Around the same time “To Kill a Mockingbird” made Harper Lee a best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner, she was still fighting for creative control.
“I must say it’s increasingly difficult for magazine articles to be written any other way than a magazine editor standing over your shoulder telling you what to write. You know how well that sets with me,” the Monroeville, Alabama, native wrote to her New York friend Harold Caufield (affectionately referred to as “Darling Aitch”).
The 1961 letter — the year after the book was published — told of Esquire’s turning down a piece she had been asked to write.
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media
