I Am Scout (23 page)

Nelle could hold a pen or pencil again, but her fingers' movement was slightly constricted and her handwriting, normally open and highly legible, looked compressed. Perhaps because of this, she jotted succinct comments on Truman's pages. Regarding a piece of dialogue, for instance, she noted, “Everybody talks in short sentences. Mannered.”

In August,
McCall's
magazine published “When Children Discover America,” her first piece since
Vogue
carried “Love—In Other Words” in
1961
. But the new article, just like the
Vogue
essay, showed none of her hallmark humor or vividness. In fact, a strong whiff of self-righteousness replaced the exuberance that readers would have expected from the author of
To Kill a Mockingbird.
It was as if her high spirits and wit were being tamped down by too much self-consciousness now, perhaps a result of being in the public eye.

I don't think, for instance, that the Lincoln Memorial needs to be pointed out to any human being of any age. I would let children discover the beauty and mystery and grandeur of it. They'll ask questions later. No child can possibly leave the Lincoln Memorial without questions, often important questions.… Younger children may not respond in words, but they will drink everything in with their eyes, and fill their minds with awareness and wonder. It's an experience they will enjoy and remember all their lives; and it will give them greater pride in their own country.
22

Truman, meanwhile, was certain he was on the verge of volcanic fame, and he was feeling ecstatic about it.
The New Yorker
would begin serializing
In Cold Blood
in four consecutive issues. On September
25
,
1965
, the first installment appeared, beginning with the oft-quoted sentence “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.'”

The New Yorker
's circulation went through the roof, and sightseers poured down the elm-lined road to the Clutters' old house.
23

*   *   *

Nelle's physician decided that an operation would be necessary after all, otherwise scar tissue would permanently impair her hand. Maurice and Annie Laurie arranged to take her to the hospital, see that she was comfortable, and be there for her when she awoke from the anesthetic.

The operation was a success. “We are so thrilled that Nelle had such a good report from Dr. Stark yesterday,” Annie Laurie wrote to Alice. “She sounds like a different person on the phone because now she knows her hand is going to be all right. She will be able to use it for writing and playing golf.”
24

The timing was perfect, because Nelle's high school English teacher, Gladys Watson-Burkett, was coming to New York at Nelle's invitation. The teacher and former student were about to embark, on October
8
, on a memorable month-long trip to England, and Nelle had insisted on paying for the excursion. “It was a thank-you for editing her manuscript,” said Sarah Countryman, Gladys's daughter.
25

But a completed second novel had not materialized before Nelle left on vacation, and Tay Hohoff was getting tired of the delay. Anne Laurie sprang to Nelle's defense. “I told [Nelle] that I thought it was better the way things turned out about her second book, as she was under pressure and thought she had to write it this summer,” she assured Alice.

It doesn't have to be written according [to] her publisher's schedule and I think she should take her time and not try to work on the book until she gets back down to Alabama with her folks.… Too many people up here ask too many questions and she seems to feel that she is expected to turn in another manuscript, because everybody says, “Are you working on another novel.[?]” I always say “Of course, she is going to write another book but she is not
going to be hurried.
” It is difficult, as you know to follow Mockingbird as this book was such an all-around success that measuring up to that book is almost impossible.
But she is a writer
and her next book will be a success too, and will have some of the flavor of the first one.
26

Nelle returned from England in November. She knew, as everyone did, that
In Cold Blood
would be out soon in hardback. The magazine serialization in
The New Yorker
had served as a drumroll leading up to the book's publication. For Nelle, it would be the end to a long experience. More than five years earlier, she had supported Truman in Garden City when he felt discouraged. Then, for two months, she had served as his listening post in town and made friends with the folks he needed to interview. Later, she had accompanied him on return trips: once to attend the trial, and two more times just to go over the territory, sifting, sifting for more information. “Without her deep probing of the people of that little town,” Truman told Alabama author Wayne Greenhaw, “I could never have done the job I did with it.”
27
And finally, she had tightened up his manuscript while she was supposed to be working on her second novel.

So when, in January
1966
, she opened the first edition of
In Cold Blood,
she was shocked. The book was dedicated, first, to Capote's longtime lover, Jack Dunphy, and, second, to her. There was no hint of how much she had helped.

Nelle was not a woman who was quick to anger or demanding of attention. But “Nelle was very hurt that she didn't get more credit because she wrote half that book. Harper was really pissed about that. She told me several times,” recalled R. Philip Hanes, who became friends with her later that year.
28
She was “written out of that book at the last minute,” maintained Claudia Durst Johnson, a scholar who has published extensively about
To Kill a Mockingbird.
Not even the short acknowledgment page, which mentioned other people, paid tribute to Nelle's large and important contribution.
29

Truman's failure to appreciate her was more than an oversight or a letdown. It was a betrayal. Since childhood, he had been testing her friendship, because perhaps, deep down, he believed that no one, including her, really liked him—not since his parents had withdrawn their love. He was constantly showing off to get people's attention and approval, all while gauging their response. But hurting her so unnecessarily, perhaps to see what she would do, spoke volumes about whether she could trust him. She would remain his friend, but their relationship had suffered its first permanent crack.

