Always in Vogue

One of my favorite novels and most intriguing and respected authors has reached a silver anniversary today, and I couldn’t let it go unnoticed on the blog.  Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is celebrating fifty years since being released in 1960, earning three Academy Awards for the film starring Gregory Peck in 1963 and having earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1961.

(Nelle Harper Lee in the balcony of the courtroom in Monroeville, Alabama, where her father, A.C. Lee, regularly tried his cases.)

Many people wonder why she hasn’t written a second novel, and while there is wide speculations (in fact, she did begin one and worked diligently to produce it), her sister Alice said simply that Nelle (Harper is her middle name) knew with her next work she would only go down with regards to success.  Maybe she’s right, who’s to say.  The production of her most successful novel took over ten years – rewritten three different times - each in a different point of view (the published version is in two points of view – first and third) and was said to be a tribute to her father who wasn’t too keen on her moving to New York City and abandoning her education of become a lawyer, as a way to show respect and proof that her idea to move to New York was not in vain.

I find myself coming across more and more people who have either named their child or their dog Scout due to their appreciation of the novel, many of them teachers, but not all. All of this focus on a novel that has provoked me to read subsequent books to further understand the theme and the author (Charles J. Shields’ Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee), as well as literary critiques caused me to come to the conclusion (one I have always been aware of, but maybe never truly expressed) - that being well-read will never go out of style. Consider this quality the little black dress of life if you will.

“Fashion fades, only style remains,” is one of the many timeless and true aphorisms uttered by Coco Chanel, and it is applicable beyond the confines of the fashion industry. A woman (or a man) will continue to be intriguing far beyond their beautiful facade if they continue to fill their mind with voluptuous amounts of the written word.  Whether it be a classic here and there, followed by a quick beach read, and don’t forget the articles in numerous well-respected magazines and journals, newspapers, worthwhile internet articles, the list could go on and on.

Needless to say, read. Carry a book in your purse at all times for those moments when you are waiting in the doctor’s office, or stuck in traffic.  Read, learn, soak up all sorts of varying perspectives so that when you do come to a conclusion, you’ve done so with an open mind.

And of course, your cocktail party chit chat will never be lacking.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

 

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