit ive been edited for some time now as i was preparing this book and am always trying to see if i can use your words which is not usually the first option that comes to mind. No editing this evening. You have carte blanche. All right. I will make a great opening comment, if you would share with the audience just what went through your mind when youre at the best western motel in monroeville alabama, the telephone in your room rings, and the voice on the other end says hello, this is harper lee. I wonder if we might meet . And i try to keep my voice from rising a couple of octaves, and fellows in the wizard of oz had just placed a call to my hotel room. And was surprised and just thrilled at the chance to speak with her. Right away i think i had the sense of what a downtoearth person she was. And not as shy as i think i had pictured perhaps. Just it would be all right to come by the next day. And i said yes. And she showed up at the appointed time and began the first of what was many conversations over the years. One of my, wha one of the first times ive never shot a good laugh with her, the first of so many, was one of those are about my reason for being in monroeville of which was the Chicago Library system have selected to kill a mockingbird as its first selection in one book one chicago which was designed to get people around the city from all walks of life reading and talking about the same book. And so i was telling her more about the activities in chicago around the selection, the reason ive been sent to monroe 12 as a feature writer for the Chicago Tribune. Not with the thought of interviewing her so much and knowing she was private but with the thought of talking to people around town seeing this place that really is known to readers around the world in the fictional form but it helped inspire any way. And so i was telling her that they were showing the movie as part of this in chicago, and she leaned over this little table actually that was in that best Western River and said, oh, gregory peck, isnt he delicious . [laughter] and adjusted all right, this is going to be a different kind of conversation than i thought. And it was such a delight and it was also the first indication of to me one of the really touching things that came out of that movie that i think means the world to so many of us was the friendship with gregory peck that lasted through his death come and after he died up within 2003 with his widow and with their family, as well as with horton foote, the wonderful playwright who run the who won a playwright for adapting mockingbird to the screen. It was wonderful all those years later about hearing about what she referred to some of the last gentleman. I then shared appreciation of the talent and also the sensibility that came together that would bring us all that movie. Im glad you mentioned horton foote because theres a footnote [laughter] throughout the book youve referenced harper lees sense of humor. And one of my favorite little perks, if you will, was when she received a phone call from horton foote, and i believe his words were god, here. Would you explain that . I will do that, and you even have is gentle, deep texan gentlemans voice down. Nelle have been quoted as saying after all this year horton foote looked like is god looked like id only cleanshaven. We were having breakfast, not too long after that had appeared and she told me that should answer the phone in this modest, always described as modest in the newspaper stories. So i apologize, but in their modest red brick house in a quiet street in monroeville the phone rang and nelle said she answered it and god here. And these two old friends caught up and at the end of the conversation he simply said, remember, god loves you. [laughter] and said was such a twinkle in her eye. I was mentioning to jake earlier today, whos been such a wonderful advocate not only for this book but for so many and truly appreciate what you have done, lets see, where were we with horton foote . You commented with the shape and sense of humor. The theater audience before the main event started got to see Kathryn Tucker windham telling harper lee stories. You mentioned Kathryn Tucker windham in your book, about listening to her audiotapes. Tell us what brought that on . You know, really all i needed and monroeville let me back up by giving you the context in which i move to monroeville. I had known the lead scissors for about three years at that point. Theyve been very helpful in what became a long newspaper store and sidebars are prepared for the tribune. And it encouraged me to come back, which i did. And then spoke with him about the possibility of spending longer, actually spend some time living in monroeville. People in birmingham who know real estate prices here will appreciate maybe that i had the idea that maybe i could just find an apartment over someones garage. I really didnt need very much, didnt want very much but in a small town like that an apartment, a rental is harder to come by than a house, for example, to rent. And a good friend of theirs have suggested that i look at the house two doors down from theres where by the time i spent a lot of time with both of them. Something i could rent for a time in monroeville. And i did say to both nelle and alice, i wonder if that wouldnt be close for comfort but i dont want to in quite about that if that might be the case. But it encouraged me to look at it. And i did but it was far more house than one person needed. But as somebody who lived in Downtown Chicago, the rent that the proposed charging, this was the house that had hoped to sell the in a difficult market were willing to rent. They were going to charge me the outlandish sum of 650 a month for quite a nice house which sounded pretty good for someone who lives in Downtown Chicago. However, when i told the lee assisters about this, nelles response was to words. Highway robbery. [laughter] i think she was offended by the idea that i would pay more