Truman Capote in front of the Clutter home after
In Cold Blood
became a sensation. He downplayed Nelle's role in creating the book. (Corbis)

If Truman suspected the amount of damage he had done to their lifelong friendship, he doesn't seem to have taken special steps to repair it. For instance, he could have counteracted rumors that he had written all or part of
To Kill a Mockingbird,
but he never went to any strenuous lengths to deny it.
30

*   *   *

On November
28
,
1966
, all of New York society was agog with Truman's “Black and White Ball,” held at the Plaza Hotel. It was, Truman told the press, a “little masked ball for Kay Graham [president of the
Washington Post
and
Newsweek
magazine] and all my friends.” It was also to celebrate the success of
In Cold Blood,
but Truman wasn't saying that.

Five hundred and forty of his friends had received invitations, but red and white admission tickets were printed only the week before to prevent forgeries. Stairways and elevators were blocked, except for one elevator going up to the ballroom. From its doors emerged the glitterati of the times: politicians, scientists, painters, writers, composers, actors, producers, dress designers, social figures, and tycoons, including Frank Sinatra; William F. Buckley; poet Marianne Moore; Countess Agnelli, wife of Henry Ford II; Mr. and Mrs. Norman Mailer; and Rose Kennedy. Truman invited ten guests from Kansas, too, including Alvin and Marie Dewey and the widow of Judge Roland Tate. Secret Service agents made a mental note of everyone getting off the elevator, and the guests were announced as they entered the ballroom.

Nelle received an invitation, but she didn't attend, an indication of how much she wanted to distance herself from
In Cold Blood
and everything associated with it.

*   *   *

By the
1970
s, Nelle's surrogate family, the community that had sustained her through the creation of her first novel and whom she had relied upon for guidance when she was a beginning writer, had grown smaller. She saw Michael and Joy Brown regularly whenever she was in New York, but their friendship continued regardless of whether Nelle wrote or not. Maurice had died in April
1970
of cancer, and Annie Laurie had closed their agency. Truman's place in Nelle's life was uncertain because he was drinking and using drugs heavily, a result of strain caused by
In Cold Blood,
he said. She was prepared to stand by him, but he was difficult, even to people who genuinely cared about him.

Getting a manuscript to Tay Hohoff no longer mattered, either, because Tay had retired from Lippincott. Besides, the excitement about another novel from Nelle Harper Lee had long worn off. It had been more than ten years since
To Kill a Mockingbird.

Then, in
1974
, Tay Hohoff, widowed since the death of her husband, Arthur, some years before, died in her apartment the night before she was to move in with in-laws.

“I think it's fair to say that Nelle owes her immediate success to her relationship with Tay,” said Alabama writer Wayne Greenhaw. “They were very close and it just devastated Nelle when she died.”
31

About the same time, a film producer visiting Monroeville for a BBC documentary asked Alice whatever happened to the second novel her sister was supposed to be working on. According to Alice, just as Nelle was finishing it, a burglar broke into her apartment and stole the manuscript.
32

And that excuse, as unbelievable as it sounds, was the last ever said by the Lee family about a second novel from Harper Lee.

Chapter 10

Quiet Time

Glimpses of Harper Lee during most of the
1970
s and '
80
s were as infrequent as spotting a rare bird, native to the South, in New York's Central Park. Since
1967
she had been living in a small apartment, only her third address since arriving in the city almost
20
years earlier. All of the apartments where she had lived were within a
15
-minute walk of one another, and none was particularly luxurious. She wasn't living like a rich person; that wasn't her style. The new place, a four-story brick building, would have looked quite ordinary to most passersby. “I couldn't pick it out from a hundred others,” said a visiting friend.
1

It seemed the perfect camouflage for someone who wanted to go unnoticed. Lining her side of the street were a dozen stunted trees. The usual collection of commercial property interrupted the eye's sweep of the block. There was a dry cleaner's, a travel agent, and a restaurant serving wild game. The only hint of community was a storefront church.

Inside her apartment, the décor was unexceptional, too. There were no indications that she was the author of a book that had sold nearly
10
million copies by the late
1970
s. A visitor couldn't recall anything special about it years later.

Slowly, her world was becoming smaller. Although she continued a pattern of returning to Monroeville every October and staying until spring, she remained close to familiar haunts while in New York. “I honestly,
truly
have not the slightest idea
why
she lives in New York,” said Truman in an interview. “I don't think she ever goes
out.
”
2
When a friend visiting from Alabama suggested they meet near Rockefeller Center for dinner, Nelle objected. “My God, I wouldn't go into downtown Manhattan for the world!”
3
Any new venture seemed to make her hesitate. Horton Foote marveled that Nelle lived within blocks of mutual friends of theirs for years without ever contacting them.

Instead, she preferred friends from long ago. She corresponded regularly with Ralph Hammond, a writer from her days on the
Rammer Jammer
at the University of Alabama. (“I've got a whole drawerful of letters from Nelle,” he liked to boast, “she's my best friend in all of Alabama.”)
4
And Joy Brown could always be relied on for shopping trips and jaunts to secondhand bookstores.