Connor Sheets, an Alabama journalists, says he sent a letter to To Kill A Mockingbird writer Harper Lee and actually got a handwritten response. The author, whose second novel will be released in July, only wrote, “Go away!”
Sheets wrote at AL.com that he wrote a two-page letter to Lee and had been desperately trying to get it to her, either through her lawyer or publisher. He even went to her nursing home in Monroeville, Alabama.
In his letter, he merely tried to get Lee to answer questions about the upcoming release of Go Set A Watchman, an early draft of To Kill A Mockingbird. The book was announced last month to much fanfare, but some questioned Lee’s role in the release.
“I am writing you today because I spoke with a number of people yesterday in Monroeville who have known you to various degrees over the years, and most of them are concerned about you and what is happening with Go Set a Watchman and your legacy,” Sheets wrote in part. “Janet Sawyer, owner of the Courthouse Café is worried that you are being manipulated into publishing the book against your long-held wishes. Some other folks worry that you are not mentally sound enough to make decisions about your career. Many worry that maybe you are being exploited.”
Sheets never really expected a response, as Lee is known for not responding to requests for interviews. But what he got in return surprised him. On Wednesday, he received an envelope with no return address and found his letter inside. It was crinkled up and refolded. “Go away! Harper Lee,” a written statement read on the last page.
Sheets believes that it was written by Lee herself because Lee has written other blunt responses to letters. A 2014 New York Times review of Marja Mills’ unauthorized Lee biography The Mockingbird Next Door noted that Lee often responded to journalists by writing, “Not just no, but hell no.”
image via Twitter from Connor Sheets