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Furious Hours
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Group Read - Furious Hours ...Harper Lee Part 3 The Writer end ch 20-23 Spoilers Welcome
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Furious Hours Part 3(b) Chaps 20-epilogueChapter 20
We start with a history of the true crime genre from ancient Greece, through colonial America, to the trial of Robert Burns in 1977. When Capote wrote In Cold Blood he changed true crime writing to include more than bare journalistic facts. In keeping with the New Journalism of the time, he adds mood, theme, and fully realized characters and setting. From the beginning the book’s factuality is questioned. Harper Lee, having been present for the reporting, knows more than most about any fictionalization and while she doesn’t publicly counter Capote’s book, she doesn’t approve. In her book about Willie Maxwell she intends to deal only in facts. She’s faced with the challenge of writing an account of crimes in which nearly all participants are African-American. Only the lawyers and law enforcement are white. It will be difficult for her to gain acceptance in black communities to research and interview and she’ll need to work harder than in TKAM to write African-American characters with depth and realism. Fear of Maxwell lingers after his death with people believing he has powers from beyond the grave. Initially everyone wants money to be interviewed but Lee maintains firmly that she’s not paying and eventually people began to talk. The problem is the townspeople aren’t reliable witnesses and the truth of a lot of the copious material she collects is suspect.
Chapter 21
Tom Radney becomes a good source for Lee and they get along. He gives her hundreds of pages of files and documents in a leather valise. His family likes her and she spends time with them. She also becomes friends with Jim Earnhardt, the local journalist who reported Maxwell’s crimes and shooting. He provides valuable documentation: a scrapbook made by his mother containing every article he wrote about Maxwell and the murders. Earnhardt’s chief value is he is utterly trustworthy. He never exaggerates or embroiders his stories. Lee finds more insurance applications and claims for payment, all in Maxwell’s handwriting. She writes to another journalist that Maxwell, whether or not he believed in voodoo, “had a profound and abiding belief in insurance.”
Despite all the money he was making from insurance, when Maxwell’s estate is probated he has almost $65,000 of debt. His insurance payouts were greater than his debts so it’s not clear where the money went. Lee interviews Ophelia Maxwell who isn’t forthcoming and denies previous statements. Ophelia tried to claim a payout for life insurance on Shirley but the company didn’t pay because Shirley hadn’t died of natural causes, the policy was less than two years old, and her signature was forged. In some of the crimes it’s obvious Maxwell must have had an accomplice and Lee suspects Ophelia.
Chapter 22
Lee returns to New York. She finds it difficult to organize the strands of research for her book since events, investigations, and trials happened concurrently or criss-crossed. She also hasn’t resolved the problem of who will be the protagonist. Too little is known about Maxwell. There isn’t a central lawman. Robert Burns played only a one role. Tom Radney is too morally complicated to be a hero. Another problem is the lack of records for the African-American community. There typically weren’t stories about blacks in the local newspapers. Even the African-American press didn’t cover Maxwell until he was shot. Lee worries about lawsuits that may result from writing about real people.
For three years Lee struggles to write. Her sister Louise invites her to stay at her house. Lee copes with the stress by drinking and sometimes behaves badly when drunk. Radney says in a publication he thought she was fighting a battle between the bottle and her book and the bottle was winning. Truman Capote dies of addiction and Lee can see the effect it had on him: bad behavior and no writing. A crime author and one of Maxwell’s nephews contact her separately, each interested in writing the Maxwell story. Lee declines the nephew outright. To the author she outlines her difficulties with the book and tells him he can look into it. Ten years after hearing about Willie Maxwell, Lee gives up on writing his story.
Chapter 23
Friends and supporters have heard varying stories over the years about Lee’s progress on the Willie Maxwell book. She’s not writing the book but she does spend a lot of time on correspondence to friends, family, and fans. Her letters are long, detailed, and amusing. Many, including her sister Alice, attest she still writes, just not for publication. Cep argues her drinking might have been an effect of her writer’s block rather than the cause of it, both stemming from her discontent. Cep says no single one of her struggles is a sufficient explanation of her lack of publication. She started as a writer with lots of ideas but the Maxwell book, because she was so open, enthusiastic, and committed, feels more unfinished than others. It’s unknown if Lee felt “unfinished” because she wasn’t one to examine her feelings.