than she felt i should be. And the same friend point out the house right next door to the lees had been vacant for some time but it was for celtic this would have been for sale for some time but hadnt sold it it had some storm damage and that the images been on the market quite a while. Nelle harper and alice offered to serve as references to encourage me to look into that as we did and worked it out with a young man who owned the house had been transferred to another city that i would rate it monthtomonth while it was on the market, Perfect Place for me to live and a way for him to have some income while waiting to see in which month is would sell. You could imagine that in the middle of the night i had to fight the urge to go out and take that for sale sign out of the front yard and hide it in his garage. I was hoping that it would be available long enough for me to spend a good amount of time there. And, indeed, it was. I ended up renting the house for 18 months from, lets see, the fall of 2004 until the spring of 2006. And one of my favorite things to hear, when i picked up the phone and my little modest but very nice red brick house was, hi, honey, are you pouring . Wichman, do you have a pot of coffee going and can i come over and talk around the Kitchen Table . We did that quite often as well as pretty regulars, we were regulars at mcdonalds over coffee. Our member having to wait for nelle harper in the parking lot. We had driven separate cars on that day and the tennessee game was on and she was asking if i could wait until she had the final score for us to go in and have our coffee. With alice lee i would just mention one reason i think that nell harper referred her as atticus in a skirt, is that she, too, like the father who was an inspiration clearly for the Atticus Finch character was an attorney in a small town who practiced in this quiet and fast way. And was 15 years older than no harper, and so knew her as a girl when no harper was scotts age or exempted it was a century relationship and yet there were times when i felt she was as much mother asked sister with the age difference. And, of course, would let me know how her baby sister was doing in new york those times when no harper was in new york. Theres a lot of you know. Its interesting, parallel existence in a way between an apartment in manhattan and then we take the train and spend time with alice in monroeville but i think it tells you something about her, that she has such a tie to both of those very different places. Sissy spacek wrote in her memoirs that, recording the audio for to kill a mockingbird was one of the best things she did in her professional career. You mentioned the friendship that nelle had with gregory peck earlier. Gregory peck said in his biography that Atticus Finch was his role of a lifetime. Give us a perspective on why those two giants of the entertainment world would make such statements. My understanding from what ive read written by both of them was that they were privileged again, what i think of a generous they were in sharing their time and insights with me. And i think, its a privilege to know her and to know the people around her are its also a privilege though i think to try to honor the work that means so much to so many people. And remarkably so since it first was published in 1960. I remember the first time i saw alice lee, who stands maybe five feet tall on a good day, very petite, go into the post office box on the downtown square in monroeville but i know some of you have been there and can picture what im talking about. She would have her plastic bag from the Grocery Store and would put in the correspondence that all those years later, i think about 40 years later when i first was spending time with them, would stream into that p. O. Box with people wanting to tell both of them oftentimes, certainly no harper what the book meant to them and why. And i think its about that a lot people feel a personal it personal attachment to. They appreciated as a classic novel but i think theres also a sense maybe a little bit of a guide to living for some people, and characters that a lot of people feel a touch to do. I am suspecting that there might be more than one grandchild among these people who is named atticus or harper, or scout. We can hardly see with these lies but im thinking thats a safe bet, if i were a gambling person. And i think thats one more reflection of what it means so much to people to try to do honor to that work. Thank you. There were so many scenes in your book that put a normal, ordinary image in the readers mind for this literary mysterious woman. Would you elaborate on the ambience of feeding the ducks, having, you mentioned coffee at mcdonalds we drank oceans of coffee over time. Wardrobe shopping at walma walmart. And i love this, feeding quarters into the washing machine. Need of the houses had a washing machine. Granholm. Harper was driving analysis in the passenger seat and i was in the backseat so is a common configuration. We pass this beautiful home and harper admired it. Though she said one inning about us, referring to her and to alice is we can appreciate ud without needing to possess it. And i thought, what a lovely look at the way in my experience they kind of doubt with the world of material things. I think people even now, when they hear how simply they lived are surprised that may be a little inspired by that. It is so easy to spend time on wardrobe gouraud updating the house or on things. And in my experience, or on television. These were not the answer to bury much of their time and makes variants. It was refreshing. I was a wonderful perception that so many of us think of her as serious. But you made it seem as normal as Blueberry Pie in many aspects. Now, i have to say, getting the sense of them in that town where they grew up, for me the great pleasure was the air is a story i think for them on a drive to about every property we drove by, they gave it a story of the theme if it