Interview with Charles J. Shields

Check out our exchange with Charles J. Shields, author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee and I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee. Many thanks to Mr. Shields for his time, patience and excellent responses! (You can visit his website at www.charlesjshields.com/.)

1. WHP: How did you first become interested in Harper Lee and writing a biography about her?
Charles J. Shields: When I began researching MOCKINGBIRD: A Portrait of Harper Lee, I was intrigued by these questions too of course, but in my mind, even more puzzling was: How can so little be known about the author of one of the most popular novels of the 20th century? And, why are the few facts available about her often inconsistent?

2. WHP: What was your research process like for your books Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee and I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee?
CJS: Harper Lee’s friends are not the type who will leave behind archives and memoirs. She never associated with literary people, except for Truman Capote. Consequently, I had to interview hundreds of persons who know or remembered her. It was almost like an oral history.

3. WHP: How did you adapt Mockingbird to your version for young adults, I Am Scout?
CJS: I changed the reading level from twelfth grade (the way the New York Times is written) to about eighth grade (People magazine). Also, I removed information that was not strictly necessary to know in order to appreciate Lee’s life. The result was that the young adult version was half the length of the adult version.

4. WHP: How would your describe Harper Lee in one word?
CJS: Consistent. Miss Lee has been remarkably consistent her entire life: she’s a nonconformist. I was surprised that the roughhousing girl of the 1930s was also the author of such a gentle book, and that she remained independent and a skeptic into middle age and beyond. Friends know her as warm, but she really doesn’t care about what anybody thinks of her.

5. WHP: How do you think Harper Lee fits into American women's history?
CJS: She is genderless and I think that’s refreshing. She belongs to a generation (she’s 84) that usually doesn’t identify with feminism, but her narrator, Scout, with the author intending it, is an example model for young women.

(Thanks for reading!)