On June 20, Wayne Flynt, professor emeritus at Auburn and good friend of “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee spoke at the Auburn Public Library.
During his talk, he spoke about Lee and talked in detail about Lee’s newest novel, “Go Set a Watchman.”
“Go Set a Watchman” came out July 14. According to USA Today’s website, the book was No. 1 on Amazon and broke the record for first-day adult trade fiction sales at Barnes and Noble.
Lee is notoriously private, according to Flynt.
“Since she won’t tell her own story, and since she allows me to tell it,” Flynt said.
There were more than 240 people at Flynt’s talk, the library expected approximately 100. While the library director was surprised at the turnout, Flynt was not.
“Everywhere I have gone for the last few months to speak publicly about this, the curiosity is just overwhelming and she’s such a famously private person that what they want is somebody who knows her,” Flynt said.
Flynt met Lee years ago at an Auburn University history and heritage festival in Eufaula.
“She agreed to come down because her sister asked her to, to speak at our conference, and the way she hated to speak, it was one of the great gifts of love she ever gave her sister” Flynt said.
Flynt’s son was celebrating his 14th birthday that day and Lee signed his copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
”Which thrilled him to death, and I thought, what a generous thing to do, people were throwing them around her, she went aside and signed his book,” Flynt said.
In 2006, Lee was awarded the Birmingham Pledge Foundation Award for Racial Justice and Flynt introduced her.
“She loved the introduction, she said, 'Would you do that at my funeral?'” Flynt said.
He told her he would if he was still alive.
Flynt has visited her more than 100 times since 2007, and they have exchanged lots of letters.
“She is famously private, she is not shy, she is not introverted, she is not a recluse, all words used about her, she is private and I just think a person has a right to be private,” Flynt said.
While Lee is removed from the public eye, Flynt said she is aware of the success of “Go Set a Watchman.”
“She is sort of like she was with 'To Kill a Mockingbird' because when they published 5,000 copies she said, Who’s gonna buy 5,000 copies?'” Flynt said.
Lee’s lawyer and Flynt bring Lee most of her news.
“We were with her Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, she was delighted ... You got to remember that she is totally isolated, she’s got two security guards who won’t let people in or out unless they are on a list ... So she is pretty much protected from the public altogether,” Flynt said.
Flynt, an author himself, has read “To Kill a Mockingbird” nine or 10 times and “Go Set a Watchman” twice.
“The fun of reading (To Kill a Mockingbird) over and over again is, depending upon what stage of life you’re at, it’s a totally different book," Flynt said. "I read it as a race book, and I never read it as a race book again after 1964, it’s a book about family, it’s a book about history, it’s a book about tolerance … and so the theme is actually transcends race altogether so what we made it in the 1960s is not what its about.”
He said he believes “To Kill a Mockingbird” has had a profound effect on people and history.
“She transformed more lives by writing To Kill a Mockingbird than probably the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ... She really made it possible for us to move much more quickly on race than would have been possible,” Flynt said.
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