lived there in the fugitives started three generations earlier in the way it has been patched over may be. And just the stories that lurk in the landscape. I often would just try to get a sense of what it was like for them growing up there and be the ones who are listening to those stories. They hadnt and alice was their mothers sister who sounded like quite a character. Whenever there was an aunt alice story is didnt take far before i heard most of those a time or two. And so welcome hearing about them more. The gruff as people of their generation did, hearing stories that were disinformation, but it was a pleasure in telling the story in appreciating the scared theres a lot of times in the town and in the family and having a bit of a sense of humor i think about human foibles that they can be a source of great consternation for all of us. For humor and their something here men that they appreciated. I think the word is humid. I thought one of the most powerful parts of the book was that that time when there was a confluence of three major events in harper lees life, the movie capote was just coming out. The movie and fitness was just coming out with Sandra Bullock playing harper lee. And not the same time, and charles shields biography was coming out and you write and we read the influence and how that affect did harper lees feelings and that in the book youll see where she got a copy of the tape of capote. A bootleg copy. And play unit at the lee residence and they have a little trouble, both of them at that time. So you, i love this, save the words that now said i did not say. Would you set that seem quite certainly. This is another red rick modest house and not neighborhood that actually belong to a friend of theirs who had also become a friend of mine, someone who is a fellow methodist in their congregation what they took a lot of outings, that kind of thing. In this crowd of viewers to a logically unsophisticated as i am, but you want to feel like a rockstar in the tech world, hang out with people who are impressed if you can press fast forward and rewind. You know, these were kind of my gray hair posse. Not only harper and alice, but a lot of their friends were quite a bit older. And so, someone who knew how to work, not even a dvd player, it was a vcr came in handy. So one evening, harper, if anyone would come in not knowing how they would be portrayed in Something Like that and wondering about the experience you actually had even brought to the screen through the imagination and the research of lawmakers. So she wanted to see id. At which it is a friends who had a vcr. She had hearing difficulties already at that time as did alice leave. So the first remote button i was pushing was the volume and now was i press play and we were going to watch the beginning of this movie that she knew was about to be seen by all kinds of people around the country. And i said just tell me when it is loud enough. Of course it went up and not been asked and i think a lot of you can relate to how difficult that is, particularly she got up as close as she could, but it was hard to hear all the dialogue and so we fell into a routine where i would cause after a line or two of dialogue and tell her. I wasnt sure that evening whether i should be saying. And then you said or and then she said. So i settled on and then you said. Who is so interesting every couple of wine dialogue to pause and repeat it. She also had commentary on not into go through the movie that way. And i couldnt help thinking not evening as she was going home after this, but ended up being quite a special evening at a friends house. If that was odd for me, can you imagine what it was like for her quiet on a side note, she had been so complimentary of Philip Seymour austins performance as Truman Capote. I think he was quite a big man and realize somehow managed to inhabit this very petite figure and very sort of particular mannerisms of Truman Capote who i think all of the know had been her childhood playmate for a time in monroeville and senegal france although not without bumps as adults. And she has predicted that evening well before he was to win the oscar that he would do so at that it was uncanny at the way he had then able to capture some potential about Truman Capote and i remember making a note to myself that when the book did come out that it would be wonderful to share little bit more about that with him. I was actually driving to the airport here when i got the news he had passed away and felt the sadness i think everyone would who admires his work and a little extra because about the last opportunity to share with him her appreciation that evening of the movie. She also told me that she wrote the filmmaker of the other movie, the other capote movie as they probably dont like to be known, but i believe it came out second, the one where Sandra Bullock plays it now. She had spotted in a photograph about the filming of that movie, Sandra Bullock wherein i believe white body socks with black pumps. Well, that is not someone who spent a lot of time if they mentioned worrying about passion. But that was a little more than she could take. And i remember her saying i matter. But after the movie came out, she did drop a note to the filmmaker said, you have created a creature of such sweetness and light and called her harper lee but i forgive the sox. [laughter] said they were off the hook on not. Ill ask this staff while im finishing up these questions its staff will bring me the audience questions and we would get to the drawing. We will appreciate it. What took so long. Can you have a timeout . Grave. Thank you. I really want to ask this question. Im sure many in the audience knows. Before we start, thinking back like a writer i ready to rewrite a chapter. I think you ascended to ask to ask me about Kathryn Tucker windham. After spending this much time with an older generation of alabama storytellers, youre going to have to forgive me if i take some side trips. I