Little did I know, when I linked Harper Lee and Emily Dickinson in recipe mode here in my blog, and then later, this morning, discussing The Belle of Amherst, by William Luce, with a woman who is also writing a one-woman play, that I would come to think of them both, Dickinson and Harper Lee, as shy women with an abiding confidence in their work who would retreat from public life and publication for reasons of their own.
Shields quotes Nelle Harper Lee as writing in a letter, "People who have made peace with themselves are the people I most admire in the world." She might not yet have made peace with herself when she wrote that, but I think she has now. So does Shields, who says, "From all indications, she seems to have done that."
Likewise, some people watching The Belle of Amherst might think Emily Dickinson was not at peace, and some that she was, but I think she was. I think she meant it when she came to say, "Publication is the auction of the mind of man," and that she knew her work would live in the hearts and minds of those who would find it, and that it would be found, published or not.
Little did I know, when I listed my stack of books to be read, that I would have to read Other Voices, Other Rooms, by Truman Capote (my ex-library first edition) next, though on a bookshelf, not a stack, at the time, because character Idabel Tompkins is based on Nelle Harper Lee. Well, Kim, the inventor of serendipity-do, knew, because I told her. And possibly Cindy Lou Who, knew, too, because children and fictional characters are so conveniently intuitive, and she is both, and so seasonal.
Happy Thanksgiving, whether you are having turkey or the magical animal known as the ham.
4 comments:
happy thanksgiving. hope you have a terrific holiday.
And don't forget Serendipity-doozy! Or Uppity Town Normal (for the newly renamed Uptown Normal which those of us who have lived here since time immemorial still can't help calling Downtown Normal). Or Greedlock which is the best thing I could think of to describe what afflicts Congress these days.
Thanks, and you, too, Nancy!
Kim, I think you should submit "greedlock" to one of those dictionaries of new words!!
Hmm. I clicked on this under "You might also like", because Chris says I looked like Cindy Lou Who when I was a toddler.
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