Once Lee has given up on the Maxwell book her correspondence becomes more buoyant and she participates in more events honoring her and Mockingbird. She chooses a University of Alabama professor to be her biographer—but only to publish after her death, which means a lot of sources will be dead by the time it’s written. In the 2000’s two unauthorized biographies are written and two movies are made about the writing of In Cold Blood. Lee is losing her tight hold on her privacy. She still alternates between living in New York and Monroeville until she has a stroke in 2007. She returns to Alabama and lives in an assisted living center. Her sister Louise dies in 2009 and Alice in 2014. A lawyer in their father’s former firm takes over Lee’s affairs and a decision is made to publish a second book. Many, including Tom Radney, assume it will be the Maxwell book. When Radney dies in 2011 the family, going through his papers, find what seems a chapter of The Reverend. Lee had never returned Tom’s briefcase of papers and when the family asks for it they’re told Lee doesn’t have the files or any memory of Radney. Go Set a Watchman was published in 2015 and Nelle Harper Lee died in 2016.
Epilogue
A year after Lee’s death her estate released Radney’s files, still in a leather valise, to his family. The family in turn let Cep use them for her book. The rest of her estate is sealed.
When Cep talks about Lee going about her life in an ordinary way in either New York or Monroeville, I have the idea she could have been a perfectly happy woman if only she hadn't written that damned TKAM. I don't really believe this; the evidence of Lee’s school days in Monroeville and her college days indicate she was one of those people who's uncomfortable in her own skin. Her problems were something she carried with her and, I think, would have manifested no matter where she ended up as an adult.the frustration of reading true crime is sometimes the crime isn't resoundingly resolved and, sure enough, no real resolution for the Willie Maxwell murders. I guess the resolution is we all feel that he did them. The mystery is how (I favor poison or some "gentle" form of suffocation that wasn't detectable at the time), and why he was allowed to go on committing insurance scam when everyone, including the insurance companies, seemed to know what he was doing. I would have liked a little more detail on how Tom Radney managed to get those companies to pay out (with faked applications and signatures) after the second, or third, or fourth murders occurred.
Ann, you may be the only one reading this book who goes far enough back to recall this: I remember when several of our favorite authors were active on the AOL discussion boards that many of them dropped away one by one saying they were spending too much time and writing energy on the boards instead of writing books. I remember specifically Dennis Lehane saying this when I asked him at a signing why he wasn't posting on the Hardboiled board any more.
Harper Lee reminded me so much of this with her continuous, active letter-writing. I wondered if she expended so much thought and energy on writing letters that it ate into her time and ideas for writing books. Or if it was a way to satisfy the writing itch without having to muster the commitment required by a novel.
I'm sure I'll have more thoughts to post tomorrow. For now I'm going to bed.
Wow, for the book and the terrific summaries. Jan O'Cat you are a very skillful and insightful writer yourself. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Jan O'Cat: Agreed. While fame and fortune seem likely blocks to Lee's writing another book to live up to TKAM; I don't see Lee magically fitting in socially in mid-life where she hadn't before without being the famous author. I can imagine her happy and adjusted to NYC life as far as the cultural access and anonymity she started out with; and to me, she seems shy and uncomfortable in the limelight no matter the reason. It can't have helped that some of her peers were critical of her success or worthiness. (Some openly, some not as overtly)
OMalleycat wrote: "When Cep talks about Lee going about her life in an ordinary way in either New York or Monroeville, I have the idea she could have been a perfectly happy woman if only she hadn't written that damned TKAM..I don't really believe this."
I do recall that, I loved those days of authors sharing time with us!!
I've also heard authors speaking at events who often mention not being able to read for pleasure while writing or of other distractions they must avoid. It also seems avoiding a higher tax bracket was an impediment to Lee's writing for publication.
and wrote "I remember when several of our favorite authors were active on the AOL discussion boards that many of them dropped away one by one saying they were spending too much time and writing energy on the boards instead of writing books. Harper Lee reminded me so much of this with her continuous, active letter-writing. I wondered if she expended so much thought and energy on writing letters that it ate into her time and ideas for writing books. Or if it was a way to satisfy the writing itch without having to muster the commitment required by a novel."
Spoilers welcome on this topic.
If the first to post, please briefly summarize to guide the discussion.