have been tutored. They give me some of the tapes of Kathryn Tucker telling a marvelous stories of hers and not with thanks to now. Not terribly long after id moved next door and was settling into this house that these unfamiliar banks and wishes of the old earnest in getting thoroughly at times for there is an taxidermy on the walls that didnt match my guitar at home and it took a little getting used to. I considered on the first night i was there hanging towels over the gearhead in a couple other creatures i wasnt entirely sure what they were because i fell like those marble eyes are kind of following me. But i decided that would be creepier even just having the marble eyes following me. So ive learned to live with my roommate. But it was lonely sometimes. Ive lived this, which is an autoimmune disorder that can media quite tired. I spent a fair amount of time within chicago and monroeville and back and resting at home. And it can be lonely. I have missed having a voice in the room. There has been damage to the antenna for television there, so there wasnt much television, which can approach me a bad habit for the most part, which was kind of a side benefit i would say of my time there. And i couldnt get npr, which i will admit is a good chicago girl i was used to my npr. The reception would fade as he got closer to monroeville. I just wanted i hear some people i just wanted sort of a friendly voice in the room to keep me company and now harper came up with the first word, remedy. And came over. One day she would always come enter my kitchen door in good alabama neighborly fashion and said here, these are for you and they were the first view of as many as i could find of Kathryn Tucker windham state, talking about growing up as she did. I think there was some rare pallor love to the way tree in 10 harper grew up. I can imagine a better with saddam in the room with you, especially if youre going to play a tape three times, four times, five times. I always remember her saying that she paused often in her stories and a friend asked her why and she realized the explanation might the better father would cause. I know that your friend, so perhaps there was a habit she picked up. She was also somebody that i think nell admired for the way she captured a particular way of life when she was growing up. Since nell a favor to do more or less a reasonable good job of that herself, i would say that was a pretty good recommendation. Youve given me to greatly dance. I cant introduce anybody. So many celebrities, but Kathryn Tucker windhams children, josie hilley is here sitting over here. So glad to see him. [laughter] they have written a new act which is kathryns original book, 13 alabama coast and jeffrey is approaching its 50th anniversary at the university of Alabama Press has reprinted in the children have written an afterword. I know where you can get a copy. That would be the barnes noble. Nomar butkus. [laughter] you were going to tell. My impression was that such admiration for their father and the role he played in their small town and that seemed to be one of the thing that she really felt was true they are, too. He gave me another great introduction. Those of you who know and who have read two of the greatest books of all tribes see the unbroken. I think many of you know that for most of the time she wrote those books, she never left her room. She had Chronic Fatigue syndrome and wrote literally most of those folks in her bed. We know that health has been a factor with you both in the time you spent in monroeville and writing this book like Laura Hillenbrand used to be the majority of the time writing this book and bad. I did. Tell us how the world that was. I did write most of the book in bed. I was kind of work in whatever chance they could. A lot of times in my apartment in chicago in bed and to me a wise a power of books to transport you to another time, to another place. I remember when i first read to kill a mockingbird i was in ninth grade at Madison West High School in my hometown of madison, wisconsin. Feeling transported sitting on our old creaky overheated library through the streets and make him. And their lesson i lamented not in writing the book. It is frustrating as a journalist is one of the things appealing to me was to be out and about traveling in reading people. So is frustrating when i was having to spend large chunks of time in bed and i have wonderfully supportive family and friends and my mom, carla traveling with me and making all the difference as usual. So i good company in that sense and i good company and i said that i still have yet to Tucker Windham will believe me, in the room listening on those tapes. But it was also a chance for the time it was frustrating to be having to be a home so much. To travel by to travel for a favorite word to my reading and writing of force in the writing of this i was reliving a lot of the experiences i have had in monroeville and felt quite often i was sort of to help her, julia motherland, a remarkable woman and her own right. Whether help her with a living next door. I kind of felt like i was resurfacing sometimes enough bedroom at the end of day after spending time in my imagination and in my research and in my note in monroeville and i was true of julia motherland who also very generously spent a lot of time with me, telling me about her life as an African American woman who grew up at the time she did was a nurse and a midwife for many years and would tell those tales and you know, thats though she knew how to cast that nell and alice were masters of the art were you almost forget where you forget to resurface and remember. For me it was the way to be out of the world, even when i really wasnt. You know, theres a little bit of faith and hope involved in such a solitary process that the time will calm when you are sharing those stories that other people and how remarkable it is to hear doing that with you tonight. This is such a gift that they both shared with