Yes, she was the proverbial enigma wrapped in a paradox. I trust she lived the life she wanted, I wonder if more insight about her will ever be known. Or if anyone still living knows enough about her to provide such insights.

Rest in peace, Ms. Harper. Yours is our favorite book.

My favorite book of all times, and I also have the new one. Rest in peace Harper Lee!

RIP a great loss. Her life would make a book.

She was a good friend to Truman Capote, equally talented and mysterious.

I love TKAM. I do not believe Harper Lee ever intended that second book to be published.

After hearing the reviews, I didn't want to read it and spoil my feelings about the TKAM characters.

Raven, I am wondering why you feel her life would make a book? Other than her earlier life and association with Truman Capote, she was a recluse and was recognized for just the one book, until recently with the second.

I Am Scout is a juvenile adaption of an adult book named Mockingbird: Portrait of Harper Lee. Same author, of course.

It was an unauthorized biography with no access to or participation of Miss Lee. How accurate or thorough such works can be is always subject to question.

Many biographies are without the participation of the subject. The biographer uses primary and secondary sources for research. I just picked up a biography on Alexander Hamilton--the author didn't have access to him either. I don't necessarily see lack of access as a big problem if the author is thorough in the research and examines a wide array of sources. I Am Scout is pretty standard in high schools now--it is a very serious read for a juvenile biography.

I never read either of her books, though saw the movie when it originally came out. Probably not as reclusive as made out since she seemed to travel back & forth to New York City frequently. Our local newspaper, in writing on her background & death, mentioned that she used to play golf in her younger years. She just came from a different time when authors didn't make the rounds of talk shows (I think that really started with Jacqueline Sussanne (sp?) in the mid-60ties) or slavishly endorse other authors' books for return endorsements, etc. She was more in the mold of Margaret Mitchell, who wrote just one tremendous best-seller of all-time, but who was rarely personally heard from.

That is a great point about the talk show circuit.

That's a silly comparison, but to follow that up, Hamilton lived in a period when written correspondence and material were the backbone of political discourse and public life. His "papers", a large quantity of his correspondence and written output (Federalist Papers, as an example) have long been available for research. Also available are diaries and writings of his contemporaries that include loads of information on what Hamilton did and what he thought.

The creds of a biography depend on the creds of the source material the author has access to. Shields was kept outside the palace walls. Nothing more be said. Enjoy his books as you wish but recognize the limitations of his sources.