KILLING A MOCKINGBIRD IN COLD
BLOOD
When naming a great American novel, you might choose To Kill A Mockingbird, or maybe In Cold Blood. But who wrote them?
In the
1930s, in Monroeville, Alabama, a young girl named Nelle, became best friends
with the boy next door. She was mouthy, a non-conformist, a tomboy, a
playground scrapper. He was small and, as a result, often grateful for his
friend’s protection. They shared a love of reading and after being given an old
typewriter they began writing stories together. They were to grow up to become
two of the America’s finest authors: Harper Lee and Truman Capote.
Capote
moved to New York City, joining his mother. In 1948 his first novel, Other Voices,
Other Rooms, was published. Around that time, Lee headed to New York
to pursue her writing career. After eight years of working menial jobs, she
finally showed a manuscript to a publishing editor. Told that the novel was
more like a string of short stories, Lee began rewriting and her frustration
grew. Rumour has it that, one cold winter’s night in 1958, Lee chucked her
entire manuscript out of her apartment window. That novel was To Kill A Mockingbird. Fortunately, she
called the editor to inform him of her act and he insisted that she went
straight outside to retrieve the work. She rescued the manuscript, literally,
from the slush pile.
The
story is told from the view of a six year old girl, Scout Finch, and clear
similarities can be made with Lee’s own childhood in Alabama. In the book, a
character called Dill spends his summers with Scout. He lives next door and
brings with him a city boy’s perspective, whilst entertaining her with his
tales. Dill is surely based on Capote, who, having left in the third grade,
returned to Alabama every summer where he lived with his uncles and aunts. The
hero of the novel is Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, who, like Harper Lee’s
father, is a lawyer. The plot deals with class, morality and gender roles, but,
most of all, it deals with race and prejudice. It is possible that a case
involving Lee’s father directly shaped the story: In 1919 he had defended two
black men (a father and son) who had been accused of murdering a white
shopkeeper. Both clients were hanged. In the book, Atticus Finch defends a black
man accused of raping a young white woman.
The
plot certainly points to the pen of Lee but did Capote turn it into a
masterpiece? It is on record that he read the manuscript and helped with the
editing but how much of To Kill a Mocking
Bird did he actually write?
In 1959, Capote is drawn to an article in the New York Times. It outlines the brutal shotgun killing of a farmer (Herb Clutter), his wife (Bonnie), and their two children (Nancy and Kenyon). The Clutters had been discovered bound and murdered at their home in Kansas, the mother and daughter found in their beds, the father and son slain in the basement. Capote decided to write about the murders and headed to Kansas, accompanied by his friend, Harper Lee.
Whilst
they worked on a book about the murders, Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird was published, with a quote from Capote on
the jacket. The novel achieves rave reviews and becomes a bestseller. A year
later, the novel lands the Pulitzer Prize. It has been said that Capote resented
the book’s success – he was reluctant to quash suggestions that he was actually
the author – but their friendship survived as the methodical, pragmatic Lee worked
tirelessly on Capote’s 1966 novel, In
Cold Blood. Was Lee in debt to Capote for his contribution to her
success?
She spent the best part of six years researching the Clutter murders and interviewing the locals. Her
findings provided the bedrock for the novel, and her interviews with the killers
allowed the book to show their views from death row.
Capote thanked Lee in his
dedication but did she get enough
credit?
Since In Cold Blood came out, it has never
gone out of print. It’s spawned several movies and defined its own genre. When
we begin the book, the reader knows that the Clutter family have been brutally
murdered. This real family; hardworking, solid members of society, engage us
and we soon become emotionally involved with their lives and the town folk,
fearing their inevitable path.
Both
books have strong narratives; they raise questions about capital punishment and victimisation, and deal with uncovering the truth
but, like Lee and Capote, they were quite different.
In Cold Blood was difficult to classify. It has been
hailed as the first true crime book, and described as gothic fiction,
but, I like Capote’s view that it’s a ‘non-fiction novel’. The idea of applying
a strong story narrative to a non-fiction book was inventive. It reads like a
stylish, haunting crime novel, but is also true account of the murders, the
perpetrators’ arrest and their trail.
We
will probably never know who had the most input into these seminal works of
literature but it does seem that the authors conspired. Readers like the idea
that a book has an author, singular, but
that’s not always the case. With Lee
and Capote, we have two great talents at work, neither of whom produced any
work of note after the publication of In
Cold Blood.
The
fact that Capote failed to receive the Pulitzer Prize he was expecting did
nothing for his relationship with Lee. His jealously and drinking may have led
to problems in their friendship. What is known is that they never worked
together again. Writing alone they were not the same force.
In the
aftermath of To Kill A Mockingbird,
Lee was uncomfortable with the public attention thrust upon her and went on to adopt
a reclusive, private lifestyle. Capote, however, lived off the success of In Cold Blood, hobnobbing with the rich
and famous whilst drug and alcohol abuse caused a slow public demise, resulting
in his death in 1984.