me and i want to be able to share that gift with all of you in the stories they didnt want to share mentioned in the book. A lot of times to spare the viewer the very friend or relative that was part of the story that they shared, but not for the book. And yet there were so many i think that they delighted and were ready to share and it was such a gift they gave me that i will be sharing with all of you. [applause] thank you very much. Very thoughtful. A wonderful moment, maybe one of the most wonderful moments. What fascinated me was the road trip you and nell took to new jersey. Would you tell us a little bit about that long road trip . Speak not with pleasure. I was living in monroeville i have a card that theyre good who the user column allegedly semiretired minister, methodist minister. He had gone with me to buy a car that he dubbed old blue because i think all cars and not part of the world need a nickname as they possibly can have one so that became a old blue. And i was going to be driving old blue from monroeville to princeton, new jersey, not terribly far from new york were now would be returning before long. I was going to visit friends and then went on to chicago. So she came along of my passenger. She didnt fly in the train which used to go to evergreen, alabama. Some of you are familiar with evergreen and so, we decided she decided she would join me on this trip. Well, i decided i needed to be prepared for any contingency. So i dyed orange traffic cones. I joined aaa and i wondered if i should get a sign to put on my car like the taxis in new york have, but this one was very pleased to read carefully, National Treasure on board. I didnt want to have to answer to the nation if anything happened on that drive, but other than me hitting a me hitting it right in their driveway before we were two minutes on the road, i think her comment was, trying to remember exactly, way to get off to a good start, something along those lines. We ended up having to have a smooth trip and can you imagine a better person to be drinking more coffee with and talking about the country going by her those as drove. I remember think in all those years she took the train that the country had a much of harper lee. But harper lee had seen a lot of the country. She did like to travel. Took the train to los angeles when i was living in monroeville for a Library Fundraiser but i believe at that point gregory pecks widow was involved in and the support of libraries that was one of the reasons i first got to know them and her friendship i think was reason enough to take a train from new york to left angeles and then go from there to eventually make their way to alabama. When nell asked you to talk to her when she wanted to talk off the record lake she mentioned that sounds biggest gossip or other areas that may be extremely sensitive, what was your reaction as a reporter when nell said this is off the record. Dont write that. Tonight that is absolutely what i would respect. Or maybe people here i think wouldve had the privilege of spending time with her. I know she had this kind of gesture with her index finger when she was making her point. When i was spending time, she would sometimes they pass off the record. Dont include that in the book or would say you put that in there. Certain stories he hoped i would share. My feeling was of course that i wanted to race back her wishes and made note of those things i would say again there were more candid than i might have predicted, but did have a sense of sort of the burden which clearly harper lee and alice lee as well as someone who was involved with her affairs all those years didnt feel it needed to expand to friends and relatives who have signed up for the any more than necessary. A lot of times i aint these were stories that were sort of an appreciation of human foibles, of the excesses of people, the characters and smalltown, but that they didnt want to be a source of her feelings and so those are ones that i didnt share. I wanted you to share that with the ibm. And while before we get to these questions, always macworld this is a smart bunch of folks. These are incredible. Im embarrassed, these are a lot better than mine. Before we dig into these, while the doubters and naysayers, im going to take personal privilege. There is a witness to one of the dinners that you read about and she is a close friend of nell and a neighbor for much longer than you were a neighbor. Weve had several conversations about you and about your book and she shared with me and i got her permission to mention then, that you would just the smartest person in the greatest sense of humor and make you and nell cut up like old, old friend and said i could tell that. Hello. I havent seen you since that night many years ago. Its great to see you. I was thinking that one thing about spending time with harper and with alice is they are so witty that kind of raised the game up everybody at the table in the sense that you wanted to have good stories to share yourself. There was a lot of laughter at those tables. As i recall, quite a bit that night. I believe her phrase once i have a thank you for you. There was someone from out of town, perhaps north of the line who was also with us that evening. She was also concerned that most of my friends they are were in the 80s and 90s, some in their 70s, which is sounding younger and younger to me all the time, that there werent as many young people for me to spend time with them so that night was a chance to do that as well. So its great fun. Its nice to see you. Thank you for coming. My last request for you before we get into these and they would be a daydream for the audience, you mentioned in the book the possibilities of what it would be like to have on our bookshelves if Nell Harper Lee had written a few more books and some of the occasions that you were with her that it seemed like she had to have written a book about race, about community, about the minister who murdered for insurance money. I would like you to touch on not a few word in the evening that you ran across the east asian immigrants and so thats a whole bunch of things for you to cover before we get into these if you would. Just briefly i will start with the last one and you can bring me back if i start a side trip or two. The evening you are referring to was a dinner at a Mexican Restaurant in monroeville. Those of you who have spent time there know the Dining Options are somewhat limited. There are some wonderful places that it ends up being a matter of do we go to david scott house tonight or pathways. And so we decided to try a Mexican Restaurant that has served on the outskirts of town. When we were there, they want to many people of the restaurant, but there was a very long table of people who are of indian origin, east asian origin who were fascinated. It was generations of this extended family and more i think. There were people primarily who ran most held than not larger area. Some had come more recently. Some have been and not part of the state a long time. She was just so interested and not as a subculture and how did it work and how to do families interact and how did it work when people are starting with not saying that they were able to get a foothold economically and socially. I have very few practical skills i will say. I had a terrible sense of direction. I am not a coder, but i do speak spanish. And so, that was an evening when i was able to help with some impact go, which was she wanted to ask that we traced to a still learning english more about those families. So there i was asking a waitress from mexico about the families from india or translating that was so interested in animated and i was captivated by how social classes work and how people interact and what changes and what doesnt and full of questions. Kept apologizing and then kept right on masking the way chairs how often i work. I would love just selfishly to read the book, and that she could write about that part of the experience and not part of alabama. Or conversely if there was a possible Death Penalty case in monroeville after the murder of a physician and his wife, terribly sad case where there is one killed his parents and ended up hitting suicide before this became before it went to trial, but it looked like he would be at that multicase. So we spent time talking about this issue. There were other occasions i couldnt help think and how much people would like to know what she thought about that in the stories she could tell. And i felt how much she came to life a lot of times talking about those kinds of things and about the stories that tell you more about issues than anything else. Although of course that was her decision and only she knew what was the right for her to do and why. I have to say there are times i pictured a small or large, but at least some volumes that mightve been written had she chosen to continue publishing after she did. Those were very thoughtprovoking. I reread those several times and we cannot daydream weather. I can remember harper telling me not too long after id moved there she was talking about being in moscow, which she had attended and said that the drive technicalities were her words of law school and law practice didnt interest her, but the human stories dad and the drama of the trials. I think one reason it was so interesting to know her and Alice Finchley who is either case in a spirit in that context because alice was a master of detail and the dry technicalities and certainly had the same Appreciation Night thing for the human stories behind them, but also is very patient in dealing with all the mess out of alaska by doing my job. Well, we are not going to be able to get to the several hundred, so well go through as many as we can. I would love this right off the bat. Cant wait to hear your answer. Wish id thought of this. Someone didnt sign their name is that i think a book about alice would be interesting. Would she be open to that and are you interested in pursuing a tax my goodness. Alice is as worthy as many of books. When i first moved down there, friends of theirs that people who dont know them as sisters dont believe us when we say ms. Alice as she is known around town is every bit as remarkable in her own way as original as nell harper and that was my experience as well from the start. So i dont know the answer to the specific question, whoever had that, but i would say just as nell harper had a singular perspective really on what it meant to write the book they didnt have the funds they did all those years was in a singular in a lot of ways and billy was keeper of the family history. One of the things we wanted to do was preserve as many of those stories as she was able to share that she had time to share. I was soon sure in the beginning about the question of a lot of their were pleased that she was willing to record a lot of the family stories that probably would go with her when she died if she didnt. She just had a memory and now is 102. Practiced law until she was 100 at nobody else had. So there was a sense of urgency not only on her part, but on that of the other people they encourage to speak with me. But they were much more matteroffact about it. Alice used to say to me, they gave me assignments regularly. One was to visit a lot of different churches in that area, to visit white churches in black churches and methodists and hostile in the breakaway version of all of those that develop over time and other denominations. But they also wanted me to sleep with the people who had known their family who maybe were a little less prone to embellishments shall we say then some of the people who have shared stories publicly about the lee family over the years. So alice would say what of what you typed itself though. Do that early on while he still has his marbles. Just a matter of fact. And theres a wonderful photograph of herself ran as my newspaper story when you see a certain intensity in her eyes and not seeing say now top to soandso while are still above ground. And so, the chance to preserve those stories i think was one of the most meaningful paths of this for me. This is a tough question. I cant wait to hear your answer. You may give us. The patient is if you had to describe harper lee in just one word, what would it be packed my goodness, are fictional. I think she wrote about that said universal appeal. But one of the reasons i think those characters have captivated so many people in so many countries for so many years if they were original theres something universal about those characters and also each of them might be real individuals than i would say the same of nell. Is such a start. There is a phrase into telemarketing bird about the adventure in someones eyes. In the book it was my friend at leaving someones eyes, but there was so much true of her and of alice lee. Part of what made it always feel there was something predictable on the good sense of the word i would say about a lot of what they shared with me as i got to know them better and spend so much time, but there is always something original and i wasnt quite sure what they would have to Say Something and i made for such fun. This next question says you won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism and of course ms. Lee one for literature. Are there any traits you believe most Pulitzer Prize winners share . First of all, i would make the very large distinction that of course you want to put surprise for that beautiful novel. I was at a large team of reporters that work on a series called gateway to gridlock about ohare airport. And now, this is very much a team effort and so i would make that distinction. I was one of many, a fascinating project to work on. I think with nell, others ive met including a woman who i described a friend who also won a Pulitzer Prize. Theres a feeling of doing something that matter to you that have nothing to deal with simply the need to make a living although certainly always a consideration in any profession, but a sense of purpose that i think gave meaning to the lives of the people i know are outwork into their projects. A sense of it being about something more and ill just mention briefly the tribune and julia keller one eighth of their prize in 2005 for a series that was really about the randomness of fate and if we created a tornado thats had three small town in illinois. And the randomness empire was that this is one of those tornadoes we know too well in the midwest where there is very little warning and in this town, people who somewhat randomly turned right on one side of a main street and went into a tavern on one side survive. Those who had to turn left and went into the other didnt. Just seems so random. So the series beautifully recreated what it was like to be in that town when that happened, but also how people came to turn with part of that experience. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for feature writing and that was one i was living in monroeville at that time. I was in chicago for some doctors appointment see my rheumatologist, but not announced, i believe that within april, i was there and we had a party for her at my apartment. I live not too far still from the Chicago Tribune. So nell got a kick out of the story i told about ordering a cake to celebrate the achievement from the fans see a the fans see a bakery that i never ordered one from that delivered it to my door. I didnt know that was a concept until you do that. She would often get julia sometimes. And so i told the person and i was recounting ness to nell when i return to monroeville not long after this they get another Kitchen Table although this was that of a friend that i told the people who were waiting on the top of the cake that i would like it to say congratulations, juliette. Put surprise 2005. But i said no julia sometimes get truly. Could you sometimes be sure that you spell it with a knife. I dont mean to be a pain in the neck, but could you we get back to me . The fella had a quite a heavy accent, but i wanted to make sure he was understanding me better than i was able to understand him during that conversation on the phone. He said what an honor. That is marvelous. Julia, we have it. No worries. Well, right before a bunch of people from the Chicago Tribune were coming over to celebrate, the cake was delivered and as i told nell come i picked up the lead and my heart sank because it did say congratulations, juliette. But bennett said paul at, surprise. 2005. [laughter] which of course is something we still call her all these years later. And she is quite lurid poster with appropriate name. That nell gets a kick out of that story. Also, i think one of the things i so respected about that is they were talking about their experience was the real respect for achievement as opposed to simply celebrity for its own sake and i think the pulitzer was meaningful naturally for her in some band that clearly was about achievement and not about fame. And also something their father later to see her vcs. I know that gave it an extra level of meaning as well. He died unfortunately before the movie came out, the live to see that achievement and i was something that all those years later, you know, there was so a little spark of pride in that achievement when we spoke about it and when i told her about my friend, the poet surprise. There are several poets in the audience, so you need to create a Pulitzer Prize to be worthy. This is one i dont know if killing of there, but are you planning i choose to say no comment. Gilliam through this. Are you planning to attend her College Reunion next year . My goodness, is there a georgetown person in a saudi and . Hello. I graduated the answer is yes i would love to. I miss the last one because i was in the hospital in monroeville dealing with them with the problems come in so heard about it from a friend by phone and would love to. I would also add that although my older friends in monroeville will their eyes at the fact that i know what it is like to be getting older. I am 51 now. My classmate as a freshman at georgetown with Patrick Ewing who of course would imagine when i was still feeling pretty down, listening to the commentators who would say there goes poor Patrick Ewing hobbling on those needs. And we were class of 85, so i would love to return. Okay, well hope that at to the question. We discussed this earlier in the afternoon. Tell us a tale. You didnt tell him the book. My goodness, did you have one in particular . All of these folks out here. Boy, that was one of the painful things as i try to select the stories that were typical of my experience that were in that category of pull up a chair and listen to their stories. One of the ones i touched on in the book, but didnt write as much about as i wouldve liked to what his aunt alice that i mentioned, the mother sister moonlight one Nell Harper Lee had a playful sense of language that was such fun. That was part of a way of looking at the world really. And so, they would have aunt alice in zones, which is how i became to think of it, that they would bring up every now and then. One of my favorite is the terms faith to learn how its having been through some of the weather there, or having a bit of weather today was another expression i remember when the trees were ready to blow down. And alice is term she had created for whether that was a cross between a cyclone and a typhoon and i think there was some amusement on both of the sisters part to she had gotten a digital clock. I think was also familiar with heart medication perhaps i never could get it straight that this was not a digit alice clark telling the time. They have such affection for her and for some of the other relatives and we talked about. Mr. Nash every now and then, nell harper would say im driving like mr. Nash. Mr. Nash was married athlete to their aunt kitty who herself referred to them as mr. Nash, a bit of a more formal generation and mr. Nash would save money by driving rather slowly and conserving gas. So as someone including nell harper herself as driving a little bit slowly that day, they were driving a mr. Nash. I sometimes got another car in chicago. One thing i love about living Downtown Chicago is not needing a car. But if im home in wisconsin and driving a car someplace and though they slowly come i think to myself im driving like mr. Nash. That makes me think of harper itself as a name. I think some of you would be familiar with this, but maybe not most. Whenever i hit the back of it and i for example have a doctor, the tory backup and her soccer star husband, david. Com have a little girl named harper. Overall the many other children, celebrities are not that are named harper. I think of how that name came to be and that it really was an thanks to an otherwise forgotten or believed pediatrician who is able to come up with the formula that the third of the sisters, movies will be. As the baby she was unable to digest formula and this pediatrician finally after they had made the rounds to other doctors and were desperately worried that loosely as an infant wouldnt survive and she couldnt begin digesting formula in a pediatrician by William Harper and 10 years later, louise lee was 10 years older than nell harper when Nell Harper Lee came in an upstairs bedroom in their old house on alabama avenue. The name was a thanks in part to this pediatrician who i am sure could not imagine would know that his name was, you know, in this streets of london and all kinds of places that he couldnt imagine being a part of. Another nugget does wonderful to reading your book is one i dont know that we could take a couple more in the old clock on the wall is taking. Did either nell or alice address the Truman Capote issues concerning the probability he wrote to kill a mockingbird . Yes, just a wee bit. [laughter] and i think in that wonderful video that i just saw for a first what a treasure. I thought she so captures nell harper and alice in a couple of stories. Im sorry. Tell me i was not fundamental sidetrip here. About nell or alice addressing the issue of Truman Capote mightve written to kill a mockingbird. Yes come i think alices phrase about that is the biggest lie ever told and it was a source of consternation as Kathryn Tucker windham mentioned in those comments. Cannot be any credence to that theory. There might be some question as to how much theyll harper assist in any way Truman Capote perhaps more than she was explicitly thanked, for example and in cold blood where she went to kansas with him went to kill a mockingbird still is a publisher, hadnt yet come out, although she had finished it. Although they watch the movies or know about the history no she went to kansas and help them research these murders that had taken place in a farmhouse they are. I dont know about the writing of the book, but i do know how helpful it is to him to have someone whos so easily could put people at ease in that small town. You know, he was such a character i think it was helpful to him to have someone who people thought they knew i think after not talking to her for all that long and really was quite a help i think in the researching of in cold wet. She also told me that incident and that was a thing called heavy at that point in his career there was some sense that maybe he was floundering a bit. I know she said she thought this was a good and serious project that he could pursue and she wanted to be of help to him. I think certainly was and shared as while the fascination for criminal justice for the stories of a crime like that and what happened as morris found out about the crime and the criminal in cold blood really became i think one of the early examples of what he called a nonfiction novel of a narrative that he was attempting to tell in a novelistic faction, but ideally sticking to what they had learned in their research about truly had happened in that case. Thank